PR Newswire

Founded by Herbert Muschel, the originator of the TV Guide, PR Newswire has provided the technological means for public relations and investor relations practitioners to communicate with the media since 1954. Starting with a private teleprinter network to distribute news releases to journalists from public relations agencies and corporations, PR Newswire first delivered news releases to news sources in New York. Almost 50 years later, it has expanded into a global network using the latest communication technologies. Today, the company offers many multimedia tools, including Web-based conference calls, video news releases, Web sites, and cybercasting of press conferences, annual meetings, and events. PR Newswire serves as a communication bridge between public and investor relations practitioners and journalists. Its Web site caters to both journalists and communication professionals.

In March 2002, PR Newswire launched a special section tailored for journalists, who can use the company's services at no cost. PR Newswire's Web site allows journalists to locate sources for stories by sending e-mail queries to up to 10,000 public relations and news information officers in North America and Europe. In addition, the Web site allows journalists to conduct searches for news releases, as well as information about companies, and subscribe to e-mail alerts about various industries. The “Company Information Pages” section allows journalists to view news releases issued by a company, as well as biographical information about key people working for that company, product information, and white papers related to that company. The “Company Information Pages” section gives journalists access to photos, multimedia presentations, and tradeshows, and also a directory of contacts for each company.

Public relations and investor relations practitioners use PR Newswire to distribute news releases to the media for a fee. Practitioners can target the distribution of their releases to journalists by state, region in the United States, or country. The press releases are posted on PR Newswire's Web site and can be sent directly to journalists subscribing to PR Newswire's services. Practitioners can include pictures or multimedia presentations to accompany the news releases or can have them stand alone. For example, during the 9/11 attacks, the airlines posted press releases to PR Newswire within an hour of the terrorists crashing the planes into the World Trade Center. In addition, Southwest Airlines, although not one of the airlines involved in the attacks, included a video news release on PR Newswire's Web site about the precautions it was taking to ensure passenger safety to ease consumers' fears about flying again within a week of the attacks.

In addition to distributing news releases, practitioners can include information about their company or organization's experts for use by the media. When reporters need a source for a story, they can use PR Newswire's service called ProfNet (http://www.profnet.com). This service links journalists to experts from colleges and universities, corporations, government agencies, national laboratories, think tanks, scientific organizations, nonprofit organizations, and public relations agencies. The ProfNet database allows journalists to either post a query for experts or search a database. The information in these databases is compiled by and paid for by communication practitioners.

...