The $299 PR Platforms Aren't AI-Ready: A Technical Audit

Test Date: December 27, 2025
Platforms Tested: PR Newswire, PRWeb, BusinessWire, GlobeNewswire
Protocol Tested: AI Discovery Protocol v2.1 (specification)

TL;DR

We tested the four largest press release distribution platforms for AI Discovery Protocol compliance. Every single one returned 404 Not Found for /llms.txt.

These platforms charge $299-$2,000 per release but lack the basic infrastructure for AI systems to discover your content. Meanwhile, 93% of Perplexity citations come from content published in 2024-2025—and these platforms can't participate.

The Test: What We Checked

For each platform, we tested the core ADP 2.1 endpoints:

These endpoints form the Five-Layer Optimization Stack that determines whether AI systems can discover, understand, and cite your content.

The Results: Universal Failure

PR Newswire ($299-$2,000/release)

$ curl -I https://www.prnewswire.com/llms.txt
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.prnewswire.com/.well-known/ai.json
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.prnewswire.com/ai-discovery.json
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-graph.json
HTTP/2 404

Verdict: Zero ADP infrastructure. The industry's largest platform, charging premium prices, has no mechanism for AI systems to discover press releases programmatically.

PRWeb ($99-$499/release)

$ curl -I https://www.prweb.com/llms.txt
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.prweb.com/.well-known/ai.json
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.prweb.com/ai-discovery.json
HTTP/2 404

Verdict: Same story. Cision-owned PRWeb targets small businesses but offers the same 404s as their premium sibling.

BusinessWire (Custom pricing, typically $400+)

$ curl -I https://www.businesswire.com/llms.txt
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.businesswire.com/.well-known/ai.json
HTTP/2 404

Verdict: Berkshire Hathaway-owned BusinessWire serves enterprise clients with Fortune 500 budgets. No AI discovery infrastructure.

GlobeNewswire ($350-$1,500/release)

$ curl -I https://www.globenewswire.com/llms.txt
HTTP/2 404

$ curl -I https://www.globenewswire.com/.well-known/ai.json
HTTP/2 404

Verdict: Notified-owned GlobeNewswire serves regulated industries (finance, pharma). Critical announcements with no AI discoverability.

What This Means for Your Press Releases

When you publish through these platforms, your announcement enters a system designed for 2015:

1. Syndication to media databases (journalists still use these)
2. Google indexing (traditional SEO, 7-14 day delays)
3. Wire pickup (Bloomberg Terminal, Reuters)

What's missing:

1. AI crawler access (no structured endpoints for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot)
2. Entity relationships (no knowledge graph linking your company to announcements)
3. Freshness signals (no update frequencies or version control)
4. Citation eligibility (no structured data for AI to quote accurately)

The result? When someone asks ChatGPT "What's the latest news about [your company]?", your $299 press release might as well not exist.

The Pressonify Alternative: Full ADP 2.1+

For comparison, here's what Pressonify's AI Discovery infrastructure returns:

/llms.txt (Live: pressonify.ai/llms.txt)

$ curl -I https://pressonify.ai/llms.txt
HTTP/2 200
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
ETag: W/"4df-..."
Content-Digest: sha-256=...
X-Update-Frequency: daily

1,247 tokens of structured context for LLMs, including:
- Platform capabilities
- Content types available
- API endpoints
- Entity counts

/.well-known/ai.json (Live: pressonify.ai/.well-known/ai.json)

{
  "adp_version": "2.1.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "knowledge_graph": true,
    "semantic_search": true,
    "entity_resolution": true,
    "incremental_updates": true
  },
  "endpoints": {
    "knowledge_graph": "/knowledge-graph.json",
    "llms_context": "/llms.txt",
    "feed": "/feed.json",
    "updates": "/updates.json"
  }
}

/ai-discovery.json (Live: pressonify.ai/ai-discovery.json)

Complete meta-index with entity counts, content types, and update timestamps.

