EIN Presswire
Pay-per-release newswire distribution to AP News, TV affiliates, Google News, and AI systems
EIN Presswire is a press release distribution service that takes a written announcement, reviews it against editorial guidelines, and syndicates it across a network of news sites, wire partners, industry and country newswires, television and radio affiliate sites, and news aggregators, then reports back where it appeared. It is sold as prepaid release credits rather than a subscription, starting at $149 for a single release, and it is operated by Newsmatics Inc. of Washington, DC.
Overview
Press release distribution is one of the few marketing purchases where the product is literally distribution. You write the announcement, the wire pushes it out, and what you buy is placement on other people's websites plus a report proving it happened. EIN Presswire has been selling that transaction since the late 1990s, when its parent company was already running EIN News as an online news operation, and it built its position by being dramatically cheaper than PR Newswire or Business Wire while still landing on recognizable properties like AP News and local network affiliate sites.
The service is deliberately unsubscribed. You buy credits, you keep them for 365 days, and you spend them one release at a time. That structure suits the actual rhythm of a small company's news: a funding announcement in March, a product launch in July, an award in November. There is no seat count, no monthly platform fee, and no annual contract, which puts EIN Presswire in a different buying category from the media-relations software in this category, where you pay for a database and a workflow rather than for a distribution event.
What is included alongside distribution matters more than most buyers expect. Every release carries images, an embedded video, keyword anchor text links (all nofollow), and a hosted newsroom page. Accounts also get the World Media Directory, a curated set of journalist and editorial-desk contacts by country, US state, and industry, which is the part of the product that looks like traditional media outreach rather than syndication. Distribution reports now include ChatGPT results alongside conventional pickup, reflecting the company's current positioning that a wire release is a way to get a claim into the corpus that large language models read.
The honest framing is that EIN Presswire sells reach and record, not coverage. Nothing here obliges a journalist to write about you, and the company says so explicitly in its own FAQ. What you reliably get is a permanent, indexed, citable page on a set of third-party domains, a distribution report you can show a board or a client, and the small but real chance that a beat reporter monitoring an industry newswire picks the item up.
Best for
Small businesses, agencies, and in-house marketers who need a credible, low-friction way to publish a handful of announcements a year: funding news, launches, hires, awards, and event notices, with a distribution report to show for it and no subscription to maintain between releases.
Not the right fit for
- Anyone buying press releases for SEO backlinks; every link is nofollow by design, and Google's guidance since 2023 has treated syndicated release copy as low-value content.
- Teams whose actual need is relationship-based media relations, building a targeted list, pitching individually, and tracking replies, which is what Muck Rack, Prowly, and Qwoted exist to do.
- Publicly traded companies with regulatory disclosure obligations, which generally require a wire with formal Reg FD and exchange filing workflows.
- Organizations expecting guaranteed placement in named national outlets; EIN guarantees distribution, not editorial adoption, and states this plainly.
- High-volume content operations wanting many releases per month, where the per-release model gets expensive faster than a wholesale wire contract.
How it works
- 1
You create an account and buy a package of release credits. New accounts go through a one-time verification that can take up to two business days, so a first release should not be scheduled for the same afternoon it is written.
- 2
You compose the release in the browser editor, within the word limit your package allows: 700 words on Basic, 1,000 on Pro+, 2,500 on Corporate. You attach images and one video, add keyword anchor text links, and set targeting: countries, US states, and industry verticals drawn from a list of more than fifty industry newswires.
- 3
A human content moderator reviews the submission against the editorial guidelines, typically in about two hours during business hours. Releases that read as pure advertising, that make unsupported claims, or that fall into restricted categories get sent back with a request for changes rather than silently distributed.
- 4
On approval the release is pushed to the network: EIN's own news properties and Affinity Group Publications, wire and gateway partners, Google News, aggregators, television and radio affiliate sites, industry and geographic newswires, Bloomberg Terminals, and the journalist contacts matched to your targeting. It also lands as a permanent page in your hosted newsroom.
