Outlet profile

PR Newswire

U.S. commercial — not a news outlet; press release distributor

Owned byOwned by Cision Ltd., which is in turn owned by the private equity firm Platinum Equity, which acquired Cision for approximately $2.74 billion in 2019–2020

FundingFee-based subscription service; clients (corporations, PR agencies, government entities) pay per press release based on distribution scope — a standard 400-word national release costs roughly $800–$1,200, with global distribution reaching several thousand dollars

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

PR Newswire was founded in March 1954 by Herbert Muschel in New York City, initially delivering client press releases to a dozen outlets via a private teleprinter network for a flat $15-a-day fee. Western Union acquired it in 1971 and used it as a subsidiary for roughly a decade before selling it to United News & Media in 1982. Over the following decades it expanded internationally and became the dominant U.S. wire service for corporate and financial disclosures. Cision Inc. acquired PR Newswire in 2015 and formally merged it into the parent company in 2021; Platinum Equity had already taken Cision private in a $2.74 billion deal in 2019–2020. The service maintains a 24/7 editorial team that reviews submissions for grammar, accuracy of format, and compliance with distribution standards — catching tens of thousands of errors annually — but it does not exercise journalistic news judgment or hold editorial positions. Criticisms have focused on billing transparency and customer-service deterioration since the Cision acquisition, not on ideological bias. Because PR Newswire transmits whatever paying clients submit (subject to basic editorial review), it is frequently used by government agencies, corporations, and advocacy groups across the political spectrum.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-09-18; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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