Does BusinessWire get RSS?

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Judy Gombita reports that BusinessWire, the venerable news release distribution service, has embraced RSS. She sent along a message journalist Chris Edwards posted to a UK listserv that notes BW “has kicked off a service that actually looks workable. Its RSS feeds are customised for each journalist that has a Businesswire login. I’ve added it to the Safari toolbar to see if it’s more usable than the daily email listing.”

Edwards also says that PR Newsire is farther behind, offering only a feed that includes everything, including the kitchen sink, “so you get disposable nappy, flavoured baked bean and toothbrush announcements mixed in with the technology and anything you might actually be bothered about. They haven’t even subdivided the feed by beat.”

Thanks for sharing, Judy!

1. She’s simply incorrect. PR Newswire offers completely individualized feeds by content category.
   This is quite easy to see by going to http://www.prnewswire.com and going to the “Today’s News” section and then selecting by Industry. Even deeper, they can customize a feed by company, geography, etc. How do I know this? Because we’re customizing the RSS feeds for display into the PR Newswire Mediarooms.
   Judy might want to get her facts straight.

   Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  06/28  at  12:05 PM

2. It wasn’t Judy—she was just quoting Chris, a reporter, from a listserv. He’s in the UK; is it different there?

   Posted by Shel Holtz  on  06/28  at  01:47 PM

3. No...it’s the same there. Sorry to hack on Judy...she was just relaying the snarky message from Chris. HE should get his facts straight. PRN has been all about RSS for about 18 months now.

   Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  06/28  at  01:49 PM

4. PR Newswire may have an excellent system set up for customizing RSS feeds, but I just spent half an hour on their site and the best I could manage was to subscribe to their RSS feed that publishes ALL news releases.

   I was able to create a customized profile that narrows the selection of releases I see, but it wasn’t obvious to me how you then get an RSS feed of that customized profile.

   Posted by Eric Eggertson  on  06/28  at  05:37 PM

5. Shel,
   you’re right...I apologize. Part of what I was discussing in my initial comment is the customized news feeds available only to member journalists through PRNJ or PR Newswire for Journalists, which is accessed by registered members via username and password. Sorry I wasn’t more clear. The public site does not offer that level of customization.

   Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  06/28  at  05:51 PM

6. Sorry I meant to respond to Eric. I’ve written about three chapters worth today and I’m a little brain-dead. Eric, I could certainly show you offline if you’re interested in seeing it through the PRNJ interface.

   Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  06/28  at  05:55 PM

7. Sure, Dee. I’m at eggertson at gmail dot com

   I actually WAS in the PRNJ section, I just couldn’t figure out how to get what I wanted out of it.

   Or IM me at textwrap at gmail dot com

   Posted by Eric Eggertson  on  06/28  at  06:57 PM

8. Thanks for the “exposure” Shel (I think). As it happens I’m a relatively newbie to that listserv and have been lurking to date (although I did contact another member directly yesterday, to inquire further about the mediawomen’s listserv she referenced).

   Anyhow, I felt obligated to contact Chris Edwards this morning and tell him how his post went out to a wider audience. I’ve invited him to pay a visit to your blog, as well as (possibly) comment. Let’s hope he does; in my short time on this listserv I’ve found Chris Edwards to be incredibly generous in sharing information and opinions. And I don’t find him or the others “snarky;” however, I do very much enjoy the wonderful British sense of humour and camaraderie that is often very evident. (When you find yourself frequently laughing at a computer screen you know you’re on to a good thing.)

   Posted by Judy Gombita  on  06/29  at  03:33 AM

9. Hi, I’m the person who posted the comments about RSS in the first place*.

   I should put the comments into some sort of context as it was a follow-up to a thread about the usefulness of XML and RSS for disseminating PRs from a hack’s point of view. I should also point out that I am sceptical about RSS for this purpose because from what I have seen of the underlying protocol, it relies on PRs or PR distribution sites pre-selecting for the journalist what they should see rather than providing a ready means at my end for filtering the stuff pouring from the PR firehose.

