Press Release Wire Services


Links to services that can assist you in finding information issued by companies, non-profits, community and religious groups, government agencies and other institutions.

Below are links to press release distribution services, or "wires." Although many press releases are available through the services listed at right and below, many are issued directly to the news media or public. Often, an institution's website is the best source of press releases it has issued.

The first two services listed, PR Newswire and Business Wire, have the largest market share in this field. The newer entrants, PrimeZone and Market Wire, are both headquartered in Los Angeles. See more information about such services below. Note that information on the services are distributed by companies and other institutions; latimes.com cannot confirm the accuracy of the content.


PR Newswire
PR Newswire has a search interface designed for users of latimes.com. Releases can be sorted in various categories.

PR Newswire's homepage is http://prnewswire.com.

Business Wire
Business Wire has several sorting options, with more information available to registered users of its site. It provides access to news in any of more than 160 industries and subjects.

PrimeZone Media Network
PrimeZone entered the release market in 1998. It initially specialized in financial releases but has expanded to many kinds of content and markets.

Market Wire
Market Wire, the newest large entrant, is also widely distributed and has a suite of services and certain speciality areas.

Other Release Services
There are many other formal and informal networks and web sites with press information as a major or partial part of the service. Many are nation-, topic- or region-specific. Some speciality news wires routinely include press releases.

 
MORE ABOUT PRESS RELEASES: The services above distribute information from many clients at once, both through these website links and organized "feeds" to news organizations, investors, archival databases, research groups or others.

Generally, the clients pay a fee to these services to distribute information. The institutions that receive the releases usually do not pay a fee.

Often, news organizations will receive press releases from these services in a computer system that also includes content that arrives from news wire organizations such as The Associated Press, Dow Jones, Reuters and Bloomberg News.

Some publications, particularly trade publications and smaller news operations, will print press releases, with or without editing, crediting the distribution service as the source. Larger newspapers, news wire organizations and magazines may cite these releases in articles or use them as a "tip service" about possible news ideas.

Among the special categories of press releases are financial releases. These can be found alongside business news stories in places where investors seek information. For example, the financial data provider for latimes.com, MarketWatch.com, lists releases as part of its company profiles.