- 5
A distribution report accumulates over the following days: where the release was published, which outlets syndicated it, referral and view counts, and, since 2025, whether ChatGPT surfaces or summarizes the content. The World Media Directory sits alongside all of this for direct pitching to named journalists, which is a separate motion from the wire push itself.
Feature breakdown
24 features in 4 modulesDistribution network
The set of destinations a single approved release reaches.- AP News placement
- Releases appear on AP News, which is the single most recognizable name in the network and the one most often screenshotted for a client report.
- Television and radio affiliate sites
- Syndication to more than one hundred NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and CW affiliate websites, plus radio station sites, producing the familiar 'as seen on' cluster of local media logos.
- USA TODAY Network and Nexstar
- Partnerships that place releases across hundreds of local digital outlets under two of the largest US local news groups.
- Google News and aggregators
- Indexing into Google News and downstream aggregators, which is what makes a release findable by search months after it ran.
- Bloomberg Terminals and Moody's NewsEdge
- Feeds into professional financial terminals, relevant if your audience includes analysts, investors, or deal professionals rather than consumers.
- Affinity Group Publications
- Distribution into the parent company's own network of several thousand niche trade publications, sorted by subject, which is where topic-specific pickup usually happens.
Targeting and composition
The controls that decide who the release is aimed at and how it is built.- Industry newswire targeting
- More than fifty industry-specific newswires covering healthcare, energy, technology, finance, real estate, legal, and sport; Basic allows one industry, Pro+ and Corporate allow five.
- Country and US state targeting
- Geographic channels for national, regional, and international audiences; Basic covers one country, higher packages cover two.
- Word limits by package
- 700 words on Basic, 1,000 on Pro+, 2,500 on Corporate, which is a real constraint if your release includes a long quote block or technical detail.
- Images and video
- One image on Basic, three on Pro+, five on Corporate, with one embedded video on every package.
- Keyword anchor text links
- Links inside the body using your chosen anchor text, all carrying the nofollow attribute to satisfy Google News requirements.
- Multi-language distribution
- Releases can be distributed in languages other than English into the matching geographic channels, useful for companies with a genuine second market.
- Social formatting
- Hashtag and handle handling for X and other social surfaces so the syndicated version carries usable social metadata.
Editorial and account controls
The gatekeeping and administrative layer around each submission.- Human editorial review
- Moderators check every release against published editorial guidelines, usually within about two hours in business hours, and return anything that reads as an advertisement.
- One-time account verification
- New customers are verified once, taking up to two business days, which is the main scheduling trap for a first-time deadline.
- 365-day credit validity
- Purchased releases stay usable for a full year, so a package bought for a launch can cover the rest of the year's announcements.
- Scheduled release dates
- Submissions can be queued for a specific date and time, which matters for embargoed news or coordinating with an event.
- Prorated refund window
- Refunds are available within 60 days of purchase if less than a quarter of the credits have been used, prorated against the remainder.
Reporting and journalist access
What you can show afterwards, and the outreach tooling that sits beside the wire.- Distribution reports
- A per-release report listing publishing outlets, syndication points, and view and referral counts, delivered as the pickup accumulates rather than all at once.
- ChatGPT visibility in reports
- Since 2025 the report includes whether ChatGPT surfaces or summarizes the release, the company's answer to buyers asking whether wire copy reaches AI systems.
- World Media Directory
- A human-curated directory of journalists and editorial desks filtered by country, US state, and industry, for direct pitching outside the automated push.
- Hosted newsroom page
- Every release gets a permanent page under your organization's newsroom on the EIN domain, which doubles as a linkable archive of company news.
- Muck Rack and Crunchbase feeds
- Releases flow into Muck Rack, where journalists monitor topics, and into Crunchbase, which is how a funding announcement ends up on a company profile.
- Sample report before purchase
- A published sample distribution report lets you see the format and depth of the deliverable before spending a credit on it.
Use cases
4 documentedFounder of a seed-stage B2B startup announcing a funding round
The round closes, the investor wants an announcement, and there is no PR agency and no journalist relationships to draw on.
