PR Squared: Fishing for New Options for News Distribution?

IStock_000003218640XSmall The conundrum of facing up to “where conversations should happen” (as discussed last week) is particularly relevant for news releases, and specifically those releases published via the new, SEO-oriented newswires like PRX Releases (run by my friend Shannon Whitley) and the U.K.-based webitpr.

PRXReleases is an offshoot of PRXBuilder – a WYSIWYG way to auto-create Social Media News Releases, based on the original SHIFT template. According to Shannon,

“With PRX Releases, you automatically receive the following services:

· Optional comment tracking for each release. Engage your readers by allowing comments on your news releases.

· Social media badges for services like Digg, del.icio.us, and Newsvine.

· Full WYSIWYG editing of your HTML release with the ability to add content from services like YouTube and Veoh.”

Shannon goes on to describe the SEO benefits that come along with posting a news release to PRXReleases, and acknowledges the conundrum of “Where should conversations happen?”

“Yes, you’ll be directing traffic to PRX Releases instead of your own site, but think about this: Is your primary goal to get people to see your release? If your site is new or isn’t well-indexed, the chances of your release being found is very small.”

PRXBuilder also offers the option of issuing releases directly through PRNewswire, for those companies straddling the “2.0” & “traditionalist” fence.

Webitpr’s new service (check out their first release – it’s a good-looking way to highlight some very good news) is also based on the SHIFT template, according to their boilerplate. Webitpr will give its clients the option of hosting on either their own domain or at the client’s site, and also provides the option of turning-on & moderating comments from registered users.

I’ll write more about both of these vendors in the future, meanwhile, both are worth checking out.

UPDATE: webitpr just posted more info on their SMNR.