The mechanism
An organisation writes an announcement. A wire service publishes it, unchanged, at a permanent address that the organisation does not control. Larger wires then syndicate that page to partner sites, which republish it automatically.
The important word is automatically. Syndication is a feed, not an editorial decision. When a wire tells you your release will appear on hundreds of news sites, it means those sites have agreed to carry the feed, not that anyone at them has read your announcement.
What a wire actually buys you
- A dated third-party record. Your own site saying something and an independent site saying you said it on a given date are different pieces of evidence.
- A citable URL. Something a journalist, investor or buyer can link to that is not your marketing site.
- Reach into newsroom systems, if the wire you use feeds them. This is the part worth paying for, and the part free wires do not do.
What no wire buys you
Coverage. A journalist choosing to write about you is an editorial decision no wire controls. Any service implying otherwise is selling you syndication and calling it press. The distinction is set out on our guaranteed placements page.
Free wire, or paid wire?
Free, here. Your release gets a permanent public page at no cost. Good for the record, the citation and the timestamp.
Paid, through our wire. Distribution into regional and national titles through an established agency route. One recent release went into 66 titles including the Scotsman, the Yorkshire Post and Portsmouth News.
Choosing one
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Which outlets, by name? | "1,300+ sites" is not a list. A wire that will not name them is counting feed subscribers. |
| Syndicated or editorial? | Automatic republishing is not coverage. Both are useful; only one is what most buyers think they are getting. |
| Do links pass value? | Most wire links are marked nofollow or sponsored, as they should be. If a service sells you the SEO value of its links, it is either wrong or breaking the rules it operates under. |
| Can I see a real example? | Live URLs from a recent release, not a screenshot. |