Joe Benarroch:

I like the headline. The press release is making a comeback.

Matt Brown:

I would humbly say it has made a comeback. NYSE and PR Newswire, it's an amazing opportunity for us to spotlight the scale of our ambition.

Joe Benarroch:

When we first started talking, and we will get into the conversation, we first started talking about what it would look like to create a partnership network. I specifically remember that conversation, where you just immediately started to ... You got it. You understood it. And it was very intentional that I spoke to you first, and the reason was because I saw the value, definitely, in PR Newswire, in what it could do to lay a foundation as we started to build up all of the other partners. And even though we're building all of the other partners or we're building them all up one by one, I look at PR Newswire as a horizontal partner. You really do stretch across everybody. But from your viewpoint, and I know this might be a little bit self-serving on our aspect, but what stood out? Why do you think you immediately wanted to get to that place on partnering together?

Matt Brown:

Yeah. I mean, I certainly remember that first conversation too. It was a really good, big group from both New York Stock Exchange and PR Newswire. And I think for us, what immediately stood out and why the vision not only made sense but was so exciting ... Think about what goes on at the New York Stock Exchange is so unique and iconic, right? There are very, very, very few venues in the world that bring together this combination of really fascinating visual content and timely content. IPO is happening almost every single day. CEOs of the biggest and best-known companies in the world are here almost every single day. Celebrities, politicians, tentpole moments. There's not many places in the world where that is true, right?

Joe Benarroch:

That's right. We have Jennifer Garner in the house right now.

Matt Brown:

There you go. And for PR Newswire, for us, we have been at this for 75 years. We're by far the world's biggest and leading distribution platform. We'll talk more about that. And so the way that we work with our customers and partners every single day is helping them achieve the maximum reach of their content, regardless of what that content is, right? Regardless of format, whether it's a video, press release, podcast, it doesn't matter. We are all about, to your point, essentially building the biggest megaphone possible to help companies and brands extend and amplify the reach of their message.

And so when you think about this combination to iconic, historic, leading organizations, NYSE and PR Newswire, the opportunity for us to partner and take all of that amazing, differentiated content that you all have and essentially push it out in a really intentional, proactive way to audiences all around the world, not only did I think that was an exciting opportunity for us to work together on building something special, but candidly, selfishly for PR Newswire, it's an amazing opportunity for us to spotlight the scale of our ambition, in terms of that global distribution as well.

Joe Benarroch:

You are a megaphone, and I think that's exactly what we recognized right away. And I think for most people, they don't really understand the power behind that. And you're absolutely right. We have these, at some point, singular moments that come in. We just celebrated HBO's industry here. And as part of that, PR Newswire is part of that broad-level distribution, but it's not just in techs. You definitely, to your point, the visualization behind it, and you've really expanded out your capabilities.

We've laid a pretty strong foundation, but aside from our partnership, or maybe you can connect these two things together, we've laid a very strong foundation just in the singular year that we've been working together that looks across ... I would say more so leans into our video content. What do you think year two looks like? But I think as part of that question, what I'm really trying to get to is a little bit more of PR Newswire's ... I like when you say that ... Your ambition. Talk to us a little bit about the expansion of those capabilities, because obviously we're going to take hold of them, but I'm curious what you feel is percolating.

Matt Brown:

Yeah. I would probably put it in maybe three categories. Obviously, we've thought quite a bit about where to take this partnership next and continue to build, and the scale of the ambition we have around all of this. I think it's three main areas. One is exactly as you said, the initial building block or foundation of this partnership has been extending the reach of NYSE content. I think we can do much more together in a very intentional way to create more reach, more visibility, more amplification on behalf of your issuers and the IPOs that are coming here together.

So that's one thing that, to me, it has happened, to your point, through the course of the work that we're doing together every single day. There are a lot more things that we can do together to achieve what you all are working so hard to do anyway, which is essentially creating the biggest stage in the world for the companies who choose-

Joe Benarroch:

We need to push on that. You're right.