   On the other hand, if BW, PRNJ and a bunch of the other news services allow personalisation of the RSS feeds, then Safari 2 could make for a more useful way of aggregating and browsing that stuff than piling through emails in Entourage every few hours. So, I’m willing to try it. However, I feel that RSS aggregators have some way to go before they become more useful than the email bulletins for this particular use.

   The Businesswire service is the one I came across first and purely by accident. I’m a subscriber to both Businesswire and PRNJ and only found the BW RSS stuff while using the site rather than waiting for the next email dump. I then went to PRNJ to see what they were up to and, found an announcement on the PRNJ home page, only to find that Safari choked on the XML/RSS link if I tried to click it. And then that worked, it turned out to be for the whole PRN feed. I had a look around to see if there was a more personalised version on the My PRN pages, but nothing about RSS there.

   I agree that PRNJ does filter material for me on the My PRN page and through the email bulletins, but as far as I aware PRNJ does not currently do that in RSS form. If someone does know a link for getting personalised RSS from PRNJ, then feel free to point me to it. I might drop PRN an email to see if they are working on this. I can’t imagine they aren’t to be honest, but they may have felt rushed by BW’s move into pushing RSS before their software was ready for primetime (that is pure speculation BTW).

   And I’ve now learned what snarky means.

   Posted by Chris Edwards  on  06/29  at  04:26 AM

10. “Snarky” is actually a bit of an underhanded compliment. I borrow from Urban Dictionary here:
    snarky
    “(adjective) describes a witty mannerism, personality, or behavior that is a combination of sarcasm and cynicism. Usually accepted as a complimentary term. Snark is sometimes mistaken for a snotty or arrogant attitude.
    Her snarky remarks had half the room on the floor laughing and the other half ready to walk out.”

    I am a big fan of British humor as well. Eric and Chris, I’ll be in touch regarding “how to.” Judy...sorry for my knee-jerk response…

    Cheers all!

    Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  06/29  at  04:56 AM

11. Quieter-knee Dee, I am happy to accept your apology if you agree that, in future, you will always indicate that you are “a big fan of British humoUr.” Those cultural sensitivities are important, eh?

    (I don’t know about Chris, but I remain unconvinced that a “combination of sarcasm and cynicism” can be taken as a compliment, backhand or otherwise. But I give you points for trying.)

    Cheers indeed!

    Posted by Judy Gombita  on  06/29  at  05:17 AM

12. A combination of sarcasm and cynicism could well be regarded as a compliment by British hacks (including me).

    Posted by Chris Edwards  on  06/29  at  05:28 AM

13. Hi.  This conversation was brought to my attention so I just want to clarify a few things for Chris and others.  PR Newswire was the first major newswire to create RSS feeds on our public website and our media-only website, PR Newswire for Journalists.  As of today, we are currently offering full feeds of all of our members’ news releases via RSS.  Later this year we will be offering a number of categorized RSS feeds on our web sites. It is our practice to implement new technologies and distribution methods in phases.  RSS is no different.  By implementing it in phases we are able to test our systems and work directly with our end-users to make sure that we are offering them what they need.  And we’ll be able to make strategic enhancements to these feeds in the future with the confidence that our systems have been fully tested.  Currently, the majority of our PRNJ users prefer to receive news releases via email.  So, until the new categorized feeds are launched, those reporters who prefer to access these news releases via RSS from PRNJ can categorize the content through their own RSS readers. 

    In order to make our new categorized RSS feeds most effective for the end-user, we have invited journalists to help us test them, so if anyone is interested in participating in this beta test, please email me directly.  I hope this helps clarify where we stand with RSS.

    Posted by Rachel Meranus  on  06/30  at  06:33 AM

14. Rachel, I can’t tell you how glad I am you dropped in! Thanks for the clarification, and for the offer. I think it says something about blogs that this discussion led to your participation. The original listserv posting probably would not have generated the same level of involvement from official PR Newswire sources that one insigifnicant blog produced. Thanks again…

    Posted by Shel Holtz  on  06/30  at  04:30 PM

15. Glad I could help!

    Posted by Rachel Meranus  on  07/01  at  09:18 AM

16. I’m glad that Dee jumped in to defend PRN, but I would like to have read a little bit of transparency there - he does have a very close relationship to PRN because his company is the engine behind Mediaroom.

