Business Wire Pricing 2024: Costs & Plans Broken Down
Our guide to Business Wire's pricing and the best (cheaper) alternatives.
Want to try Business Wire, but struggling to find their pricing? Business Wire won’t give you a final quote until you complete their sales process (which can be pretty time consuming).
Luckily, we’ve dug up all the pricing info we could find on Business Wire, from their base costs to add-on fees, and put it into an easy-to-follow pricing guide. If that’s not enough, we’ve also tossed in some cheaper alternatives worth checking out.
Ready to uncover the secrets behind Business Wire’s pricing? Let’s get into it.
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Business Wire’s pricing is based on three factors: word count, multimedia attachments, and amplification (more on this below).
Let’s explore each factor for a release distributed nationally in the US:
- Word Count: For a 400-word press release, the base cost is $760. After this, for every additional 100 words, it costs $195.
- Multimedia Attachments: For your first multimedia attachment (image, video, pdf, etc.), it’ll cost $425. From there, each additional attachment is $225. Adding your logo comes at no cost.
- Amplification Add-On: Business Wire offers a single add-on to give your release amplified visibility, engagement, analytics and measurement. This all comes at a single fee of $95.
Here are all of these pricing factors laid out in a simple table:
Pricing | Cost |
400-word press release (base price) | $760 |
Each additional 100 words | $195 |
First multimedia attachment | $425 |
Each additional attachment | $225 |
Amplified visibility, engagement, analytics and measurement | $95 |
Disclaimer: This information is based on extensive research, though may not be 100% accurate. For the most up-to-date Business Wire pricing info, contact their sales team.
Considering these pricing factors, let's look at an example of how much you could pay for a 1,000-word press release with two attachments and amplification:
- 400 words: $760
- 600 extra words (6 x $195): $1,170
- First multimedia attachment: $425
- Additional attachment: $225
- Amplification add-on: $95
- Total cost: $2,675
TL;DR: Not cheap.
So, before shelling out nearly $3k on distributing a single press release, the next logical question would be: is it worth it?
In our eyes, no. For two reasons: 1) wire services don’t really work anymore, and 2) if you must use a wire service, there are cheaper alternatives to choose from.
Let’s talk about each reason.
If you weren’t already aware, the general consensus among PR pros is that wire services (like Business Wire) don’t work for actually earning media coverage.
Nowadays, they’re only really effective for telling executives that your story’s been “covered” by all the big names.
So, what does work then?
The answer is simple: media outreach. While not as easy as paying for a wire service to distribute your release, targeted media outreach is the only way you can regularly earn real, authentic media coverage.
Want to give it a shot? Here’s how to send a PR outreach campaign:
1. Go to Prezly’s Campaign tool (free trial available)
2. Write your pitch email (don’t forget to personalize it with dynamic tags)
3. Select your contacts & send
4. Bonus: publish the story you’re pitching in your very own online newsroom with our Story Tool, then attach it your pitch for deeper engagement.
Once you’ve sent your campaign, you’ll have real-time insights on who’s opened your email and read your stories. If anyone’s decided to cover your story, add it to the coverage tracker.
Recommended reading: Creating Campaigns
All of this can be done in minutes, while trying out Prezly’s 14-day free trial (no credit card required). If you decide to sign up from there, pricing starts as low as $90/month. That’s less than 5% the cost of sending a 1,000-word, 2 attachment press release with Business Wire.
Pitch journalists right now with a 14-day free trial
- Identify your most engaged contacts with our PR CRM
- Send personalized email pitches and campaigns
- Publish your press releases in a professional newsroom
Have some executives to impress and still want to use a wire service? No worries, here are the low-cost alternatives we recommend.
- EIN Presswire: Starts at $99 per release; comes with SEO services, but only 5 distribution channels per release
- eReleases: Starts at $399 per release; offers custom national distribution (and is the only wire service aside from PR Newswire that does)
- 24-7 Press Release: Starts at $29 per release; cheap, but only focuses on small markets
- PR Underground: Starts at $75 per release; cheap, but struggles to support large media files
- ACCESSWIRE: Starts at $175 per release; comes with unlimited multimedia attachments and word counts
Disclaimer: For more detailed pricing info, we recommend contacting each company.
Again, before investing in any of these, try earning real coverage by doing your own PR outreach first. It’s the best way to get actual results from your PR distribution work.
With our 14-day free trial, there’s no risk (and plenty of upside) in giving it a shot.
Prezly – software for modern PR teams
Write & publish brand stories in an online newsroom
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Measure performance with analytics & built-in media monitoring
Want to know more? Read about how Prezly, and general PR outreach, compare to Wire Services.