Audience research
Part of Five roles to separate before researching who reads an announcement
Press release distribution survey tools: choosing a research route for one announcement job
Compare manual, existing-service, form, interview and accessible research routes for one England announcement job, with blank costs and no winner.
What to take away
- For one England announcement, combine a buyer-owned contact file with Pressat self-serve, whose published band runs from under £100 to about £200 per release.
- Google Forms wins the survey side of a one-off job at zero cost; paid tiers from about £15 a month pay off only for branching logic or quotas.
- ResponseSource adds several hundred pounds a year and RealWire £250 to £600 per release, so match the service to the story.
- Prove the route with one controlled test on a frozen questionnaire version before committing the announcement budget.
- Check privacy, accessibility and security per route before the first invitation goes out.
Recommendation for a one-off England announcement
Start with a buyer-owned contact file plus Pressat self-serve, priced on its published rate card in a band from under £100 to about £200 per release.
The job is one release, one country and a small audience. A subscription locks in twelve months of fixed cost, while a national wire is priced for national news value.
Pressat, ResponseSource and PA Media sit at different points on that scale.
Named distribution services
Pressat
- Coverage
- UK regional and trade
- Pricing model
- Self-serve per release
- Typical cost
- Under £100 to £200
ResponseSource
- Coverage
- Journalist requests
- Pricing model
- Annual subscription
- Typical cost
- Several hundred pounds a year
PA Media
- Coverage
- UK national and regional
- Pricing model
- Per release
- Typical cost
- Hundreds of pounds per release
All figures here are public rate-card signals checked in 2026, not quotations for this job.
Published price signal
- Pressat
- from under £100 to about £200 per release
- ResponseSource
- several hundred pounds a year
- PA Media
- hundreds of pounds per release
- RealWire
- £250 to £600 per release
- PR Newswire, Business Wire
- from about $400 per release
- EIN Presswire, PRWeb
- entry plans from about $99
Decision for this job
- Pressat
- Winner for a single England release
- ResponseSource
- Add only for forward features and journalist requests
- PA Media
- Needs national news value
- RealWire
- Sector hook in tech or business
- PR Newswire, Business Wire
- Multimarket or investor-facing news
- EIN Presswire, PRWeb
- Check England reach first
Settle exit, data and repeat-test rights in writing by working through the contract issues to settle with a distribution service before you sign.
Survey tool choice for the same job
For a short questionnaire sent to a known list, Google Forms is the winner: no licence cost, one fixed link and an export you can delete on a set date.
Published price signal
- Google Forms
- free with a Google account
- Jisc Online Surveys
- free to UK education and some public bodies
- Microsoft Forms
- from around £5 per user per month with Microsoft 365
- SurveyMonkey, SmartSurvey
- free tiers, paid from about £15 to £30 per month
- Qualtrics
- enterprise quoting, no public list price
- Zoom, Teams, Google Meet
- Zoom free tier caps group meetings at 40 minutes, paid from about £12 per month
Decision for one England job
- Google Forms
- Winner: zero cost, quick to version
- Jisc Online Surveys
- Use when the buyer is eligible
- Microsoft Forms
- Use when already licensed
- SurveyMonkey, SmartSurvey
- Step up for logic, quotas or reporting
- Qualtrics
- Not proportionate to one announcement
- Zoom, Teams, Google Meet
- For moderated interviews, counted separately
A moderated interview is not a survey response, even when the prompts are identical.
Example: a controlled test in five steps
A controlled test in five steps
- Freeze one questionnaire version and one eligible population, such as authorised service buyers.
- Send the same invitation to comparable people on each route you compare.
- Log the invitation, response, export format and deletion date for every route.
- Price each route from its published rate card and add the buyer's own time.
- Compare completion, comparability, cost and gate results, then pick one winner.
Google Forms at zero plus Pressat in its under £100 to about £200 band keeps platform and distribution spend under £200. A second route using a paid survey tier at about £15 to £30 per month plus ResponseSource at several hundred pounds a year carries fixed cost first.
Record quoted prices in the announcement budget template so VAT, timing and reforecast stay in one file.
Privacy, accessibility and security gates
A survey participant notice should name the purpose, recipients, retention period, individual rights and the source of the data, as the ICO GDPR guidance sets out. Keep the contact file minimised and give it a deletion date.
Offer an alternative response route, then test the real invitation and questions with the people who will use them, following the government's accessible communication formats. A feature label is not evidence.
Check authentication, sharing, provider access, logging, export and deletion on the configured form against the NCSC SaaS security guidance.
When to stop, and what counts as a win
Stop the test if recruitment turns into undeclared marketing, the route excludes a required participant, or the export and deletion trail cannot be produced on request.
One route that passes every gate with comparable responses at a known price is the outcome. Anything else is a hold.
If any part of the invitation could read as promotion, check the advertising rules to check before you send first.
Common questions
Which distribution service should carry a one-off England announcement?
Pressat self-serve, at a published band from under £100 to about £200 per release, is the proportionate first choice. Move to PA Media, RealWire or a US wire only when the story demands that reach.
Which survey tool wins for the same job?
Google Forms on the free tier, because the questionnaire is short and the list is known. Paid tiers from about £15 to £30 per month suit longer instruments.
What has to be in the participant notice?
Purpose, recipients, retention, rights and the source of the data, following ICO right-to-be-informed guidance. A list of journalist contacts still counts as personal data.
When should the test be stopped?
Stop when recruitment becomes undeclared marketing, a required participant is excluded, or export and deletion cannot be demonstrated.
