Digital delivery

Glowing strands of fiber optic cable

Targeted news is only useful when it arrives where it is needed, in a shape your systems can read. There are four established ways to deliver a news feed, and each one suits a different job.

How the four delivery methods compared on the original Acquire Media service.
CapabilityAMPSAPIFTPRSS
Access to the full source catalogueYesYesYesYes
Acquire Media taxonomy appliedYesYesYesYes
Continuous deliveryYesYesYesNo
Full data transmissionYesYesYesNo
On-demand data as neededNoYesNoNo
Search and alerting toolsYesYesNoNo

A guaranteed protocol connection

Acquire Media’s flagship method was the Acquire Media Protocol Suite, known as AMPS: a full, guaranteed transmission of XML news over a secure internet connection, received by software the customer hosted in its own data center. Nothing was dropped, and a lost connection resumed where it left off. This is the model to look for when missing a story is not acceptable.

APIs for search and alerts

An API turns the feed around. Your application asks for what it needs, when it needs it. That suits news modules inside a product: a search box, a company page, a list of headlines that refreshes on demand. Paired with alerting, an API can also tell you the moment a matching story becomes available.

FTP on your schedule

File transfer is the workhorse. Stories are filtered for your interests and delivered as files, pushed to your server or left for you to collect. Delivery was in XML by default and could be adapted to a customer’s own format. It is simple to operate, easy to audit, and works with almost any system.

RSS for rapid deployment

RSS carries full content in a standard format that nearly every platform can already read. Pick the sources, apply filters, and a working feed can be on a page the same day. It gives up guaranteed delivery and on-demand queries in exchange for speed and simplicity.

Filter so that only the right news arrives

Whichever method you choose, the selection matters more than the transport. A feed can be defined by named sources, subject, industry, geography, company, or any combination of them. A tight definition keeps irrelevant stories out of your product and keeps costs predictable.

Getting your own news into the feed

The delivery methods on this page describe the historical Acquire Media service and are not sold through this website. To put your own announcement in front of news sites and their readers, start a press release on PRNow.

Put your news on the wire.

Three short steps here, then finish on PRNow, where accounts and distribution are managed.

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