Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Which News Wire Service Is Best?

Posted by Anonymous on 5/5/2008 at 4:53 PM ET 50 Points
Just joined a startup organization and I'm now a marketing department of one. It's been years since I did much with Burrells or Bacons or any of the news wire sources, but I find myself staffless...so I need to get back up to speed quickly and get our small business hooked up with an appropriate and affordable news release service.

I inherited a Bacon's subscription at my last job and my PR manager was the administrator of it...it cost us roughly $13K/year plus release fees. I can't believe there isn't a more economical plan for a small business to get similar distribution and tracking functionality...but I don't want to sacrifice quality for price.

Oh, and we're a management consulting company (service, not product). We won't do much with consumer market and don't anticipate a lot of ink right away in B2B pubs, but would really like to grow our coverage for our projects (innovative solutions developed for our clients) and principals, etc. Right now, we're only anticipating 1-2 releases per month.

Anyone have strong opinions on what services are best? Worst? Too expensive? Worth every penny? Thanks in advance for the help!
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted on 5/5/2008 at 5:04 PM Accepted
    I like this guy.

    Glenn Selig
    glenn@pressreleasepros.com
    (813) 948-7767 PROS
    https://www.pressreleasepros.com
    He also runs this release distribution service. https://www.prnewschannel.com

    I recommend checking this service.

    I also use about a dozen of the free distribution services on top. They can be found in the NMOA's Contact Directory
    https://www.nmoa.org/catalog/industrycontactdirectory.htm
  • Posted by Levon on 5/5/2008 at 5:21 PM Accepted
    www.prnewswire.com has worked for me -- but I would suggest split testing a few services and going with the one that gets you the most publications. Ideally it would be smart to start building your own list -- starting with local and relevant publications in your industry. For example I have a list of just Editor in Chiefs in my area that I keep for my own localized releases. I treat releases going out to radio different from TV and web. I adapt each press release accordingly. I have some other tricks up my sleeve that I won't discuss on this forum, but the key is creativity.

  • Posted by Gail@PUBLISIDE on 5/5/2008 at 5:29 PM Member
    I used Burrelle's and while the lists were detailed, I didn't feel they were worth the money. I've had journalists tell me that they block these services email as if they're spam -- that was enough for me to cancel the service.

    Public relations is about relationship building and you can't do that with mass emails. To get the best results, target your media based on each outlet's content. I've learned that quality over quantity of releases and queries sent works better every time.
  • Posted on 5/6/2008 at 10:22 AM Author
    Thanks for the replies so far...all fine points and I agree with quality and relationship building and all that. But since we're fairly new, we need to start from scratch in building our 'friends and family' media list. In the meantime, I need to be able to get the message out to a WHOLE lot of journalists to build up a little name recognition, so a Bacon's-Cision/PR Newswire/Burrelle's seems like a fast and trusted way to achieve that...and measure results. Is there a free tracking service with the same functionality as one of the services above? (Clearly, I've been out of this for a while). I also hadn't heard that services like these are being blocked...it does make sense given the volume of fluff that is out there. But I believe that some of the stuff gets through, given the longevity of these businesses (and the coverage I've gotten in the recent past because of the releases).

    Anyone else have experience on the other names out there (big or small)? Would be especially helpful if you've used multiple services. I think I'm really looking for the full package - distribution and clipping all in one. Thanks!

  • Posted by adrienne.garland on 5/6/2008 at 11:53 AM Member
    Also - to let you know - PR Newswire has special offers and resources specifically designed for small businesses - the PR Newswire Small Business Tool Kit. Check out https://prtoolkit.prnewswire.com.
    -Adrienne Garland
    Vice President, Marketing PR Newswire

    Good luck!
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Advertising/PR)