CNW Group


CNW Group Ltd., also called Canada Newswire and CNW, is a commercial press release service owned by Cision. Cision Distribution services in Canada are powered by Canada Newswire. The service is offered stand-alone or as part of its flagship platform for PR professionals.

History

CNW was founded in 1960 as Canada News Wire, by Joseph Adair Porter Clark who became CEO and President of the news service.
CNW originally delivered text news releases to news media outlets on behalf of paying clients. This model expanded over time to include provision of ancillary services required by investor relations and public relations professionals, including translation, photography, webcasts, media database and media monitoring.
Canada Newswire distribution switched to using XHTML instead of ANPA-1312, allowing for more formatting of releases. which enables transmission of text. In 2003, CNW became the only provider endorsed by TSX for the calibre of its newswire and webcast services through paid sponsorship agreement.
CNW was acquired by US-based PR Newswire in 2013. PR Newswire was subsequently acquired by Cision in 2016. Cision was most recently acquired by Platinum Equity, announced October 22, 2019.