Matt Brown:

So that to me is number one. It's a really exciting opportunity. And again, a lot of those companies we are working with and have been working with independently for decades anyway. And so I think that's an exciting opportunity for us to press forward.

Second, a theme that you've touched on, we've coined the term Multichannel Amplification. The reality is audiences are very dispersed and consume their information in a lot of different formats now. We're on a podcast. Video content has been the building block of our partnership. Of course, PR Newswire first and foremost is known as the biggest press release distribution company in the world. What we have built out is a Multichannel Amplification suite, such that when we work with any company, whether it's one of the biggest companies in the world or a bagel shop that's opening its second location, we give them the ability to be very targeted about the reach that they want to achieve across all different content types, whether that's press release, owned assets, blog posts, podcasts, video. For us, we're agnostic and we have tools to help them create all of that content and then distribute it to the relevant audiences who are looking to consume it in that way.

Joe Benarroch:

Absolutely.

Matt Brown:

So for me, that is a natural extension of this partnership as well, is moving ... Not beyond video, by any stretch of the imagination, but building on that and ensuring that for the NYSE's content or for your issuers and your partner's content, we are helping them communicate in as many formats as possible and finding the audiences that they need to, wherever those audiences live and however they want to access the information.

The third thing, and you know I'm really excited about this because we've spent a lot of time talking about it, PR Newswire has a truly global footprint. We are the leader in what we do in all regions of the world. We have fabulous teams on the ground in all regions in the world, and customers in all regions in the world. And so for us, the NYSE I know has a very similar global footprint, and there are markets around the world that you're continuing to look to partner with the biggest and best companies that are located there.

I think we can be doing more from a global perspective to regionalize our approach. What are we doing to make sure that we're translating content? So whether it's audiences across Asia or Latin America or Israel or Europe or Africa, we can translate that content and be very, very intentional and surgical and targeted about finding the audience locally there. So to me, that is a really, really exciting part of year two as well.

Joe Benarroch:

See, this is exactly what I mean about building a community that services each other, and to your point, creates greater options and optionality for our issuers, for any of our customers, really. Whether you're a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange or you're the tens of thousands of private companies, you absolutely do provide not only one opportunity, but you and yourself provide greater optionality. And so that's what I mean by that multiplier effect that we've been talking about. PR Newswire actually is emblematic of the multiplier effect. And so when you bootstrap all of that on, you almost get every single distribution angle and opportunity.

I want to pivot a little bit because working with your team is beyond outstanding. And I want to ask Matt Brown a few ... How many people are employed for PR Newswire?

Matt Brown:

Well, we're part of Cision.

Joe Benarroch:

Which I love.

Matt Brown:

Which I also love. And very proud. We have several thousand employees located around the world.

Joe Benarroch:

That's amazing. How long have you been at PR Newswire?

Matt Brown:

Two years.

Joe Benarroch:

Two years.

Matt Brown:

Yeah.

Joe Benarroch:

What would you say is the singular thing that you as a leader in the last two years have really focused on with your team? Because I'll tell you, you lead a really great team. They all come to the table ready, they all come to the table wanting to just roll up their sleeves. Nothing feels too small, too big. No one says no to an idea upfront. There's always this really great iteration process. How are you instilling that, or was that always a part of the culture?

Matt Brown:

Thank you for asking that, and I would be remiss say you're right. The culture at this company, the team, the employees, for PR Newswire and for Cision holistically, this is one of those rare companies that the culture there has already been baked in. And I have been fortunate enough to be there for two years now. You think about PR Newswire, iconic brand, started the press release industry. And of course, we've been fortunate to continue to lead in this area. I consider myself a steward for a great, iconic brand, and really an exceptional team and an exceptional employee base.

The culture is there. It was there before I got here. It will be there long after I leave. And I am truly appreciative of that culture, and I'm appreciative of the team that you have met and the broader team that you haven't met.

