Cision
AI-powered media intelligence platform for media monitoring, analytics, journalist outreach and social listening
By Cision · HQ Chicago, US · 4.0/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- PR and corporate communications teams running multi-channel media monitoring
- Brands managing reputation and crisis communications across traditional and social media
- Teams that must measure earned media impact and report results to executives
- Agencies and in-house teams doing journalist outreach and press distribution
- Organisations tracking social listening, influencer engagement and search intent
Ideal size: 10–500 people · Mid-market to enterprise with a dedicated PR/comms team and measurement goals
Not for
- Teams that want transparent self-serve pricing or a free tier
- Buyers wanting a plug-in tool with no vendor onboarding or services involvement
- Paid-media, ad-tech or retail-media buying programmes
- Small companies with no dedicated communications or PR function
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
~3 weeks (vendor: 21 days onboarding to value)
~21 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
On request
Quote-based — pricing only via a 'request pricing' sales form; no public list price
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Not published; quoted per team and solution mix
Add-on costs
- None
Company & support
Who is behind Cision, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 1867 · 159 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Chicago, US
How you get support
We haven’t recorded support channels for Cision yet. Nothing here means unverified — not absent.
Market position
Where Cision sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Cision
- Lever
- MineralTree
- Ottimate
- Forma
- Whova
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Cision. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Cision ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
No AI features recorded for this product.
Sources market 'AI-powered' tools, a CisionOne AI offering and AI Visibility, and an AI-driven PR Newswire Amplify campaign, but none of the reviewed pages describes a specific AI capability in enough detail to assert one here.
Your data & models
- Trains on your data
- Not recorded — ask the vendor
- Runs on
- Not recorded
- AI pricing
- Not recorded
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Not supported
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Cision is a media intelligence and PR software company. CisionOne combines media monitoring across print, online, TV, radio, social and podcast with coverage analytics, reporting, journalist outreach and social listening. Cision also owns PR Newswire for press distribution and Brandwatch for consumer and social intelligence. Pricing is quote-based via a sales process; the vendor reports about 21 days from onboarding to value across 75,000+ customer organisations. Best fit is established PR and communications teams.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Cision cost?
Cision does not publish list pricing. Both the pricing page and the home page route buyers to a 'request pricing' or 'speak to an expert' form, and any figure is produced as a tailored quote after a scoping conversation. Expect a vendor-led sales cycle rather than self-serve checkout, and budget for a solution mix that can span CisionOne, PR Newswire distribution and Brandwatch social intelligence.
How long does implementation take?
Cision states on its customer-stories page that it takes 21 days from onboarding to value, and reports that 94% of customers were satisfied with onboarding and 86% with support. Buyers should still confirm the specific onboarding scope for their chosen modules, since monitoring coverage, social listening and press distribution each carry their own setup work.
What is included in the CisionOne platform?
CisionOne is described as an all-in-one platform covering media monitoring across print, online, TV, radio, social, podcast and magazine; analytics, reporting and insights; journalist outreach and media release distribution; and social listening, engagement and performance measurement. It is delivered across desktop, tablet and mobile.
Does Cision use AI, and how does it handle customer data?
Cision markets AI-powered tools, a CisionOne AI offering, an AI Visibility product, an AI-driven PR Newswire Amplify campaign and search-intelligence trend spotting. The reviewed pages do not detail which models are used, how AI is priced, or whether customer content is used to train models, so those points should be confirmed in writing during procurement.
Who is Cision best suited for?
Established PR, communications and corporate affairs teams, typically at mid-market to enterprise organisations, that need monitoring, measurement, journalist outreach and social listening in one place. Customers cited include consumer brands, health providers, public bodies and destination-marketing organisations. Teams wanting a low-cost self-serve tool or purely paid-media analytics are a poor fit.
Where is Cision based and how long has it operated?
Cision is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and its corporate history is usually dated to 1867. The company describes a global footprint with 75,000+ organisations relying on it, and its portfolio includes CisionOne, PR Newswire, Brandwatch, PRWeb, Trajaan and Gorkana.