AScribe
In The News

News Release Service Specializes in Nonprofits, Universities

The New York Times recently profiled AScribe, an Internet-based news release service created to serve the higher education and nonprofit sectors.

The founders of AScribe, Ron Wolf, a former business reporter, and David Irons, formerly a university spokesman, designed the service to provide colleges, charities, and foundations with an affordable means of making their news releases accessible to the public. According to the Times, these organizations are typically disinclined to pay hundreds of dollars for distribution through the two major press release services, PR Newswire and Business Wire, where their news might be lost among more business-oriented releases. Based in Oakland, California, AScribe offers fee-based subscription plans to organizations who then pay $10 to $20 (depending on the plan) for the editing and distribution of each news release. The service disseminates these "public interest" announcements through major media outlets including the Associated Press and Dow Jones Interactive.

"There's a great constituency for lots of other content besides corporate financial news," commented Ron Wolf. Some 250 colleges, universities, nonprofits, and foundations have already signed up for the service. Recent foundation subscribers include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Richtel, Matt.

"A News Service Caters to Nonprofit Groups."

New York Times 8/7/2000.

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