You're right. The employee base for Cision holistically and the team you've met from PR Newswire really cares very, very deeply about doing the best job that we can do, of course for our company, but more importantly for our partners and our customers. And I will tell you that the team who's been working on the NYSE partnership absolutely loves this partnership, loves working with your team as well, has a sense of the scale of ambition and the vision and everything that you all are building here together. And for me, having the opportunity to get to invite several of them to join at Partnership Day last week, it absolutely made their months and years, and I know they've been sending pictures around to their families and all of that. So thank you.

Joe Benarroch:

Yeah. Big shout out, Lindsay, Glenn, the entire team. They're a really great group of people. But you said something that is another big reason that we see eye to eye on partnership, is that long before me and long after me, the New York Stock Exchange will exist, and we are just stewards of these institutions and we are stewards of these organizations.

And we are customer-focused, both of us. We equally operate with thousands of companies, and we stay agnostic, and we're the vessel for how that information gets out in the world. And when you talk through that, you almost have to ... And you bounce industries, right? We're constantly bouncing industries, and we're constantly bringing you more things because at any point in time, we're talking to an aerospace company, we're talking to a CPG company, we're talking to a retail company.

What have you done on your end to pivot and move with some of those industries? Have there been any big learnings from any of those key sectors that have said, "Okay, we need to do something a little bit different," with healthcare or with e-commerce or things that are just percolating in the marketplace and really bubbling up? Have any of those sectors given you any insight to really make some sort of, I don't know, step changes in the product or they've been an insight?

Matt Brown:

So first off, I completely agree. It's one of the things that I think is most interesting about being in this type of business, which is exactly like ... You all have issuers that run the gamut on industries and verticals. Of course, the same thing for us, where it's common that in the course of one day, I'll talk to a customer in tech and in aerospace and in healthcare and financial services, so on and so forth. And that's just a fascinating opportunity to learn, to continue to learn.

And to your point, it absolutely has instructed how we think about building products and being very nimble in the way that we do that to ensure that we are providing solutions to customers that actually make sense for them and what they need to do.

We had a really, really substantial product launch for PR Newswire last year. We launched a product called Amplify. It's an AI-powered purpose-built tool specifically for PR, comms, and investor relations professionals. And the idea is that this is something that helps communicators plan their campaigns. It uses AI to surface insights that can be informative to them on what should they be talking about, what is being said in the industry about them, about their competitors, about their space more broadly. And then we use AI to help them create content that cuts across all those channels that we've talked about, to ensure consistent messaging across press releases, across their owned assets, like their website, across videos, blogs, media pitches, so on and so forth.

Joe Benarroch:

Well, congratulations there. We equally, if you look at the exchange in general, AI has been embedded into the transaction side of our house. Our chief product officer, Jon Herrick, is constantly working and testing out new options. I'm curious, are there any specific partners that are helping you build that? Are you working with OpenAI? Are you working with Grok? Are you working with Anthropic?

Matt Brown:

Yeah. The foundational platform is Google Gemini Enterprise.

Joe Benarroch:

Got it.

Matt Brown:

So that's the core piece of tech that we've used to build the platform. And then we've basically worked with a number of different partners for specific components of the platform, but that's something that we do to build. The output from a customer is they log in to Amplify, and this is one tool that will help them create or perfect their press release content. And then using generative AI capabilities that's been purpose-built for this, it's going to take that content and create accompanying blog posts, accompanying media pitches, accompanying social posts, so on and so forth, so that you have one cohesive campaign. And no matter what the content type is that's going out, it's going to find the right audience in a native content to them. So Google Gemini has been our partner broadly in building it, but then we've got a number of different partners that help us with each of the content sets that sit on top of it.

Joe Benarroch:

When I was at Facebook, where it really took scale was when we went from working with our global advertisers to really building out self-serve models and allowing the small, medium-sized business community. Now, in this particular case, this feels akin to a self-serve model where almost any size business could take hold of a PR Newswire. Is that the case, or is it more focused on just giving more management capabilities to the larger businesses?

