eReleases distributes press releases using three mechanisms:

1. email submission directly to subscribing journalists.

2. posting on websites, making available to search engines and social media.

3. distribution on a major newswire of press releases, which is by far the most important of the three.



It’s important to understand the 80/20 Rule (also known as the Pareto Principle or the vital few vs. the trivial many) — basically this is the observation that everything in life is distributed unequally. For example, a minority of a company’s customers are responsible for the majority of revenue.

It’s the same with press release distribution. While there’s nothing wrong with posting a press release on websites, and nothing wrong with emailing subscribing journalists directly, the great majority of the effectiveness of our press release distribution is contributed by the newswire. When the goal is to reach journalists, the newswire distribution, by itself, is significantly more effective than both the emailing and website posting combined.

Most of eReleases’ competitors do NOT issue press releases over a newswire of press releases. While they may say that they send their releases to the Associated Press, Reuters, or UPI, it is important to note these are not traditional newswires of press releases but newswires designed to send licensed content they’ve written to participating newspapers. This is a critical difference that many competitors use to mislead customers into believing they will receive traditional press release newswire distribution when they will not.

A true newswire of press releases will run your press release over a mechanism that is being fed to newsrooms across the country. This mechanism includes dedicated terminals that stream newsfeeds, special feeds on a corporate intranet, as well as private newsrooms on the Internet for journalists who are working remotely. eReleases issues press releases over PR Newswire, which is the oldest and largest newswire of press releases in the country.

Most Fortune 1000 companies and nearly all publicly traded companies use a major newswire of press releases because they recognize that is the most legitimate and widespread mechanism for reaching the media.

With eReleases, that is what you get. There are a few competitors that promote that they are going over a major newswire of press releases like Business Wire or PR Newswire — but the few who do are generally paying a small fee for your press release to go only to a local city or small region of the country — so you are not getting a comprehensive distribution in those cases. You are given a link to your press release on that newswire and wrongly assume that you received a widespread distribution to newsrooms across the country.

Another thing that cheaper competitors have done is co-opt the word newswire. They simply claim that they are a newswire, and when questioned, they point out that they have put their press releases on a web-based newsfeed and have a place on their website where journalists can sign up to receive press releases. This is not a newswire.

Journalists are busy and are not going to go hunting from site to site looking for news. If they do go to a website, they’ll go to the largest site that has the most press releases, as well as a reputation for publishing the most newsworthy press releases. Journalists are going to go to PR Newswire first. That’s just a fact.

Could some journalists trickle down and go to a minor press release website? Sure, but the likelihood of that is very small, and as a result, your exposure to the media is substantially less. Think of search engines. Theoretically, if you don’t find what you’re looking for on Google, could you then go to Yahoo! or Bing? Sure, but those instances are going to be very few and only attempted by the smallest number of people.

Often people feel like their press release is not that newsworthy, so it’s not worth spending a lot of money to go over a major newswire, but with eReleases you don’t have to spend that much money to leverage newswire distribution. In addition, what you may not realize is that almost every trade publication, and every industry blogger, is going to cover their industries by using and reviewing a major newswire like PR Newswire. Even if you think you are only going to get picked up within your own industry, and such pickup is critical coverage, then having your press release issued over PR Newswire is even more important, because that’s where people will pick you up whether it is breaking news, or just an update of your product or service.