A single $149 Basic release targeted at the technology newswire lands on AP News, a set of affiliate sites, and Crunchbase; the founder has a citable page for the website footer, the investor update, and every subsequent 'as featured in' claim, delivered the same week.
Marketing agency handling PR for several local service businesses
Five clients each want two or three announcements a year, and none of them can justify a monthly PR software subscription.
The agency buys a Corporate package of 15 releases at $999 and draws down against it across the client roster over twelve months, billing each announcement through at a margin and attaching the distribution report as the deliverable.
Nonprofit communications lead promoting an annual event
The event needs regional awareness on a budget that will not stretch to a traditional wire, and the local paper ignores emailed pitches.
A geographically targeted release reaches local affiliate news sites and the state newswire, while the World Media Directory supplies named regional reporters for a short follow-up pitch that the wire push has already warmed up.
Ecommerce brand manager trying to influence what AI assistants say about the brand
Buyers increasingly ask ChatGPT and Gemini about product categories, and the brand does not appear in those answers.
A cadence of factual releases about launches and partnerships puts structured, dated, third-party-hosted claims about the brand into widely crawled news properties, and the distribution report shows whether ChatGPT has begun surfacing them, which is a measurable signal rather than a promise.
Pricing
from $149 for a single press release (Basic)Pay per release, sold as prepaid credit packages rather than a subscription. There is no platform fee, no per-seat charge, and no contract; credits expire 365 days after purchase. Higher packages lower the effective per-release cost and also raise the limits on word count, images, country targets, and industry targets.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $149 per single press release |
The entry point and the right way to test whether wire distribution does anything for your category before committing to a package. |
| Pro+ | $499 for 5 releases (about $83 each, with promotional bonus releases at times) |
EIN runs recurring promotions that add free releases to this bundle, which is where the advertised per-release cost drops below the list figure. |
| Corporate | $999 for 15 releases (about $67 each) |
Sized for agencies and companies with a genuine monthly news cadence; a company with three announcements a year will waste credits here. |
Billing notes
- Credits expire 365 days after purchase, so a package bought for one campaign must be spent within the year or lost.
- Refunds are available within 60 days of purchase if less than 25 percent of credits have been used, prorated against the unused remainder.
- Pricing was restructured upward in 2026; older reviews citing a $99 single release and six-release Basic bundles at $295 describe a legacy tier set that no longer applies.
- Promotional bundles, particularly around year end, add bonus releases to the Pro+ package, so the effective price depends on when you buy.
- Word count, image count, and targeting breadth are gated by package, so the cheapest tier is also the most constrained release, not just the smallest quantity.
Value assessment: Against the traditional wires this remains the cheap end of the market: a single Basic release costs a fraction of a comparable PR Newswire or Business Wire distribution, and the Corporate package brings the per-release figure to roughly what a freelancer charges to write one. Against the media-relations software in this category the comparison is not like for like, because you are buying distribution events rather than a database and a workflow. The value judgment turns on what you actually want. If you need a credible, indexed, third-party record of your news and a report to show for it, the economics are good. If you want a journalist to write an original story, the money is better spent on Muck Rack, Qwoted, or a person who can pitch.
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Genuinely low barrier to entry: no subscription, no contract, no seats, and a single release costs $149.
- Recognizable placements, particularly AP News and network affiliate sites, which carry disproportionate weight in a client report or an investor update.
- Human editorial review keeps obvious spam out of the network, which is part of why the partner list has held together.
- Fifty-plus industry newswires plus country and state channels give a small company reasonable control over who the release is aimed at.
- Credits valid for a year fit the irregular news cadence of a small business better than a monthly platform fee.
- Distribution reports are concrete and now include ChatGPT visibility, which is a more useful signal than raw impression estimates.
- The World Media Directory adds a direct-pitch capability that most pure distribution wires do not include.
Limitations
- Every link in the network is nofollow, so buying releases as an SEO backlink strategy does not work and has not for years.
- Google's 2023 and 2024 updates specifically devalued thin syndicated content, which reduced the organic search benefit of wire copy across the whole category.