Matt Brown:

So it runs the gamut. So PR Newswire, just to give a sense, we've got tens of thousands of global customers. And again, to the example I used earlier, that includes everything from the majority of the Fortune 100 and a lot of Dow components. So the biggest companies in the world, down to the bagel shop that I referenced earlier, opening their second location and needing to communicate that out. So we have to build tools and deliver capabilities that give all of those customers the ability to do what they need to do.

With this amplified platform specifically, we see this being helpful to the full range of customers, and that's both brands and issuers and the agencies who help a lot of these companies as well. So to your point, some companies, typically the smaller ones that maybe don't have a large IR, PR, comms team, there are generative AI capabilities that, if you want, Amplify can create a press release from scratch in your brand voice and create all those other content types for you and communicate it either very locally or globally.

At the enterprise level, and again, whether this is a brand directly or the agencies that they're partnered with, they're probably not using the tool to create the press release from scratch. They've got decades of experience creating that on their own. But what we've delivered with Amplify, because we've trained it on decades and tens of millions of historical press releases, is the ability to give them something called a PR score, where they can load in their draft of a press release, and it's going to say, "The headline looks great, but we'd recommend you make some changes to the subheader. You need more multimedia content and video content right here. The quote is too late. You need to move the quote up."

So we've got the ability to basically, again, off of the back of performance data from tens of millions of historical press releases, we can help them perfect that press release and then create the idealized version of a blog post to go with it, the idealized version of a video, short form, to go with it, so on and so forth.

So it's been a lot of fun to build it. And again, to the spirit of the conversation earlier, really would like to thank and congratulate the global product and technology team who envisioned this thing, talked to over a thousand customers before we started building. That's rare, but this was built by what we heard from the communications industry, the IR industry, all of our customers, then we started building. And it's been a really successful launch so far.

Joe Benarroch:

Congratulations. When I was at X, the team specifically on the ... Well, I would say it was more on the X side versus Grok, but I think as those things were coming together, they were really looking to figure out what it would look like for the platform to become a PR Newswire of sorts because of the amplification behind it. There seems like something really interesting that could be paired up between PR Newswire and a Grok and those types of platforms. Do you have any partnerships with some of the actual ... I don't want to even call them social platforms anymore because they're so far beyond that. I mean, these are media platforms in and of themselves. Are you working with that cohort?

Matt Brown:

So a big part of what we do is pushing content to the social platforms and ensuring that when we do so, it's done in a format that's native and authentic to that audience. I mean, clearly, somebody who's consuming data on any of the social platforms is expecting to see it and receive it in a different way than if you're a journalist at a traditional publishing house. And so it's our job to make sure, one, maximum reach of content on behalf of our customers. So we've spent decades building the biggest distribution network in the world, and that includes all of those types of audiences, social, traditional, influencers, publishing houses. It doesn't matter. We have to reach all of them, and we do reach all of them, but then ensuring that the content is native once it gets there.

And so what we've done is we've partnered with a number of organizations to ensure, one, that we reach the social outlets, but two, that when the content reaches there, it has been built off of the foundation of the press release. So the content and the narrative is consistent, and it makes sense in a format once it arrives there.

So the short answer is yes, we're partnered with a lot of them, but it's not just we're going to push a press release into your platform, because that wouldn't land with the audience. It's reformatting and rethinking what the foundational press release content looks like, but again, adapting the content so it's native to that format when it gets there.

Joe Benarroch:

I like the headline. The press release is making a comeback. And if you're a comms person, if you're sitting over at Weber Shandwick or you're sitting over at one of my old stomping grounds at Manning Selvage and Lee, you're like, "Yes."

Matt Brown:

I would humbly say it has made a comeback, and I'll say it for a couple of reasons. One, we do an annual report called the State of the Press Release, and we go out and we talk to ... It used to be hundreds, and this year I think it was over a thousand global communicators, all parts of the world. Big companies, small companies, agencies, and households. Talked to them about a lot of different things. What are they seeing? What are they doing? What are they using? And this year, for the first time in a number of years, overwhelmingly the stats were that they said they're going to send the same amount or more press releases in 2026 than they did in 2025. And the data is proving that out so far this year.