    And, while at IABC, they did offer to set me up on PRNJ because of my blog. I’m supposed to call my local representative up.

    Posted by Jeremy Pepper  on  07/01  at  11:39 AM

17. JP,
    I’m as transparent as Saran Wrap. If you read our DVCO Technology website or my blog, you’ll see that we’re very open about our relationship with PRN...I talk about it quite often. Also, much like the CCBN/Thomson arrangement, most of the PR Newswire clients are well aware that their MediaRoom is a vended product.
    Cheers!

    Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  07/01  at  11:42 AM

18. Oh, Dee, I’m well aware of the product and the relationship - I was the first person to get it demo’ed for me by my PRN representative, and then had a bunch of questions.

    But, people on Shel’s blog might not - actually likely don’t - know that about PRN and DVCO.

    Posted by Jeremy Pepper  on  07/03  at  05:56 PM

19. C’mon JP. Anyone reading Shel’s blog is way ahead of the curve. It’s not like we’re speaking to newbies here as much as we’re striving for that reach. 

    This is all good and I look forward to the chance to demo the product for you...from the source. Maybe prior to PR Blogweek we can connect live.

    Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  07/03  at  06:42 PM

20. Interesting post. I commented on the same issue in April (http://tinyurl.com/dyflq). Despite what Rachel says the fact is that right of now (21:24 on 5 July) that PR Newswire does NOT offer public RSS feeds on its site. Or if it does they are so well hidden that I can’t find them. The whole point of RSS is to make it simple. In the UK at least PR Newswire does not do that.

    Posted by Stuart Bruce  on  07/05  at  11:21 AM

21. Uhhh...have you tried clicking on the “Today’s News” button in the top level navigation of http://www.prnewswire.com?

    Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  07/05  at  11:40 AM

22. I’m in the UK and on prnewswire.co.uk I can’t see anything under Today’s News. In your earlier post you said that the UK was the same as the US.

    Posted by Stuart Bruce  on  07/05  at  12:06 PM

23. You can access our public site RSS feed through ‘Today’s News’ as Dee indicated and you can also access it through the home page by scrolling down a bit.  It has been there for about a year and a half.  It’s my understanding that incorporating RSS on the .co.uk site is part of our future implementation of the categorized feeds that I mentioned earlier.  If I find out differently, I will let you all know.

    Posted by Rachel Meranus  on  07/05  at  12:09 PM

24. You’re right. I’m wrong. I was talking about the US site. My apologies.

    Posted by Dee Rambeau  on  07/05  at  12:09 PM

25. Business Wire has actually had feeds for quite a while, with the specific RSS feeds based on each registered user as of mid-February.

    PRN was indeed, I believe, first to use RSS feeds, but they are still more general and aren’t as friendly as what I have found on the Business Wire site. As for anything of late on PRN, I haven’t been able to access it because they don’t consider my efforts on AdJab.com or themediadrop.com anything having to do with journalism, even though I do original stories and interviews =). But you can’t say I didn’t try to get access to their backend system.

    Posted by Tom  on  07/05  at  06:25 PM

26. Hello again.  I am extremely pleased to announce that PR Newswire has just launched our categorized RSS feeds.  You can sign up for more than 125 English-language categorized feeds on http://www.prnewswire.com/rss; or, if you are a journalist, you can log on to our free media site, PR Newswire for Journalists, http://www.prnewswire.com/media, and sign up for all of the English language feeds, as well as feeds of Spanish, German and French language releases. In total we are offering more than 500 feeds in multiple languages to the media (to access the Spanish, French or German RSS feeds, go to the home pages of each language from PR Newswire for Journalists’ home page).

    Posted by Rachel Meranus  on  09/22  at  06:27 AM