Frequently Asked Questions

Who is readMedia?

We’re a privately-held company, headquartered in Albany, NY. readMedia (formerly Empire Information Services) has been distributing press releases to the news media since 1985.

What does readMedia do?

We specialize in regional, local and hyperlocal press release distribution for issuers who require geographically specific distribution. We’re also great at delivering press releases targeted by interests. We tag media for national or local relevance to help avoid sending local content to national news sites and vice versa.

Can the media choose how to receive readMedia’s feed?

Sure thing. We offer each publication or broadcast editor and reporter a choice of email or fax for direct distribution. You can also sign up for an RSS feeds organized in many useful ways. Contact us to learn about our XML formats for front-end publishing systems.

What do you send the media?

readMedia sends press releases in the body of email or by fax. We host clients’ photos, audio files, PDFs and other attachments on our server network and provide a link to download the files.

Who decides who gets releases in our newsroom?

readMedia surveys the media to comply, as much as possible, with individual newsrooms’ workflow and routing rules. We also distribute directly to editors and reporters based on subject matter and geographic coverage. If a release covers two topics, such as sports and business, we send it to both desks. If there are three reporters who cover state government, all three can get their own feed with a choice of fax and/or email. But we can customize this if the media tells us to.

Are the releases issued by readMedia posted on the web?

Yes. Each release is posted in our newsroom at www.readmedia.com. You can sign up for RSS feeds of the press releases there, too.

Can we post the news releases you send us to our website? Yes, within some limits. Our clients hold the copyright for their own press releases, but readMedia controls the use of the entire feed. Read our copyright policy for more information. With that said, many news organizations are starting to understand the benefits of posting content-rich press releases from legitimate news sources to their sites, so call us if you’d like to run our feed on your site.

Who do we contact if we have a question or problem?

Contact us anytime via e-mail or call us at 518.429.2800.