PR Newswire vs WebWire

Service details

Detail	PR Newswire	WebWire
Founded	1954	1995
Ownership	Cision	WebWire
Company size	N/A	N/A
Headquarters	New York, United States	N/A
Funding history	Operated by Cision	N/A
Customer audience	PR professionals, comms teams, and public companies	Businesses, organizations, and individuals
Distribution reach	Distributes to over 500,000 media outlets, newsrooms, and financial portals across 170+ countries in 40+ languages.	Distributes to internet news readers, targeted industry-specific media via email, and global newsrooms via PR Newswire.
Turnaround	Press releases can be distributed within hours of approval by the 24/7 editorial team.	Immediate distribution available.
Pricing model	Starts at $350 for local distribution plus a $195-$249 annual membership fee. National releases start at $805, with steep overages for extra words and multimedia.	Pricing starts at $39.95 for basic web distribution, scaling up to $455+ for wire service distribution.

Side by side

Data point	PR Newswire	WebWire
Pricing & value1.60 vs 3.80WebWire leads
Entry-level release cost	$350 for state/local release2.0	$39.95 per submission5.0 ▲
Pricing transparency	No public rate card (returns 404)1.0	Clear pricing published online5.0 ▲
Word-count & multimedia overages	$140+ per 100 extra words, $325 per image1.0	Fees for additional words apply3.0 ▲
Contract flexibility	$195-$249 annual membership required2.0	Pay per submission, no contracts5.0 ▲
Refund policy	Unused portion refunded if vendor discontinues service2.0 ▲	No refunds once reviewed1.0
Distribution reach4.82 vs 4.17PR Newswire leads
Stated outlet count	500,000+ media outlets and newsrooms5.0 ▲	Over 6,000 news websites4.0
Country coverage	170+ countries5.0 ▲	Global reach via PR Newswire4.0
Financial & regulatory circuits	Full regulatory disclosure points4.8 ▲	AP, Reuters, Yahoo Finance via PR Newswire4.0
Trade & vertical targeting	100+ industries and trade categories4.5	Extensive industry-specific media lists5.0 ▲
Outlet variety (regions & niches)	Multicultural, language-specific, and industry verticals4.8 ▲	Trade, online, dailies, broadcasters4.0
Additional reach services	ProfNet, media tours, paid placement, social sharing4.8 ▲	Targeted media email outreach4.0
Placement quality4.04 vs 3.79PR Newswire leads
Tier-1 pickup likelihood	Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg, CNBC, AP News4.8 ▲	Yahoo Finance, Google News, Bing News3.0
Guaranteed placements	Guaranteed paid placement available4.0 ▲	No guaranteed placement2.0
Average outlet authority (DR & traffic)	High domain authority and web traffic4.5 ▲	N/A3.3
Speed of distribution	Within hours of approval4.0	Immediate distribution available5.0 ▲
Search indexing durability	N/A3.5	Nearly 100% integration into Google News4.5 ▲
Indexing ratio	N/A3.5	~100% in Google News5.0 ▲
Platform & workflow3.97 vs 3.16PR Newswire leads
Release editor usability	AI-powered Create+ tool for drafting and enhancing4.5 ▲	N/A3.6
Approval & compliance workflow	Internal approvals required before submission4.0 ▲	Manual editorial review required3.0
Multimedia support	Photos, videos, logos, infographics4.5 ▲	Supports videos and graphics4.0
Integrations	Website integration and social media connections4.0 ▲	RSS feed and social media integration3.0
Team & multi-user management	Individual registered-user logins; no sharing2.0	N/A3.3 ▲
Additional tools & extras	AI campaign planning, content creation, media monitoring4.8 ▲	Analytics, RSS, social media integration2.0
White label & reseller4.04 vs 3.93PR Newswire leads
White-label reporting	N/A4.0	N/A4.0
API access	N/A3.1	N/A3.1
White-label publishing	N/A4.6	N/A4.6
Agency & reseller pricing	Channel Partner and Publishing Partner programs3.5	N/A3.7 ▲
Dedicated account manager	Dedicated agency account management team5.0 ▲	N/A4.2
Customer support3.85 vs 3.20PR Newswire leads
Support channels	Phone & e-mail3.5 ▲	Contact form2.0
Response speed	24/7 editorial team availability4.5 ▲	N/A4.0
Support quality (public reviews)	3.9/5 on G2 (781 reviews)3.9 ▲	N/A3.8
Onboarding & training	MediaRoom CMS training and 24/7/365 support3.5 ▲	Templates and tutorials provided3.0
Analytics & reporting4.24 vs 3.45PR Newswire leads
Pickup reporting detail	Visibility Reports showing engagement, pickup, and reach4.5 ▲	Delivery report with reporter names and outlets4.0
Audience & engagement metrics	Performance and audience engagement data4.2 ▲	Clipping report, basic analytics2.0
Report speed after distribution	Visibility Report 2 hours after distribution4.5 ▲	N/A3.9
Real-time dashboards	Real-time newsfeed and analytics4.0 ▲	N/A3.8
Export & sharing	Downloadable reports to share results4.0 ▲	Downloadable clipping report3.5

N/A means the provider does not publish that detail; the data point then inherits the directory average so a missing disclosure neither helps nor hurts. See how we rank.