Joe Beaulaurier’s Blog

Today I am happy to announce PRWeb’s new partnership with Business Wire. “Waitaminute!” you may be saying. Isn’t Business Wire your competition? Are they not a newswire service like PRWeb? Well, yes and no.

There are two distinct reasons why companies use newswire services.

1. Disclosure - they are a publicly traded company and have to follow specific rules about announcing anything which could have an impact on their stock’s valuation.
2. Marketing - they want to announce something which the market will appreciate and respond to.

Business Wire has set up the proper disclosure distribution channels and mechanisms which are required for companies seeking to submit “disclosure” press releases. PRWeb has intentionally not done this because it creates limitations on what we can provide for the purposes of distributing “marketing” press releases.As a result of our partnership, Business Wire customers can get the press release optimization and distribution services available from PRWeb and PRWeb customers can include BusinessWire’s disclosure distribution channel when needed.

This really puts Business Wire ahead of other conventional newswire service companies since they can now offer their customers search engine optimization, keyword strength measurements, hypertext links within the text, podcasting, social media distribution, etc. that the others can’t. PRWeb customers gain the ability to extend their distribution, whether required or not, with Business Wire’s distribution network.

So, yes we are competing with each other for some of the press release marketshare, but we also recognize that companies shouldn’t always have to use two companies, two accounts, two bills, etc. and now they don’t. Business Wire and PRWeb customers get to stay where they are while enjoying the benefits available from both services.

And if that ain’t a win-win, I don’t know what is.

UPDATE: Info and conversations elsewhere regarding this announcement:

• Business Wire to License PRWeb Platform
• Business Wire Teams with PRWeb in New Online Offering
• Search Marketing Blog: Partnerships, Acquisitions and Other Developments
• Vocus hooks up with news distributor Business Wire

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