In the past 60 years, PR Newswire has grown into one of the largest network and business press release distribution sites.
This paid content-distribution service helps businesses extend their digital reach — big-time.
The site distributes press releases to more than 200,000 media points and more than 10,000 websites. Its user-friendly design comes with dynamic media and reach-tracking capabilities.
Pros
PR Newswire’s massive distribution network is one of its major advantages. Its reach extends to thousands of media outlets, helping your press release gain traction and greatly enhancing the chances that it will be picked up by any number of journalists.
That extensive reach is enhanced even further by PR Newswire’s more than 675,000 pages indexed by Google, which translates to a potentially higher ranking and reach for your release itself. Improved media capabilities now allow users to embed images, videos, audio and other dynamic media right into their press releases.
One more bonus is the release-tracking services that let you track your return on investment. You can compare how your coverage ranks to specific competitors, see where your news is being read, and discover which media outlets picked it up for repurposed publication.
Cons
Although the annual membership of $195 is not necessarily exorbitant, it may be enough of a deterrent for smaller businesses that don’t generate a lot of newsworthy releases.
Larger businesses that generate several releases per month are more likely to see a return on investment for the annual fee, but they still have to pay additional fees if they want their releases to contain graphics or logos.
They must also pay additional fees for any release that exceeds the maximum word count of 400. One more detriment is the press release availability, which is limited.
Releases are removed from public view after one month and put into a password-protected database that is only visible to subscribers. That means your release has to hit hard and fast to matter, as it won’t bring you any long-term search engine optimization benefits.