Newswire vs. Critical Mention

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Newswire
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
ACCESS Newswire is a press release distribution platform that helps clients increase their online visibility and web presence. It provides premier syndication to leading news outlets. The solution aims to empower clients with a variety of solutions to suit any budget.
$299
per month
Critical Mention
Score 5.4 out of 10
N/A
Critical Mention headquartered in New York offers their eponymous media monitoring platform for public relations and crisis management.N/A
Pricing
NewswireCritical Mention
Editions & Modules
Newswire Digital
$299
single PR
Newswire Digital Plus
$549
single PR
Newswire State
$599
single PR
Newswire National
$799
single PR
Newswire Canada
$899
single PR
Newswire UK
$899
single PR
Newswire Financial
$899
single PR
Newswire Asia
$1,299
single PR
Newswire Latin America
$1,299
single PR
Newswire Global
$1,999
single PR
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
NewswireCritical Mention
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsBulk discounts available
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
NewswireCritical Mention
Considered Both Products
Newswire
Critical Mention

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
NewswireCritical Mention
Small Businesses
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
Cision Communications Cloud
Cision Communications Cloud
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
NewswireCritical Mention
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(106 ratings)
1.8
(21 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(8 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(106 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
NewswireCritical Mention
Likelihood to Recommend
Issuer Direct Corporation
As a general rule, press releases announcing an event are more effective than product or corporate business deals press releases. This may be because events are people-centered and tend to be one of a kind. The interest in a new product, unless it is an upgrade to an existing product line or service, attracts little attention. There are exceptions; if, for example, there is an outbreak of some pathogen and the company is working on a solution, then interest is higher. News has to be related to current concerns.
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Critical Mention
Critical Mention is great for schools/businesses/etc. that want to know when they are in the news. Sometimes a brand's reputation can suffer greatly if you are not aware of an issue that was posted by a competitor or media outlet If you are not in the news a lot, there is no need for this product.
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Pros
Issuer Direct Corporation
  • Communication via video calls and emails. They were responsive to any questions we had.
  • Provided all the information we needed to make the decision to move forward. They had the materials around what publications and news outlets they could get into for us.
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Critical Mention
  • Critical Mention's customer service is excellent. Any time we've had a challenge finding a clip or anything, they are on top of it and go above and beyond to make sure we have what we are looking for quickly.
  • The ability to create tailored clips of each mention and quickly share them is unparalleled.
  • The reporting feature is fantastic. It makes it very simple to pull detailed reports and share them with interested parties.
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Cons
Issuer Direct Corporation
  • The editorial process was always very hard on our sale releases. Even if we followed the same structure we used to with PR Wire they would flag it as advertorial.
  • The option for video is nice but would be better to actually embed it into a part of the release versus just floating at the bottom.
  • Would be interesting for them to share more industry-specific releases or give the option to only get emails on specific industries. The E-blasts are always too general.
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Critical Mention
  • I believe the one frustration I have with searching in general that if the closed captioning is not correct on the broadcast end Critical Mention will miss that data. Which is not a Critical Mention issue and does overcome depending on the search. Also, it would be great if you wanted to capture a complete 30 minutes newscast, it could be done by using the search. The clips need to be about to handle 30-minute programs.
  • One nagging issue when using Critical Mention is that it does not save e-mail addresses when sending a report and this requires a waste of time having to type in e-mails that should be able to be pulled from the customers' contacts.
  • Also, it would be great if you wanted to capture a complete 30 minutes newscast, it could be done by using the search. The clips need to be able to handle 30-minute programs.
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Likelihood to Renew
Issuer Direct Corporation
Newswire is simple to use and the pricing is fair. The company's network for press releases is not as large as some competitors but seems to have the best reach at a comparable price point. Newswire also offers quality support for customers, which can be hard to find in this space.
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Critical Mention
I gave this a 5 only because I do not make the decisions to renew. When I used this at my previous company, I also recommended to the decision maker to renew this tool as it was a crucial piece to the overall client objective
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Usability
Issuer Direct Corporation
Simple step-by-step process to get your news out to the world. Easy to understand process and explanation as you go through the steps. Each upgrade does have a charge, but it's pretty visible. Once you get familiar with their platform and systems, it becomes fairly easy to use to get your news published. It's also nice how quickly you are able to get the news out and published in the places you choose.
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Critical Mention
It's great for quickly looking up a specific clip, but this platform makes it difficult to select and accurately report on a high volume of clips
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Reliability and Availability
Issuer Direct Corporation
It was available for immediate use
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Critical Mention
No answers on this topic
Performance
Issuer Direct Corporation
It seemed to be okay overall an we plan on continuing to use it as we expand
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Critical Mention
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Issuer Direct Corporation
Any time I’ve had a question or needed assistance, I’ve been able to get in contact with a Newswire representative within a short amount of time. Their attention to customer satisfaction is impeccable, and they definitely go out of their way to ensure they can be of assistance to the best of their ability!
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Critical Mention
Look, Critical Mention follows up on an or phone call immediately or in the AM the following business day. I have called them after hours and get a live person to work through any issues that may have come up. Support seems to be job one with Critical Mention.
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Implementation Rating
Issuer Direct Corporation
It is a very simple product to get started using, particularly for press releases. I have no used the other functionality so I can't say for sure how easy or difficult that might be, but my guess is that the way the platform is built makes it easy for anybody to get started.
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Critical Mention
Critical Mention implementation was easy and fast. Their support and training were awesome.
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Alternatives Considered
Issuer Direct Corporation
Newswire hands-down beats these other platforms based on their unique price-to-feature-set ratio. We couldn't find a better value and user experience on any of these other platforms when we went through our discovery and evaluation process. All in all, we are very happy with the team and platform at Newswire.
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Critical Mention
Burrelles is confusing and outdated. Critical Mention works on the side of the account team and understands our needs better. I was able to share hundreds of outlets that I wanted to be included in my online search and Critical Mention added all of them in less than a day I was seeing better results in my searches. The possibilities with Burrelles seem limited while Critical Mention's online monitoring service really lets me craft reports the way I want to
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Issuer Direct Corporation
I did not purchase, I only purchased the per use newswire options
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Critical Mention
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Issuer Direct Corporation
I have not really used this software feature to the level to scale at this point
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Critical Mention
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Issuer Direct Corporation
I did not really use professional services other than the customer support did answer some questions from time to time
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Critical Mention
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Issuer Direct Corporation
  • In a new technology area, Newswire has helped us build brand recognition.
  • During the pressures put on Healthcare over the past COVID periods our presence in the Marketplace have been difficult to maintain. Newswire has been key in our efforts.
  • When medical imaging AI tools exploded on the scene three years ago, there were over 150 vendors at conferences. Those that didn't promote with tools like Newswire and now gone.
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Critical Mention
  • Every week the department I am a part does dozens of searches on Critical Mention. We use it as our primary search engine for all things broadcast.
  • One negative aspect is that we do not know where Critical Mention gets their audience viewing numbers from so we just have to take it as their word.
  • Another negative aspect is that we are limited on the amount of time that one clip can be so we have to share several clips of the same show with our clients.
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ScreenShots

Newswire Screenshots

Screenshot of Newswire DashboardScreenshot of Press Writing