BusinessWire doesn't get it

BusinessWire, one of two major services in the business of distributing press releases, doesn't get it. "It" being RSS. In fact, from the correspondence I've had with one of their folks who answers e-mail inquires at BusinessWire.com
site, they don't have a clue about what RSS is.

About a week ago, I saw that PRNewswire, BW's older competitor, had an RSS feed. As a reporter writing daily columns about the Internet, I checked it out. It was easier to use and faster than looking at the wire's Web page. Naturally, I wanted a similar feed from BusinessWire. No such luck.

An inquiry to BW's site got a response close to "You want what?" In a return e-mail, I explained. "What?" was, again, the nature of the response. "How do you use it?," the reply came. I said I used NewsGator, and explained how. "I'll have to check it out," was the tenor of the return e-mail. Since then, nothing, Nada. And, certainly, no RSS link on BW.com.

Let's review the bidding: (1) Columnist writes about companies which want publicity. 2) Press release distributors want Columnist to see stories. (3) Distributor fails to reach Columnist. (4) Game over for BW's clients.