NEW YORK: PR Newswire (PRN) has expanded beyond its core electronic
distribution service by acquiring internet monitoring service eWatch
from WAVO Corporation.
’Not only will we be distributing the news, but we’ll be able to report
back to customers what’s being said about them,’ said PRN’s global
marketing vice-president, John Macleod Williams.
While eWatch will initially be run as a stand-alone business unit,
Macleod Williams said it will eventually come under PRN’s global
monitoring and measurement division.
Joint eWatch and PRN clients reacted with enthusiasm to the news. ’It’s
a natural pairing in terms of co-ordinating the front-end distribution
and the back-end monitoring,’ said Jon Austin, managing director of
corporate communications at Northwest Airlines.
But many eWatch clients work with PRN’s key rival Business Wire, which
could create problems between the two wire services. Macleod Williams
said the issue had not yet been addressed, although PRN may allow eWatch
clients to use their incumbent distribution service.
Edited by Gidon Freeman.