- Distribution is guaranteed, editorial pickup is not, and much of the visible 'coverage' is automated syndication rather than a journalist choosing your story.
- A meaningful share of the network consists of low-traffic aggregator and affiliate pages, so the count of publishing outlets in a report overstates the reach a human being actually saw.
- The composing interface and editor have changed little over the years and restrict formatting compared with modern newsroom tools.
- New-account verification takes up to two business days, which can miss a same-week embargo if you have not signed up in advance.
- There is no free plan and no trial, so evaluating the service means spending $149 to see what happens.
- Word limits are tied to package, so a detailed technical announcement on the Basic tier gets cut to 700 words.
Head-to-head comparisons
6 alternativesEIN Presswire vs PRWeb
from $120 per release (Basic)The closest direct comparison and the decision most buyers actually face. Both sell pay-per-release distribution to small companies at a fraction of the traditional wire price. PRWeb sits inside Cision's ecosystem and leans on that network, while EIN Presswire runs its own news properties and Affinity Group publications alongside partner feeds, and includes the World Media Directory for direct pitching. Prices for a single release are in the same range. Check which one lists the industry newswires and geographic channels closest to your audience, because that specific match matters more than the brand.
Full EIN Presswire vs PRWeb comparisonEIN Presswire vs Muck Rack
from Quote only; reported entry points around $5,000 per year for a single-seat Starter license, with most teams reported near $10,000 per yearDifferent products that get shopped together because both sit under the PR budget. Muck Rack is a journalist database and pitching platform: you find the right reporter, pitch them individually, and track whether they wrote anything. EIN Presswire is a distribution event: you publish once and it appears in many places. Muck Rack is the better spend if you want original coverage and you have someone to do the pitching; EIN Presswire is the better spend if you need a credible published record of an announcement without a person dedicated to media relations. Notably, EIN releases feed into Muck Rack, so the two are not mutually exclusive.
Full EIN Presswire vs Muck Rack comparisonEIN Presswire vs Prowly
from $149 per month for the Semrush AI PR Toolkit Base plan; legacy Prowly Basic was around $258 per month billed annuallyProwly is PR software: a media database, a pitch email tool, an online newsroom you host, and reporting on your outreach, sold as a monthly subscription. EIN Presswire is a per-release purchase with no ongoing cost. A team running continuous media relations will get more out of Prowly's workflow; a company with four announcements a year will find a subscription hard to justify and should buy releases instead. Teams that want both often use Prowly for the relationship work and buy occasional EIN releases when they need syndication breadth.
Full EIN Presswire vs Prowly comparisonEIN Presswire vs Qwoted
from Free (Basic, 2 pitches per month); Pro listed at $149 per monthQwoted works the opposite direction: journalists post what they are writing about and sources respond, so coverage comes from answering an existing request rather than announcing your own news. That produces genuine editorial mentions but only when a reporter happens to need your expertise. EIN Presswire produces guaranteed publication of your own announcement with no editorial judgment involved. Most small companies benefit from running both, since they cover the two distinct cases of having news and having expertise.
Full EIN Presswire vs Qwoted comparisonEIN Presswire vs SparkToro
from $0 (Free), then $50 per month (Personal)Not a competitor, but the tool that should inform whether a wire purchase makes sense at all. SparkToro tells you which publications, podcasts, and social accounts your actual audience pays attention to. If none of them are in a newswire network, blanket distribution is the wrong instrument and a short targeted pitch list is the right one. Buyers who research first tend to spend less on wire distribution and get more from it.
Full EIN Presswire vs SparkToro comparisonEIN Presswire vs Semrush
from $139 per month (SEO plan, monthly billing) or $117.33 per month billed annuallyRelevant because so many buyers still purchase press releases expecting link equity. Semrush will show you exactly what a distributed release produced: nofollow links, syndicated duplicates, and usually no measurable change in referring domain authority. Treat EIN Presswire as a visibility and credibility purchase, use Semrush to verify that framing honestly, and put the SEO budget into content and genuine editorial links instead.