Joe Benarroch:

If we pull that back, there's a trust factor there. And I think with Richard Edelman, and he pushes out his trust barometer every year, and you look at that and you look at the scope of media and what consumers are feeling between companies and organizations, there are certain mechanisms that you do fall back on for a trust factor or for credibility. And to your point, you can push towards it, you can outline things, you have a center of gravity, a center of origin. And I think for people, regardless of what you label it ... At Facebook, we didn't have press releases of sorts. I mean, it was more blog posts, but it doesn't matter what the label is, you do want a center of origin. So I think you're right. I think people have found strong comfort in recognizing you can hold onto a tactical and a foundational element, and then you just employ it and amplify in different ways, and that's what you've allowed people to do.

Matt Brown:

That's right. It is that simultaneous Multichannel Amplification. I think it's critically important. You create the foundational information in one place, which is the trusted source of the press release, and then you amplify it more broadly, in more formats, in a consistent way.

The other thing that I would add to this that is very timely to this discussion is the reality of AI and the LLMs changing the way that the world searches for and consumes its information. We spent a couple decades perfecting SEO on behalf of our customers, not only achieving the broadest reach possible, but ensuring that when a press release was sent out via PR Newswire, we are going to move you as high as possible up the search rankings.

The reality is now, through GEO and AEO, a lot of the world gets their information through other sources. You might be somebody who still goes to Google or you might be somebody who goes to a variety of different chat or AI engines to get your information.

And so quickly, over the course of the last year, that's become a core part of our strategy, is ensuring that press releases sent via PR Newswire or any of those other content types that are being sent out via PR Newswire, they are optimized to ensure that they're being found by AI, by the LLMs.

A third-party study was just put out ... So this is not from us. This is somebody who tracks web traffic trends. And prnewswire.com is in the top 15 sources in the world in terms of where the LLMs are getting their information, and in Q4 of last year was the fastest riser in the world.

So as all of those different LLMs are continually going out, getting information to train, which is what surfaces those AI search results at the top, they have to go out and get information as broadly as they can. So they get information from blogs, from companies' websites, so on and so forth.

It turns out that the press release is one of the most authoritative things a brand can do to positively influence what the LLMs are seeing and therefore learning about them. And when you pair that with all of your other owned assets, your website, your webcasts, your videos, your blog, everything, you're saying a consistent thing in a lot of different places that the LLMs are using. And again, this is where PR Newswire's scale is a huge positive differentiator for us. We are up in a meaningful way on that list. And again, this is why we have been busy for the last several months.

Joe Benarroch:

Just this week, OpenAI announced their Frontier product, which is all around enterprise tools. And this sits at that level, where now all of a sudden you have a massive ... Now Amplify, PR Newswire Amplify, is another big enterprise tool. And you're putting yourself in the same category with the OpenAIs of the world because you're providing the strength to these large organizations, definitely on small, the ability to scale.

But what I also like, that I think is really fascinating, is when you were talking about it earlier, and I brought up Weber Shandwick and Manning Selvage and Lee, and you can insert any wonderful communication agency out there, Brunswick, et cetera, you talked about the training side of it, where it legitimately will give feedback to the owner of, let's say, the communication plan and help guide them. And so when you pair definitely all of the enterprise amplification opportunities, but when you're saying that your own product is helping guide the individual, there's the human interaction there, to say, "Okay, give it better inputs. Help it do better." And in addition, you're becoming an education resource, which I think many universities would even gravitate towards.

Matt Brown:

Yeah, I agree. I mean it does feel like there's a lot of possibilities for-

Joe Benarroch:

Absolutely.

