Wither Goes the Wire Services

It's been an active new years for the Wire service. First, here - and then got bought by the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Now, to add to the pain for the Wire services, Amy Gahran re-raises the issue of should the Topaz Partners and finding the answers on whether or not you need Wire services for SEC guidelines. This all comes on the backend of me having the chance to interview the founder of Tom Madden, and getting his views on the future of the Wire industry. And, who knew this, but Primezone is the third largest Wire service. Okay, the idea of this post started with two things: first, InternetWire's bad blog pitch touting the security of InternetWire - mainly at the expense of BusinessWire and an MarketWire. That's the irony - those in glass houses, etc. InternetWire became MarketWire after a little incident involving a person sending out a Radar Online as fake, but not before a few people were fooled. First - MarketWire. Here's the pitch ... way too long for a blog pitch:

We're sure you are aware of the recent news stories regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission charging an Estonian financial services firm and two of its employees with stealing confidential information from Business Wire and walking away with at least $7.8 million in illegal profits. Market Wire certainly empathizes with Business Wire's most recent crisis; scandal, fraud, hacking, employee wrongdoings, and insider trading are all very real in today's technologically-powered and information-rich environments. While this incident is just another reminder that not one of us can always predict or prevent fraud, we must learn from our experiences, good and bad, and work toward improving and perfecting our products, systems, and processes. That's what Market Wire did as a result of Emulex more than five years ago. And today, we're stronger because of it, with our foundation and reputation being built on leveraging the latest technologies to securely distribute company news and safeguard client data. With that in mind, we wanted to keep you informed about Market Wire's systems and processes and let you know that you can feel confident about sending your news securely through us. Whenever you use a newswire, we recommend that you:
Investigate your newswire's internal access policies and procedures.
Who at your newswire actually has access to your release? And when are they able to view and edit it? Newswires that limit internal access to releases further safeguard against the possibilities of any internal wrongdoing. When material news is submitted at Market Wire and queued up for a later release date and time, any viewing, editing, etc., may only be done through a selected senior-level team member assigned to that specific release.
Ensure that secure submission and authorization policies are in place and adhered to.
Newswires should only allow secure online submissions. Allowing email or fax submissions is dangerous and introduces several opportunities for security breaches. At Market Wire, we've designed our user interfaces to be easy for clients to navigate while at the same time intuitive enough to recognize authorized users, restrict permitted accesses accordingly, and assign unique passwords to each release submitted.
Insist on your newswire employing the highest level of encryption allowed by government standards.
Basic encryption is not enough...at least not for us. Sophisticated spiders can break primitive codes. Make sure measures that hide or encrypt URLs are in place to protect unauthorized spidering. Not doing so would be similar to someone putting gates and fences all around one's home, but leaving the front door unlocked.
Confirm that your newswire continuously monitors online activity.
Continuous monitoring of procedures, submissions, and processes is extremely important. Market Wire's tech team diligently employs these practices and is alerted at the first sign of any suspicious activity, prompting swift and early action.
Evaluate a newswire's computer systems.
What servers and operating systems does your newswire utilize? Are multiple servers used? Is the technology constantly being improved? At Market Wire, multiple servers and an intricate, multi-faceted network allow for constant checks, balances, and safeguards. Market Wire has invested in its technologies and processes to maximize security. By the same token, we encourage all communication professionals who submit material news through a newswire to be proactive and diligent in ensuring that they and their companies are protected, as much as is possible through the latest systems and processes. Finally, we encourage working together to stay one step ahead of those who would take advantage for personal gain. If you have any questions about technology or security or newswires...or if you'd like more information about Market Wire and the systems and procedures we have in place to distribute material news securely, just reply to this email, click on the button below, or call us. We're here to help.

Now, come on. Did MarketWire really learn any lessons here, or are they just taking potshots at a competitor - one that is so far ahead of them, that even smaller services like PRWeb - while I love them - is different, and mainly just for I don't buy it. Sorry, just don't buy it. The Wire services are old and long in the tooth, are not providing any real value outside of SEC. For a private company, most of the time I would recommend saving money and doing no press release. If you have a good database, an ability to write a pitch letter (a very sadly dying art in PR), and have relationships, you can get more accomplished than with a Wire releases. Aside from SEC issues, I agree with Amy. It's time to kill the press release of old, and to stop relying on Wire services. Plus, let's admit it: PR firms lie to clients. After a meeting with a potential client recently, he said that his launch press release got 60+ hits ... I had to explain to him that those were not hits. Those were sites that carried the feeds from PR Newswire or BusinessWire. Those aren't hits, that's not coverage, and PR firms should know better than lie to clients like that. When discussing this issue with one of the biggies, the account executive had a good point: because of the massive amounts of emails to reporters, Wire services are even more important for reporters because they help weed out the valuable from the invaluable in the space that they are looking in. Well, in a perfect world ... that would be true. However, in the real world, there is so much crap put out on the Wires that even the Wire noise is deafening. This all brings me to the lunch with Primezone. Madden was surprisingly candid about the Wire services.