Full EIN Presswire vs Semrush comparisonImplementation & onboarding
- Setup time
- Account creation is immediate but the one-time verification can take up to two business days, so allow a week between signing up and a first deadline. Once verified, a release goes from submission to distribution in roughly two hours during business hours.
- Learning curve
- Very low as software. The real skill is writing a release that survives editorial review and gives a reporter something to work with: a factual headline, a lead that carries the news, a quote that says something, and no promotional adjectives. Most first submissions get returned for the last of those.
- Onboarding
- Fully self-serve. There is documentation, a published editorial guideline set, and a sample distribution report, plus email and phone support during business hours. Nothing about the product requires an implementation project.
- Migration notes
- There is little to migrate. Previously published releases stay on the network of whichever wire distributed them and cannot be moved. If you are switching from another wire, spend or refund remaining credits first, since both this service and its competitors expire prepaid credits. Your own newsroom archive should be rebuilt on your own domain regardless of which wire you use, so you are not renting your news history.
Platform, API & security
- Platforms
- Web applicationHosted newsroom pagesEmail delivery to journalist contactsMobile news apps operated by the parent company
- API
- No public self-serve API is published for release submission; the product is used through the web interface. Enterprise and high-volume feed arrangements are handled directly with the company.
- Compliance
- GDPR (EU customers and contacts)CCPAEditorial guidelines enforced by human review
- Data residency
- Operated from the United States by Newsmatics Inc., with staff in Washington DC, Europe, and Asia.
- SSO
- Not published for standard accounts.
- Security notes
- Press releases are public documents by definition, so the sensitive material is limited to account and payment data. The one genuine control worth understanding is editorial: submissions are reviewed by a moderator, and content that violates the guidelines is rejected rather than distributed, which is what keeps the partner network willing to carry the feed.
Support & resources
- Channels
- Email supportPhone support during US business hoursHelp center and FAQPublished editorial guidelines
- Documentation
- Practical documentation covering submission rules, distribution destinations, and report interpretation, with a sample distribution report available publicly before purchase.
- Community
- No user community as such. The company publishes a Substack newsletter covering distribution changes and PR practice, which is the main channel for product news.
Company
- Founded
- 1995
- Headquarters
- Washington, DC, United States
- Ownership
- Operating division of Newsmatics Inc., an independent privately held US company (formerly IPD Group)
- Founders
- David Rothstein, Gina Fratto
- Employees
- Not disclosed; a distributed team with staff in Washington DC, Europe, and Asia
- Funding
- No disclosed venture funding; privately held and self-funded across a thirty-year operating history.
Timeline
- 1995David Rothstein and Gina Fratto launch EIN News, an online news operation covering Central and Eastern Europe, the foundation the presswire is later built on.
- 1997Coverage expands to Asia and beyond, establishing the multi-country newswire structure still used for targeting today.
- 2000sThe press release distribution service is commercialized as EIN Presswire, short for Everyone's Internet News Presswire, positioned well below traditional wire pricing.
- 2021Parent company IPD Group rebrands to Newsmatics Inc., grouping EIN Presswire with Affinity Group Publishing, the Newsmatics News Index, and other news data products.
- 2025ChatGPT results are added to distribution reports, and the company begins positioning wire distribution explicitly as a way to reach large language models.
- 2025The company marks thirty years of operation and expands its distribution partnerships across local television and network groups.
- 2026Pricing is restructured to three packages (Basic at $149, Pro+ at $499, Corporate at $999), replacing the older six-tier bundle set.
Integrations
- AP News
- USA TODAY Network
- Nexstar Media
- Google News
- Bloomberg Terminals
- Moody's NewsEdge
- Muck Rack
- Crunchbase
- MENAFN
- Affinity Group Publications
- NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and CW affiliate sites
- Yahoo and Bing news surfaces
Frequently asked questions
12 questionsHow much does EIN Presswire cost?
A single press release on the Basic package is $149. Pro+ is $499 for five releases, about $83 each, and Corporate is $999 for fifteen releases, about $67 each. There is no subscription and no platform fee; you buy credits and they stay valid for 365 days. Older reviews quoting $99 for a single release describe pricing that was replaced in 2026.