Matt Brown:

And this is where, again, we get really excited holistically about what we're building at Cision, right? So we've obviously spent most of this conversation talking about PR Newswire and the Amplify platform, but if you open the aperture a little bit to what we built Cision holistically, we've got the world's biggest media monitoring tool in CisionOne, and it's the leader in that space. We own Brandwatch, which is the world's preeminent social listening tool and social media management tool. And we just did a fabulous acquisition of a company called Trajaan, which is on the search intelligence side.

And so what we have built and are continuing to build right now, we've got a lot coming this year, is an integrated platform so that for a customer, again, whether it's an enterprise, whether it's brand, big, small, whether it's an agency, to your point, we are helping them on the outbound communication side via Amplify, but we're also helping ensure that they are seeing the world's information in real time. And that instructs and informs their strategy from a holistic comms perspective.

Joe Benarroch:

Yeah, you're giving them a look around every single corner, which is great. Matt, I want to zoom out. I want to go back to you. I know we talked about your team. I know we talked about the organization. What got you into this industry? What drove you into communications? I know you were also at NASDAQ. What brought you to this world? How are we so lucky to be working with you?

Matt Brown:

Thank you. Well, I was an ethical philosophy major in college. So it wasn't what I studied undergrad that got me here.

Joe Benarroch:

Where'd you go to undergrad?

Matt Brown:

Trinity College in Connecticut.

Joe Benarroch:

Congrats.

Matt Brown:

Thank you. Listen, like a lot of people's careers, you start somewhere and then it takes off. I was very fortunate. I've really spent almost the entirety of my career in this broad information services ecosystem that has spanned multi large market data companies. You mentioned another exchange that I worked at. I've been in the investor relations services space for much of my career, and then a couple of different businesses I worked at in the PR, comms, and MarTech space, but it has always surrounded this common element of our customers. The customers I've worked with are companies, multiple different departments that all work very closely together on understanding what's going on outside and in their world, and then helping them formulate communication strategies that rise to the moment and help them capitalize and find opportunities.

One of the reasons I love it is something we talked about earlier. Through all the jobs I've had, it's getting to work with companies, large and small, across a lot of different industries. And so I always feel like I'm learning and I'm always on the cutting edge of what's happening in the tech space, which is intellectually interesting for me, selfishly. And it's fun, and things continue to evolve quickly.

And so PR Newswire, candidly, as I've been in this space, whether it's been on the IR side, we're working with investor relations officers and CFOs, or IPOs, whether it's been on the PR, comms, marketing side, a constant has always been that PR Newswire was always the one that every company was looking up at as the standard-bearer and the leader. And so I feel incredibly fortunate that I have the opportunity to be in the seat that I'm in now.

Joe Benarroch:

What is one thing you might reflect on that you've either learned from your team or you've just step changed in your leadership style over the last year? There's been a lot that's happened. As you're thinking about that, I definitely ... When I was at Facebook, one big thing that I learned was just to take feedback from as many people as possible and to really embrace it and to allow it to happen and to not feel a sense of territory. And coming to the stock exchange, you just realize that you have to open up yourself to everyone swimming in one big pool. No one has an individual swim lane. We all have one big lane, and we're moving our businesses in the right direction and we just got to do it all together, hand to hand. And it's a really great feeling.

And in addition, as you're thinking that through, the one thing that I've definitely learned is that the institution, for 233 years, stood and stands, and so therefore you just have to leave it in a better place for the next generation of people. So do as much as you can to do that, and just look beyond yourself and look at the institution as the gravitational force.

Matt Brown:

Yeah, I agree with all of that. I would probably add, again, and we touched on this earlier, but when you're fortunate enough to step into a company that has such a great culture and employees that care so much that, in a lot of cases, spend their whole career continuing to build and evolve through the multiple generations of the company but also the industry, I think sometimes as a leader, the best thing that you can do is give them the opportunity to build and thrive and grow and think bigger, but not get in their way.

