PRNewswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. 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. In December 2015, Cision Inc. announced it would acquire the company. On January1, 2021, Cision formally merged PRNewswire into the company.

History

PRNewswire was founded in March 1954 by Herbert Muschel, who ran the business from his town house in New York City for the first 15 years of its operation. with Muschel and Steinberg continuing to manage the company after the acquisition. Steinberg served as vice president and chief of operations, and became president of the company in 1976.

In 1977, PRNewswire began using electronic terminals for copy editing.

By 1978, PRNewswire distributed content to approximately 250 news points and financial institutions in 75 cities using 12,000 miles of private transmission lines. 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. PRNewswire acquired Mediawire in 1983, expanding the company's reach into over 125 newsrooms in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and West Virginia.

ABC-TV and Indesys partnered with PRNewswire in 1989 to provide news feeds to television and entertainment editors and writers in the U.S. and Canada. Program changes, production schedules, and news from entertainment sources were transmitted over a satellite distribution network and an FM subcarrier. During his tenure, the service became a state-of-the-art communications network with 700 employees. On April17, 2007, PRNewswire acquired Vintage Filings.

In December 2008, PRNewswire moved its New York City corporate headquarters from Midtown Manhattan to Lower Manhattan, at 350Hudson Street. In mid-2009, PRNewswire acquired The Fuel Team. The largest competitor to PRNewswire is Business Wire, . On December15, 2015, PRNewswire was sold to global media intelligence company, Cision, for $841million. According to the FBI, the case was then the world's largest known computer hacking and securities fraud, with profits exceeding $100million 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. Forbush privatized ProfNet in 1995 and sold it to PR Newswire in March 1996. As a commercial service, ProfNet began charging institutions to participate. By the end of the following year, the distribution list included 2,800 contacts, mostly affiliated with colleges and universities. Many contacts were spokespeople for their institutions, rather than subject-matter experts themselves.

See also

  • List of press release agencies
  • Public relations

References

  • ProfNet