Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Landmark Study of Commercial Newswires: PR Newswire Generates More Media Pick-up, Higher Volume of Coverage

Landmark Study of Commercial Newswires: PR Newswire Generates More Media Pick-up, Higher Volume of Coverage

It's important to understand the benefits of the wires in general and when to use them as part of your public relations strategy. Not all firms can afford the cost of using the wires for every press release. We have traditionally used PR Newswire and Business Wire for various clients but most importantly - if you want your press release picked up by traditional outlets - pick up the phone and call your contacts. If you don't have contacts, you need to make them.

The wires also play an important role in today's SEO game. A few years ago, there were media relations seminars galore called "the death of the press release." It just isn't so. Although there is a lot of work being done in social media, the traditional press release isn't going to die any too soon.

Your industry also matters to who in the media is getting information from the wire. As with all media relations efforts, don't just throw a dart at the largest target to see what sticks. If you use the wires, be sure to choose the best industry feeds. You want to reach your target audiences: customers / clients, prospects, referral sources, thought leaders, etc.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gina --

Thanks for the post, and for referencing the study. The conversations spawned out of this research -- in blogs and on Twitter -- have been really interesting.

- Dave

the pr lawyer said...

Dave -

I love the way you set up the mini-site with feeds! Great work - great information. The use of social media is proliferating at an uncomprehensible rate - especially for those of us who were not raised with the "Web." Keep up the great work.

- Gina

Anonymous said...

Interesting results.

However, it's also interesting to note that there was no comparison with PRWeb, who I still feel offer one of the best services anywhere for online PR distribution.

I wouldn't mind seeing how PR Newswire compares to PRWeb.

Anonymous said...

It is an interesting post.
I also find it interesting that PR Newswire is the one that sponsored the study in the first place, so there is a good chance they won't put a study out that doesn't make them the best. (I don't blame them!)
Looking at the study, and realizing that PR Newswire is the biggest name in the industry as well as being around the longest, of course their numbers will be bigger simply due to the fact that they have more clients hence have more pickup.
Third, SEO is a HUGE deal, and what I think you were trying to say is that the traditional press release will still live, but SEO can live with it. Every day, more and more journalists are going online to find press releases. So if you can make your press release more searchable on the internet the better.
SEO and Social Media are some of the BIGGEST differences (besides cost) that differentiate the newswires, and in my opinion Marketwire has the upper hand there.
Finally with PR Web, there is a reason why they are called pr WEB. The company relies on people coming to their site to find news and only distributes news to the internet unless you pay a lot more, in which case you might as well use a commercial newswire who already have the relationships established that PR Web does not.