And that has certainly been true with the Amplify launch that we talked about earlier. I mean, I can tell you quite honestly, where that product ended up versus the nature of the conversations we started with, it happened for a couple of reasons, very little of which has to do with me. One is our product and technology team really, really, really thought differently about the possibilities that the quickly evolving tech landscape were making available to us. And they moved very fast, very fast to embrace the latest that they could to build a thing that had not existed in this space before. That happened because of the team and because they were given the opportunity to think differently about what could be built with some runway to do so.

Secondly, and I think I've known this to always be true, but the best things are built with a customer focus in mind. I said it before, I'll say it again because it's meaningful here, we talked to over a thousand customers before we started to build Amplify, and then we kept in touch with a whole lot of them along the way as we were going through different iterations of it. And I think that level of customer focus, customer centricity, that ensures you're building something that people will actually see value in and want to use, as opposed to assuming you've got all the answers and casting that upon them.

And then the final one is, again, is exactly as you said, and I do think there's a lot of really wonderful corollaries here between the NYSE and PR Newswire and Cision as the industry leaders in what we respectively do. When you have a brand that has been built to that extent by so many thousands and thousands of people over such a long time, the best thing you can do is come in and find the things that are working and empower people to do more and faster of that and get out of their way. There's always going to be things that need to be fixed and adjusted, and move quickly to do that. That's our jobs to find those opportunities, but put the right people in the right seat to go build and move fast. And I feel very, very fortunate that that's the culture I stepped into. And again, I think it's my job to continue to foster that culture and drive it forward.

Joe Benarroch:

You're absolutely right. I think that's why Partnership Day in general is so wonderful because you get to celebrate. You get to celebrate you. You get to celebrate the partnerships that we have with other media organizations, with the work that Pete or Kevin or Laura or Abby and team are doing, and Ian behind the scenes, and Lance as he organizes this wonderful podcast. And that's the beauty of it, is humanizing it.

You've talked a lot about your team and all the build. It's really fascinating that you have this fleet of engineers that are within PR Newswire. And anything that's ... Now, I know you'll probably perfect Amplify and you'll keep growing that. Is there anything else on the horizon, not by name of a particular product, but other areas of focus that you're honing in on that you might be able to share with us?

Matt Brown:

Yeah, sure. So first off, you're absolutely right. We are constantly releasing new features into Amplify itself. We've just done so this month with a new enhanced brand voice capability that has been amazingly well received. And our team views Amplify as a foundation from which to continue to build. So it's a starting point. We'll continue to innovate.

Joe Benarroch:

Yeah. You just keep iterating.

Matt Brown:

And we'll keep building. And so there's a real sense of purpose and clarity around that.

I think the other things that we're really, very intentionally thinking about, one, at the Cision scale broadly is ... I talked about the collection of amazing capabilities and platforms that we have assembled over the years. We are very intentionally right now working on further integration between all of those things, again, so that for a customer who wants all of those capabilities that we've got, we are giving them one unified place driven by agentic AI to fulfill all of the tasks that they need to do in a really cohesive way. If we go out to customers with that in earnest, that's a unique capability to Cision, with Amplify built in as a part of that, one very important foundational part of that platform. So that's a big part of what we're focused on right now is moving the entire business forward in an integrated way for and on behalf of our customers. So we're very, very excited about that.

Additionally, I would say, again, a lot of the work that we're doing with the NYSE is something that we really want to replicate much more broadly. And that is ... We work together a satellite media tour, putting your talent on television shows and stations all over the United States. We are doing that for a lot of the biggest companies in the world. We want to do more of those. We are taking an outsized role in the world's biggest conferences and events right now, like CES. There's more events that we can be at. And when we're there, we can amplify the event's content and the content of all of the companies who are there.

So I think for us, it all comes down to Multichannel Amplification, like I talked about, and we feel like we are on an absolute mission at this point, and we're trying to continue to build with whatever technology is making available to build with.

Joe Benarroch:

You mentioned the satellite media tour.

Matt Brown:

I did.