Is there a free trial or free plan?
No. There is no free tier and no trial, so evaluating the service means buying at least one Basic release. There is a refund policy instead: within 60 days of purchase, if you have used less than a quarter of your credits, the remainder can be refunded prorated.
Does EIN Presswire actually get you on AP News?
Yes, AP News is a genuine destination in the network and releases do appear there. It is important to understand what that means: it is a syndicated press release page on the AP News site, not an Associated Press reporter writing a story about you. It is real and citable, and it is not editorial coverage.
Are EIN Presswire links good for SEO?
No. Every link the service distributes carries the nofollow attribute, which the company applies to comply with Google News requirements. Beyond that, Google's 2023 helpful content and spam updates and subsequent core updates specifically devalued thin syndicated content. Buy wire distribution for visibility, credibility, and a citable record, not for link equity.
How long does it take for a release to go out?
About two hours from submission to distribution during business hours, after editorial review. The exception is your first release: new accounts go through a one-time verification that can take up to two business days, so sign up well before a deadline rather than on the day.
Will a journalist actually cover my press release?
Maybe, and the company does not promise it. EIN guarantees distribution through its network and gateway services but states explicitly that it does not guarantee media will use your release. Pickup happens most often on industry newswires where beat reporters monitor a specific subject, which is why the industry targeting choice matters more than the geographic one for most companies.
EIN Presswire vs PRWeb: which is better for a small business?
They are close substitutes at a similar price point for a single release. PRWeb runs inside Cision's ecosystem; EIN Presswire runs its own news properties and Affinity Group publications and includes the World Media Directory for direct journalist outreach. Compare the specific industry newswires and country channels each one lists against your audience, since that match matters more than the brand name.
What is the World Media Directory?
A human-curated database of journalists and editorial desks, filterable by country, US state, and industry, included with an EIN Presswire account. It is the part of the product that supports direct pitching rather than automated syndication, and it is why the service overlaps slightly with dedicated media databases like Muck Rack and Prowly.
Do press releases help you show up in ChatGPT and other AI tools?
There is a plausible mechanism and some evidence, not a guarantee. Wire releases produce dated, factual, third-party-hosted pages on widely crawled news domains, which is the kind of source AI systems draw on. EIN Presswire added ChatGPT results to its distribution reports in 2025 so customers can see whether their specific release is being surfaced, which is more useful than a vendor claim.
Who owns EIN Presswire?
Newsmatics Inc., a privately held news technology company based in Washington, DC, formerly named IPD Group. It was founded in 1995 by David Rothstein and Gina Fratto, who started with the EIN News online news operation. EIN Presswire is one of several products alongside Affinity Group Publishing and the Newsmatics News Index.
How long is a press release allowed to be?
It depends on your package: 700 words on Basic, 1,000 words on Pro+, and 2,500 words on Corporate. Image allowances are similarly tiered at one, three, and five, with one embedded video on every package. A technical or detailed announcement can hit the Basic limit uncomfortably fast.
Can I get a refund if I do not use my releases?
Within 60 days of purchase, and only if you have used less than 25 percent of the credits, the unused portion can be refunded on a prorated basis. Outside that window credits simply expire 365 days after purchase, so buy the package size that matches your realistic news cadence rather than the best headline per-release rate.
Editorial verdict
EIN Presswire is one of the few things in the PR category a small business can buy outright: $149, no subscription, a release published across a network that includes names a client or an investor recognizes, and a report proving where it went. That is a real and honestly priced product, and the human editorial review is a large part of why the network still carries weight. Be clear-eyed about what it is not. The links are nofollow and always have been, the search value of syndicated release copy has fallen sharply since 2023, much of the outlet count in a distribution report is automated republication rather than a person reading your story, and nothing here obliges a journalist to write anything. Buy it when you have genuine news and need it published, indexed, and citable. If what you actually want is coverage, spend the money on Muck Rack, Qwoted, or a person who can pitch, and treat the wire as the record rather than the campaign.
Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.