Cision’s PR Newswire is a service used by some PR professionals to distribute press releases. But trying to understand exactly how much you have to pay to use the service can be very confusing.
Things like additionally priced add-ons or their membership can leave you wondering how much you’ll actually have to pay in the end.
Here’s a quick pricing guide, based on internal research and a few third-party websites, to help you get a rough estimate of how much PR Newswire will cost you to send a press release.
- PR Newswire pricing overview
- The total cost of sending a press release w/ PR Newswire (example)
- PR Newswire alternatives
Disclaimer: This information may not be 100% accurate; for the most up-to-date PR Newswire pricing information, try to get in touch with someone from their sales team.
PR Newswire pricing overview
These are the main costs involved with using PR Newswire to send a press release:
| State & Local | Regional & Top Markets | National | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Membership | $195 | $195 | $195 |
| Price | $350 | $575 | $805 |
| Outlets Included (Digital Networks) | 1,000 | 1,300 | 5,800 |
| Word Count | 400 | 400 | 400 |
| Additional 100 Words | $140 | $165 | $245 |
| Multimedia Inclusions | $325 | $325 | $325 |
| Logo | $495 | $495 | $495 |
Features quickly add up, meaning you can end up paying well over $1000-2000 to send a single press release—an enormous jump compared to paying 5-10x less with a PR outreach tool like Prowly.
Membership costs
To send a press release with PR Newswire you’ll need to first purchase their annual membership which costs $195 or $249 if invoiced.
It does, however, give you access to a bunch of possibly useful features such as:
- 24/7/365, concierge-level professional services and customer support
- Complimentary phone/webinar training for all major services
- Quarterly re-authentication of all of your organization’s “authorized senders”
- Complimentary access to Premium, member-only webinars that teach you how to effectively leverage your content and engage with your key audiences
- and others
If you’re just looking to send a press release, you will still have to pay the membership free. According to PR Newswire, the membership is not optional.
The actual press release pricing
Let’s move on to the price of sending the actual press release.
PR Newswire will charge you $350 to $8700, depending on the scope of the distribution.
These prices are for the standard 400-word press release. Every extra 100 words will be priced additionally, starting at $140 and going up to even $2200 ($22 per word!).
Distributing your press release locally or to most states will cost $350. Targeting your top markets or regionally will bring the price up to $575, and sending your press release nationally will cost around $805.
PR Newswire also has international distribution options.
They are pricey, however, and can start from $1200 for targeting the US & Canada and go up from there – $3500 for Asia or Europe and up to $8700 for global reach.
Due to the rapidly rising costs as you increase the scope of your distribution, it’s wise to consider if you really need to distribute your press release across the whole country, for example.
Multimedia add-ons & logo
If you want to add multimedia to your press releases, you’ll have to pay an additional $325. It’s not clear if this is per single add-on or if there is a limit. You can also add a PDF, which costs $125.
Adding your logo is priced at a hefty $495, although this is a one-time annual fee that lets you reuse your logo later on for no cost.
Other add-ons
Cision PR Newswire offers other add-ons and resources. I’ve skipped these as they are less commonly picked, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re after different features.
Summing up – how much will it cost to send a press release with PR Newswire?
Now that you’re familiar with the costs involved, let’s add them up to get a rough estimate of how much you’ll have to actually pay.
As an example, let’s say you’re trying to distribute a press release to national media in the US.
This alone will cost you $1000 with the membership fee. With your logo and one additional image, the price jumps up to $1820.
The cost of using PR Newswire will vary from press release to press release, but at the very least you’re looking at spending $545 for the membership and most basic press release option.
PR Newswire alternatives
If you’re looking for a way to send your press release without stretching your budget with PR newswire, there are plenty of more affordable options available.
The easiest way to go is to choose a cheaper press release distribution service or send the press release by yourself to relevant media contacts interested in covering a story like yours.
If you’re interested, read more on the differences between the two in the guide to choosing the best press release distribution service →
1. Budget-friendly PR Newswire alternatives
The most popular alternatives to PR Newswire that are known to be cheaper are:
- EIN Presswire – starts at $49.95 per release
- 24-7pressrelease.com – starts at $19 per release
- PR Underground – starts at $49.99 per release
- NewswireJet – starts at $59 per release
- Send2Press – starts at $89 per release
2. Distributing the press release by yourself
A cheaper—and usually more effective—way to send your press release and get media coverage is with PR outreach, or in other words: pitching the media.
How can PR outreach be more effective for getting valuable press coverage compared to wire services?
Instead of the typical “spray and pray approach” of wire services, PR outreach is about reaching out to relevant media contacts with your press release or story. What this means is being able to get your media coverage where your target audience is actually likely to read the news you’re trying to get out to the world.
Tools like Prowly let you find relevant media contacts with an extensive media database and then pitch them your story with personalized distribution and analytics. Pricing starts at $293 or $119 if you have your own media lists. Here’s how Prowly compares to PR Newswire if you need more details.
Cover photo by Alexander Mils