/knowledge-graph.json (Live: pressonify.ai/knowledge-graph.json)

Schema.org entity catalog with:
- Organizations (companies publishing PRs)
- NewsArticles (press releases with full metadata)
- Persons (authors and contacts)
- FAQPages (structured Q&A for citation eligibility)

Crawler Tracking (Live: pressonify.ai/api/v1/adp/stats)

Unlike legacy platforms, we track every AI crawler hit on our ADP endpoints:

{
  "total_hits": 2847,
  "ai_crawler_hits": 2156,
  "crawler_breakdown": {
    "GPTBot": 892,
    "ClaudeBot": 567,
    "PerplexityBot": 423
  }
}

We don't just claim AI optimization—we prove it with public transparency APIs.

The Comparison Table

Why Legacy Platforms Haven't Adapted

These platforms were built for a different era:

1. Revenue model: They charge for distribution, not discoverability. Adding AI infrastructure is cost without direct revenue.

2. Enterprise inertia: Cision (PR Newswire, PRWeb) and Berkshire (BusinessWire) are massive organizations. Protocol adoption takes years.

3. Measurement gap: They can't prove AI citations, so they don't sell them. We built citation tracking specifically to close this gap.

4. Technical debt: Legacy platforms run on 10-15 year old architectures. Adding /llms.txt requires infrastructure changes they're not equipped to make.

The Citation Economy Doesn't Wait

Here's the uncomfortable truth from our Citation Economy research:

93% of Perplexity AI citations come from content published in 2024-2025.

AI systems heavily weight freshness. But freshness alone isn't enough—you need the infrastructure for AI to discover that fresh content. Legacy platforms have neither the infrastructure nor the urgency to build it.

Meanwhile, the McKinsey State of AI 2025 report shows marketing leaders are already shifting budgets toward AI visibility. The platforms that don't adapt will lose relevance.

How to Check Any Platform's AI Readiness

Before you pay for press release distribution, test these endpoints:

# Test llms.txt
curl -I https://[platform-domain]/llms.txt

# Test AI discovery manifest
curl -I https://[platform-domain]/.well-known/ai.json

# Test meta-index
curl -I https://[platform-domain]/ai-discovery.json

# Test knowledge graph
curl -I https://[platform-domain]/knowledge-graph.json

If all return 404, the platform lacks AI discovery infrastructure.

Or use our free AI Visibility Checker to get a complete ADP compliance score.

The Bottom Line

You're paying premium prices ($299-$2,000) for press release distribution on platforms that can't participate in the Citation Economy.

The platforms that charge the most have invested the least in AI discoverability.

Meanwhile, Pressonify:
- Costs $49/release (6-40x cheaper)
- Implements full ADP 2.1 with 11 endpoints
- Tracks AI crawlers with public transparency
- Monitors citations via Perplexity API
- Generates 3-8 Schema.org types per release
- Instant indexing via IndexNow

The question isn't whether AI will mediate press release discovery. It already does. The question is whether your platform is equipped for it.

Publish your press release on Pressonify and enter the Citation Economy with infrastructure purpose-built for AI discoverability.

Related Reading

• The Citation Economy: Five-Layer Optimization Stack
• ADP 2.1: How We Made Press Releases Readable by AI
• ADP 2.1+: Proving AI Crawlers Use Your Infrastructure
• Google's December 2025 Core Update
• GEO & AI Search: PlantGift Case Study

Live Endpoints Referenced

Test these yourself:

• /llms.txt — LLM context document (1,247 tokens)
• /.well-known/ai.json — Discovery manifest
• /ai-discovery.json — Meta-index
• /knowledge-graph.json — Entity catalog
• /api/v1/adp/stats — Crawler statistics (public)
• /feed.json — JSON Feed v1.1
• /llms-full.txt — Comprehensive context (13,451 tokens)

Published December 27, 2025 | Pressonify.ai
ADP Specification: github.com/BuddySpuds/AI-Discovery-Protocol