FIR Interview: RealWire CEO Adam Parker on the value of press releases

In this FIR interview, co-host Shel Holtz speaks with Adam Parker, chief executive of RealWire, a UK-based press release distribution service.

RealWire recently launched PR Filter, a search engine that searches press releases from a broad range of distribution services; Parker has conducted research into the nature of releases that PR professionals produce and discusses the match between subject matter and what journalists and bloggers are interested in.

He also discusses the social media news release (SMNR) and RealWire’s SMNR service, along with the second study in 18 months to determine which format – traditional or social – gets more pickup.

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About our Conversation Partner

adamparker Adam Parker is Chief Executive of RealWire, the UK news release distribution company. He is responsible for the strategy and development of the business and took on his executive role in early 2006, having been a Non Executive Director since the company began in 2001.

Adam is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has previously spent over nine years with PricewaterhouseCoopers working in the Corporate Finance, Business Advisory and Audit practices.

In early 2010 he acted as spokesman for the An Inconvenient PR Truth campaign that sought to bring the debate around the issue of irrelevant press release emails, aka PR spam, into the mainstream arena. The campaign lead to the production of a set of guidelines on media relations, a Media Spamming Charter (PDF), by the three UK professional PR bodies – Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and the Investor Relations Society (IRS) – which were endorsed by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

He blogs at Show Me Numb3r5, a title taken from one of his favourite TV shows – The West Wing.

Connect with Adam on Twitter at @AdParker.

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