PR Newswire
Parent Western Union (1971 - 1982)
| United Newspapers (1982 - 2015)
Cision (2016 - present) | |
Website | www |
---|
PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago.[1] The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, operated the service from his house in Manhattan for approximately 15 years. The business was eventually sold to Western Union and then United Newspapers of London.[2] In December 2015, Cision Inc. announced it would acquire the company.[3] On January 1, 2021, Cision formally merged PR Newswire into the company, ending its status as a legal entity after 66 years. Cision plans to continue utilizing the brand name for the foreseeable future in the United States, as well as in Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions.
History
PR Newswire was founded in March 1954 by Herbert Muschel, who ran the business from his town house in
In 1963, Muschel recruited David Steinberg of the New York Herald Tribune to take a management position with the company after the 1962–1963 New York City newspaper strike.[5] Muschel had been impressed by Steinberg's use of the service to report financial news during the strike without using reporters.[5]
Muschel sold 81% of the company to
In 1977, PR Newswire began using electronic terminals for copy editing.[citation needed]
By 1978, PR Newswire distributed content to approximately 250 news points and financial institutions in 75 cities using 12,000 miles of private transmission lines.[5] In addition to its New York headquarters, the service also sent content from offices in Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco at a rate of 150 words per minute.[5]
In 1982, the company was sold to
At the time of the company's full absorption by Cision in 2021, the number of offices had been reduced to two: Cleveland, OH and Albuquerque, NM. Both offices remain open under Cision as of 2022.
ABC-TV and Indesys partnered with PR Newswire in 1989 to provide news feeds to television and entertainment editors and writers in the U.S. and Canada.[11] Program changes, production schedules, and news from entertainment sources were transmitted over a satellite distribution network and an FM subcarrier.[11]
Steinberg retired in 1992, but continued as vice chairman until 2002.[12] During his tenure, the service became a state-of-the-art communications network with 700 employees.[12]
In 2000 the company acquired eWatch, founded in 1995 as an automated service to monitor websites, chat rooms, Usenet groups, web publications, online service forums and investor message boards for mentions of a specific organization, issue, product or service. In 2001, PR Newswire issued a multimedia news release for Touchstone Pictures promoting the film Pearl Harbor, which included b-roll, soundbites, high resolution images, and film trailer.[13] On April 17, 2007, PR Newswire acquired Vintage Filings.[14]
In December 2008, PR Newswire moved its
In the 2010s, PR Newswire and its competitor Business Wire were the target of extensive successful attacks by Ukrainian hackers, who accessed not yet published press releases to enable insider trading.[18] According to the FBI, the case was then the world's largest known computer hacking and securities fraud, with profits exceeding $100 million in trades that were made public by the SEC, but believed to be vastly higher than that by the authorities. Fewer than half of over 100 suspects involved had been arrested as of 2018.[18]
In 2021, there were unconfirmed reports that parent company Cision was looking to spin off PR Newswire driven by Cision-majority owner Platinum Equity.[19] This ultimately did not come to pass.
ProfNet
ProfNet is an online community of communications professionals made to provide reporters access to expert sources and a subsidiary of PR Newswire. ProfNet was founded in 1992 by Dan Forbush, then an administrator at
See also
References
- ^ a b "About PR Newswire". Variety.
- ^ a b c d Abelson, Reed (November 5, 2003). "Herbert Muschel, 85, Founder Of Service for Corporate News". The New York Times. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
- ^ a b Bray, Chad (December 15, 2015). "PR Newswire Sold to Cision for $841 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
- ^ "About PR Newswire". PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
- ^ The Herald Statesman. Vol. 115, no. 171. pp. F1–F2.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Wire Service Joint Venture". The New York Times. Vol. CXXXVIII, no. 47908. Associated Press. June 21, 1989. p. D19.
- ^ a b Steinberg, Michael (March 17, 2017). "David Steinberg, former chief executive of PR Newswire and chairman of Canada Newswire, dies at 85". Cision. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
- ^ "Touchstone Pictures' "Pearl Harbor" Premieres". Archived from the original on August 23, 2002.
- ^ "United Business Media acquires Vintage Filings, LLC". April 18, 2007. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
- ^ "Worldwide Offices – Global Headquarters". PR Newswire Association LLC. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
- ^ "PR Newswire Acquires Leading Online News Room Hosting Company, The Fuel Team". PR Newswire. July 31, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
- ^ a b "UBM plc Annual Report and Accounts 2013" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
- ^ a b Koshiw, Isobel (2018-08-22). "How a hacker network turned stolen press releases into $100 million". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-12-23.
- ^ "Cision may be looking to spin off PR Newswire, report says". SeekingAlpha. 19 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ S2CID 116212827.
- ^ a b Kohlenberg, Leah (1996-12-01). "An online source of journalism sources". American Journalism Review. 18 (10): 14–16.
- JSTOR 40165395.
- ^ Paskin, Janet (2009). "Man on the (Digital) Street". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
- ^ "ProfNet gets your questions out of the world's experts". Link-Up. 12 (3): 2–3. 1995-05-01.
- ISBN 978-1-000-10591-9.
- ISBN 978-0-19-512494-1.