What is a newswire and how does it work?

Breaking down the PR newswire in 2023

Ah, newswires. Once a lauded institution of the PR world, newswire services are sort of… still around. The efficacy of newswires is a hotly debated topic in the PR and marketing world. Some insist that the service is dead, others claim it still works phenomenally, and still others are like, "what's a newswire?"

Let's discuss what a public relations newswire is, how it works, and if it's still relevant in these harrowing times.

Before we explain what newswires are, let's make things a little more confusing. There are actually two kinds of newswire services that are different enough to warrant an explanation but similar enough to be annoying.

First, there's the news newswire. This is where an organization (like the Associated Press) writes articles and distributes them across a network of partners around the world. The Associated Press, for example, has over 1,300 partner agencies that receive and redistribute news stories through their own newspapers, magazines, etc. These newswires are cool, but not really what this article is about.

The other type of newswire is a PR newswire, which is the star of this article. So traditional newswires and PR newswires function separately but similarly. Both are aimed at aggregating and distributing information, but the information they share and the audiences are pretty different.

A PR newswire is a service that takes paid press release submissions from different PR agencies and businesses and aggregates them into one central location through an independent source.

Okay, but why?

See, before the internet, journalists had to really search for stories. There wasn't TikTok drama to cover 24/7, and there weren't endless sources of interconnected global news available all day, every day. Was it better? Who's to say?

This lack of traumatic incessant raging global news meant that journalists needed a way to find stories. Inversely, PR departments and agencies needed a way to get their stories to the press. A business or agency would have a juicy piece of information that they wanted eyes on but no way to scream it out to the rest of the world (obviously this was before Twitter).

Thus, the newswire service was born. People would send their hottest stories to a newswire, and the newswire would turn around and distribute it to their network of journalists who are itching for a story. It was a flawless system that worked perfectly.

But then the internet was invented, and everyone could talk to everyone else literally all the time. Access to journalists no longer required a postage stamp or a fax machine.

This, of course, begs the question of whether or not newswires are still a necessary service in the modern age. When anyone can do a quick google search and find 50 relevant publications and journalists to email directly, is there still a need to blast the PR to tons of (tenuously) appropriate people?

This brings us to our next question.

The short answer is: Maybe.

The even shorter answer is: No.

The accurate answer is: It depends.

Newswires are obviously still used by PR people around the world, but there is some debate about whether these newswires are actually effective or if they are a rapidly dying institution. One agency asked 80 tech journalists if they still use newswire services, of which 37% indicated that they check them daily, and 30% of journalists indicated that they use them occasionally.

A 2022 study showed that a majority of journalists receive at least 50 pitches per week, with 24% receiving 100+ each. The need for journalists to actively scour the internet for stories is rapidly diminishing as the pitches are increasingly going directly to their inboxes.

Obviously, different journalistic fields will prioritize different methods, but it's fair to say that the bulk of the news stories that get published are not coming straight off the PR newswire presses. And when it comes to meatier stories and features? Forget about it. Any long-ish piece for a reputable publication (i.e. journalism-journalism) is not something that can be plucked off a PR newswire.

Generally, newswires have largely been eclipsed by cheaper, more targeted methods.

So, let's take a (reasonably) unbiased look at the pros and cons of using PR newswires.

Pros of using a newswire:

• They're longstanding institutions in the PR world
• Some newswire services will send regular email digests, so journalists don't have to sift through hundreds of separate pitches and can instead sift through a single list of hundreds of press releases
• Using a newswire is a lot easier than generating a curated media list since you just need to pay a fee and click "upload"
• Some newswires will provide analytics data

Cons of using a newswire:

• The good ones are expensive, with each release costing hundreds of dollars (or more)
• The formatting is limited and typically restricted to plain text
• Fewer journalists than ever use them to find actual stories than they did in the past
• Press releases are presented along literally all of the other stories on the wire that are vying for journalists' attention, so the vast majority get overlooked

We asked a bunch of PR, marketing, and communications people if newswires are still relevant to their workflow, and we got quite a range of responses. Note that they're all from the POV of the people doing the sharing, not the journalists picking up the story, so do not paint a beautiful and holistic picture.

Compare Cision, Meltwater, and Prezly features and pricing to find the best fit for your team →

So, if people aren't using PR newswires as much as they used to, what are they doing? Well, seeing as the internet is positively lawless, it's safe to say that people are just doing too much.

Ultimately, however, it seems like owned media and curated campaigns are the way to go these days.

Uh oh, jargon alert. 🚨

What do those things mean?

Essentially, owned media is content (like a press release) that you specifically control on your own website, domain, etc. It's not social media, which is housed (and effectively controlled) by another company, like Twitter, Facebook, or, yes, even newswires. That's not to say a good social media presence can't bolster and support owned media. But should you post your PR directly into Tiktok and nowhere else? Maybe not.

When you house your own media, say on a press room or website, you have the freedom and flexibility to share the news the way you want to. This means you can design it how you like and add plenty of stunning images and multimedia, safe in the knowledge that it isn't going to be buried by algorithms eager to make Elon a cool billion. Owned media also has the added benefit of boosting your brand's visibility on major search engines (like Yahoo and Bing).

Curated campaigns are emails that you send to a carefully selected group of journalists with whom you've (ideally) developed a great working relationship. This email will often include a link to the press release where journalists can review your PR and assets, as well as download image files and other important info for their news story.

Obviously, this requires a bit more work than just throwing a few plain-text lines into a PR newswire, forking over $1,000, and praying to the Exposure Gods. But this method has become the de facto strategy for PR folks who prefer to think strategically.

PR newswires are kinda polarizing. Some swear by them, some insist they're a relic of the past, and others are somewhere in between. But something everyone seems to agree on is that newswires should only ever be part of an overall strategy and never the star of the distribution show. ​

If you're keen to learn more about a strategy-based approach to PR distribution, well, we have some resources for you!

• How to write a good press release that'll get picked up by the media
• How to build a better PR media list (+ the best tools & template)
• How to do PR outreach (and 10 garbage fire mistakes to avoid)

And if you're thinking to yourself, "that's all well and good, but how can I ever possibly find a way to house my own content? Sounds impossible!" Well, that's kind of Prezly's whole thing. We help our users create dazzling press rooms and websites where they can showcase their news, send campaigns, and track SEO and analytics all from one easy-to-use tool.

Want to try it for free? ⬇️

Katelynn Sortino

Storyteller, Prezly

• [email protected]

Published January 2023; updated April 2023