Joe Benarroch:

And I'll tell you, you're making some really good, cool, vintage things just really fun again. I am obsessed with satellite media tours.

Matt Brown:

I know you are. I know you are.

Joe Benarroch:

We did them at Facebook. They work. They're great. Well, I will tell you that while we were having our conversation, I got some pings from some executives across NYSE, saying, "You know what? I want to be on a PR Newswire satellite media tour." So I'm coming. I'm knocking on your door there.

Matt Brown:

Great. Well, we would love do it.

Joe Benarroch:

I mean, the ability. That's what the global, national, local, that does ... Those are not just words. That's just not noise. That's true, figuring out how to manage through a strategy, but the ability to scale. And we have many companies. Pardon me. We have our 2,500 listed companies. We have those 10 thousands of private companies. They all have a home base. They all have their headquarters. And so when you think through that, and they all have the ability or want the ability to maybe talk to a certain area or a region or a city. So I love that you brought up satellite media tours because it's, again, I think very much emblematic of the fact that you have so many options.

Matt Brown:

Yeah. And honestly, that's one of the fun things when we go out and meet with customers, is helping them think through ... It is not a one-size-fits-all communications strategy. I mean, one big brand, there are things that you want to say to the entire world at once, but then there's things that you want to be very targeted about. It can be finding industry-specific trade publications that you want to cede some product information with. It can be marketing to a specific local market where you've launched a specific product or you've opened a new location, or you're looking from an employee branding perspective.

So when we're out there, it's really, really fun and interesting to get to say, "Okay, what's the core message that you as the company, the brand, the issuer, what are you trying to say to everybody? Let's amplify that on a global scale for you all, but then what do you want to say very locally and what do you want to say nationally? And what's the product strategy versus the leadership strategy versus the financial learning strategy?"

And we've got the ability to say, "This leg of the communications tool, we're just going to give you the most possible reach that we can on a global scale, but then what's your strategy for reaching out into Asia for the next product launch that's relevant there? What's your strategy for reaching out to investors in a more targeted and strategic way around your investor relations communications content and strategy and your financial results?"

And it's not one size fits all. And I think that's one of the things that makes us really unique, is the ability to be flexible in that way.

Joe Benarroch:

Optionality and scale. That's what you bring. What's Matt Brown's definition of partnership?

Matt Brown:

This is going to sound a little bit trite, given where I'm sitting right now and who's interviewing me. I really would say the partnership that we have built with you all is an archetype for what I think good partnerships should be. It started with two groups of people in a room that really didn't have much of an agenda for what we were going to talk about. You knew what you were looking to build, and we had a sense of the capabilities we could bring to bear, but as we highlighted earlier, it's just two really passionate, dedicated teams that have absolutely evolved, in just one year, what we've built and what we're delivering now versus where we started 12 months ago.

I think that's partnership, is really understanding what your partner is trying to accomplish, having very honest conversations about what both sides can and can't do, what to do and what not to do, and then building a thing together.

And again, the fact that ... I mean, listen, I'll be honest. It's Friday right now as we're recording. I have been in the NYSE three of the five days this week, meeting with probably six or seven different teams here. And not just me, but a lot of members of the PR Newswire team have been along with me, meeting with the people that they partner with. And to me, that is what a big, strategic, global partnership looks like. And that's how you build an ecosystem, is really having honest conversations about what everybody is trying to accomplish, and then going out and moving very quickly in a concerted way to build, deliver, but not losing sight of what the next thing is, what the bigger thing is you're trying to do together.

Joe Benarroch:

I'm thrilled to hear that. I think that building a community should be about building a community that benefits everyone, and I'm thrilled to hear of all the success. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you for everything that you personally have done to interject a level of immediacy and innovation. And in general, I actually think our teams are doing and having a lot of fun, but there's also a lot of mutual respect.

Matt Brown:

Great.

Joe Benarroch:

So thank you, Matt Brown.

Matt Brown:

Thank you very much.

Joe Benarroch:

President of PR Newswire.