Bad Product Review - RushPRNews

Ned Barnett - (c) 2009

I placed a release last night with RushPRNews, hoping to find a lower-cost way of getting IR-related news out (in compliance with SEC regs). My results were so disappointing that I had to re-release it on BusinessWire (which got immediate results).

Concerned that I wasn’t seeing the release anywhere (neither was my client) I spoke to their head honcho, Anne Howard, and found out this:

A posting on RushPRNews’ website (http://www.rushprnews.com), because it gets searched (if you do a Google News search), counts. Ditto for Yahoo News, MSN News, etc. In short, it’s not republished on their site – but if you go to Google search (or Yahoo search, or MSN search), you’ll find it. That is considered "placement" on MSN News, Yahoo! News and other sites.

If you read the fine print - and do so while already understanding what they’re really saying - then you’ll see that this is all they’re promising:

“Online Publishing: Google News, MSN News, Yahoo! News, Twitter, Technoratti, Zimbio, RPRN Front Page, RPRN Media Network, & more”

However, if you don’t have that going-in understanding, you might be justified in thinking (or assuming - always dangerous) that your release would be republished on MSN and Yahoo the way it is when BizWire or PRNewswire releases it. Having seen how little is actually covered by this release (online), I don’t know if this RushPRNews placement qualifies for SEC RegFD compliance, but I kind of doubt it.

If you look at their name, RushPRNews, you might be forgiven for thinking that this service is fast – you know, as in “Rush.” In that, you’d be mistaken. Again, if you read the fine print carefully, you’ll see that they allow themselves 24 hours to place your release (I bought a statewide distribution in Florida, as well as the Basic package of online publishing) – and they take this seriously. I assumed (again) that this is just to protect them against a tech-glitch, but again I was wrong. In this day of instant Internet and email distribution, I’m not sure why they take 24 hours, but they do.

So I kissed $80 down the drain, and the results are so bad that I’m not going to bill my client. I’m eating that $80. Fortunately, I just won MegaBucks, so I can afford to piss away $80. If you can afford to piss away money on press coverage, be sure to check out RushPRNews. Ask for Anne Howard, and be sure to tell her that a satisfied one-time-only client sent you.


Notice: No animals were injured during the placing of this client press release. Which is more than I can say for my bank account.