PR Newswire logo.
PR Newswire started out in 1954 as a vendor hired
by companies and agencies to send out text press releases to the
media. Today, PR Newswire is hired by corporations,
public relations firms and
non-governmental
organizations to deliver news and multimedia content.
Recipients include the media, consumers and investors who access
the content via the
Web,
RSS,
e-mail, satellite, equities
terminals (such as Bloomberg and Reuters), and direct feeds into
newsroom editorial systems.
Public corporations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada,
and other nations, use PR Newswire as a method of reaching the
investment and financial news community with important news and
announcements, thus achieving the standard of "simultaneous
disclosure" required by financial markets and regulatory
agencies.
Headquartered in New York
, PR Newswire
has offices in 14 countries and sends news to outlets in 135
countries. The company has several brands and services that
include
ProfNet,
eWatch, MEDIAtlas, MultiVu,
U.S. Newswire,
Vintage Filings, MediaRoom and MediaSense. It also has agreements
with global news agencies such as
Bloomberg, the
Associated Press,
Dow
Jones and
Thomson Reuters to
send information directly to newsrooms worldwide. PR Newswire is a
subsidiary of
United Business
Media Limited of London.
History
Established in New York in 1954 by Herb Muschel, PR Newswire was
the first to create a system for the electronic distribution of
news releases. Prior to its establishment, companies issuing
press releases to the New York media
had to messenger, dictate or mail individual copies of their news
releases to the city’s daily newspapers and news services. With PR
Newswire, companies could send a single copy of their release to PR
Newswire's newsroom, where it would be simultaneously transmitted
to the city's major media points.
PR Newswire was later sold to Western Union, which had provided the
telecommunications lines and teleprinters that supported the
service.
PR Newswire created Investors Research Wire in 1965, which
disseminated corporate news releases directly to brokerage firms
and financial analysts. In 1967, the company acquired the local Los
Angeles wire service.
In 1972, PR Newswire began using electronic terminals for
copyediting.
In 1978, the company went digital with the adoption of the
Associated Press' computerized message
handling and transmission system.
In 1982,
the company was purchased by United Newspapers plc (today known as
United Business Media Limited)
of London
In 1982, PR Newswire expanded its presence through acquisitions,
beginning with the purchase of Philadelphia-based Mediawire in
1983. By the end of the 1980s, many U.S. dailies and financial
institutions took PR Newswire directly into their internal
information systems. PR Newswire also began archiving news releases
on electronic databases, including NEXIS (now
LexisNexis).
In 1996, PR Newswire began releasing news directly to consumers via
the Web with the launch of www.prnewswire.com.
In 2001, PR Newswire issued the first Multimedia News Release for
Touchstone Pictures promoting the film, "Pearl Harbor." The
Multimedia News Release was the first press release to include
b-roll, soundbites, high resolution images, and film trailer . Many
refer to the Multimedia News Release as a [Social Media Press
Release] or [Social Media Release].
In 2002, PR Newswire started MultiVu, its own broadcast and
multimedia production company, to create and deliver video/audio
news releases, multimedia news releases, satellite and radio media
tours, public service announcements, electronic multimedia kits and
Web video.
In October 2006, PR Newswire acquired
U.S. Newswire
from
Medialink .
In February 2006, PR Newswire began adding social media links to
every press release issued. PR Newswire began with del.icio.us and
later added Digg, Reddit, Newsvine and StumbleUpon.
In January 2007, PR Newswire began including links to
Technorati allowing readers to track online
conversations in the blogosphere directly from press releases on
http://www.prnewswire.com. PR Newswire later added functionality
enabling readers to blog about each press release with one click on
Blogger or Wordpress.
In April 2007, PR Newswire acquired the privately held
Vintage Filings company .
In August 2007, PR Newswire acquired
Notilog
.
In Jan 2008, PR Newswire acquired
Hispanimark,LLC and its subsidiaries,
Hispanic PR Wire (http://www.hispanicprwire.com), LatinClips
(http://www.latinclips.com) and Hispanic Digital Network
(http://www.hdnweb.com) .
In November 2008, PR Newswire acquired full rights to Xinhua PR
Newswire, effectively renaming it PR Newswire Asia
Distribution
PR Newswire distributes news to reach mainstream outlets, over 78
categories of industry trade media, more than 4,900 Web sites and
PR Newswire for Journalists, a digital media channel serving more
than 85,000 registered journalists globally. PR Newswire also
provides services to public companies to assist in meeting SEC and
all the major exchange disclosure requirements, including
distribution to key disclosure media.
PR Newswire also offers more than 688 RSS news feeds, 188 of which
are public RSS feeds including geographical as well as
industry/subject feeds and makes its RSS available to journalists
in English, German, Spanish and French. In addition, PR Newswire
also provides customers with the tools to measure the effectiveness
of their media campaigns with products such as
eWatch and MediaSense.
Releases delivered by PR Newswire are distributed through
"newslines" -- collections of
media
points that have been chosen to represent coverage in a
particular geographic area, industry or interest field.
Meet the Media seminars
Meet the Media is a series of seminars hosted by PR Newswire in
London. These events aim to give both the speaker and the audience
a unique opportunity to exchange their ideas and experiences in a
friendly and professional atmosphere.Over the last years, Meet the
Media has featured speakers from major UK publications such as The
Times, The Guardian, The Economist, The Telegraph. Recently, Meet
the Media has focused on the social media trend, inviting panels of
bloggers and web 2.0 specialists.In june 2008, the first ever
French Meet the Media was hosted in Paris.In september 2008, Meet
the Media website was launched, with all the seminars edited
online.
References
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