Foundations
Press release distribution business models compared across six delivery routes
Compare six announcement-delivery models on the same function, payer, proof, data, rights, commercial unit and exit fields, without naming a winner.
What to take away
- Six routes compete for one budget: in-house baseline, owned newsroom service, direct media outreach, transmission network, paid placement and monitoring-only.
- They differ on payer, proof event, commercial unit, rights and exit, so compare them field by field.
- Send records and destination counts prove delivery, never reading.
- Screen every route on four gates, then score what survives.
The six routes and the fields that separate them
Start with the function you buy, not the seller's logo. Each route buys a different event and leaves a different record. Our comparison of press release distribution channel strategy sets the routes against a manual baseline and explains why doing nothing is also a choice.
Six delivery models compared
In-house baseline
- Payer
- Own staff
- Deliverable
- Owned page
- Evidence
- Buyer events
- Commercial unit
- Time and cost
- Exit
- Retained files
Owned newsroom
- Payer
- Buyer
- Deliverable
- Approved page
- Evidence
- No external pickup
- Commercial unit
- Page or period
- Exit
- Export and delete
Direct outreach
- Payer
- Buyer
- Deliverable
- Authorised message
- Evidence
- No opening proof
- Commercial unit
- Research scope
- Exit
- Source log
Transmission network
- Payer
- Buyer
- Deliverable
- Technical acceptance
- Evidence
- Syndication separate
- Commercial unit
- Per item
- Exit
- Not stated
Who pays, and for what
- In-house baseline
- Your staff and systems
- Owned newsroom service
- Hosting or publishing support
- Direct media outreach
- Research and targeted contact
- Transmission network
- Distributor routes the item
- Paid placement
- Controlled publication
- Monitoring-only
- Observing named sources
What the record proves
- In-house baseline
- An owned page or send was published
- Owned newsroom service
- Approved page exists on your property
- Direct media outreach
- Message reached named recipients
- Transmission network
- Named destinations accepted it
- Paid placement
- Identified marketing content ran
- Monitoring-only
- A mention was captured under protocol
Commercial unit
- In-house baseline
- Staff time plus system cost
- Owned newsroom service
- Page, support period or contracted work
- Direct media outreach
- Agreed research and outreach scope
- Transmission network
- Per item, per bundle or per period
- Paid placement
- Placement and term as contracted
- Monitoring-only
- Source set and monitoring period
Rights and data
- In-house baseline
- Your copy; contacts still need a basis
- Owned newsroom service
- Platform terms may license your uploads
- Direct media outreach
- Each contact needs a basis and retention limit
- Transmission network
- Distributor terms govern reuse
- Paid placement
- Property licenses space, not your copy
- Monitoring-only
- Capture needs a basis and short retention
Exit
- In-house baseline
- Files kept, access closed, suppression list
- Owned newsroom service
- Export, redirect, deletion record
- Direct media outreach
- Source log, objections logged, access removed
- Transmission network
- Destination log, correction route, export
- Paid placement
- Labelling archive, expiry, withdrawal
- Monitoring-only
- Query export, retention limit, closure
Real examples sit in every row. Government departments run their own newsrooms, Companies House publishes filings as public records, and health and safety stories go to HSE's press office. Google Alerts sits at the free end of monitoring; newswires such as PA Media at the paid end.
Reporter records carry a lawful basis and a retention limit. Our walkthrough of personal data through an announcement traces them from provenance to deletion.
Example: the comparison filled in for one announcement
Take an illustrative case: a 20-person software company in Leeds announcing a funding round, with copy approved and a two-week window. It wants a record of what reached named journalists. The fields fill in like this:
- Functionauthorised delivery to named journalists, plus an owned page as the canonical version.
- Payerthe company funds outreach research and its own CMS.
- Proofsend and reply logs only, with no readership claim.
- Commercial unita fixed project scope quoted per campaign, not per release.
- Rightsthe company keeps copyright and grants a written licence limited to this campaign.
- Exitsource log returned, contact records deleted at the retention date, CMS access closed.
- Ruled outpaid placement, which needs unwanted labelling, and monitoring-only, which delivers nothing.
Score the survivors instead of arguing in the abstract. A workable starting weighting is control 30, evidence 25, time 20, cost 15 and exit 10 out of 100. Change the weights, but keep every gate as pass or fail before scoring.
Costs: the commercial unit, not just the total
No public price list covers this market, so make each provider name its unit. Expect one of five: per release, per bundle of destinations or regions, per period on retainer, per placement and term, or a day rate for outreach research.
Ask what increases the unit, whether VAT is included and what happens to unused items. Those terms belong in the eight contract issues to settle before signing.
How to choose between the six
- Write the function and the evidence you will accept, one sentence each.
- Gate every route on a lawful basis for contact data, clear labelling for paid content, written rights to the copy and an exit that returns or deletes data.
- Score the routes that pass, using your own weights.
- Test one authorised item and one correction before committing to a term.
A cheap route cannot buy back a missing lawful basis, a missing licence or an exit that keeps your contacts.
Legal and data fields that apply to all six
Paid or controlled content needs a recognition gate. CAP Code section 2 requires marketing communications to be identifiable and advertorials to be clear.
Direct outreach raises a second question. ICO business-to-business marketing guidance sets out how recipient type, purpose, transparency and objections are handled.
Rights sit in every row. IPO copyright ownership guidance states the creator normally owns commissioned work first unless a written agreement says otherwise. Record licences for copy, images and data.
Common questions
Which route suits a firm with no press contacts?
Direct media outreach plus an owned page covers the common case. It buys what a wire cannot: named recipients and a record of each send.
Why is a destination count not proof of readership?
It records acceptance by a technical destination, which is a delivery event. Syndication, indexing and human attention need separate definitions and separate evidence.
Do I need a wire and outreach together?
Not necessarily. Buy a wire for syndication and outreach for one named journalist, not both at once. Buying both without naming the function doubles the units you pay for.
