When it comes to securing guaranteed media placements for your brand, two names often come up in conversation: NewsUSA vs Brandpoint. While Brandpoint has certainly made waves in recent years with slick marketing and flashy website design, the numbers tell a very different story about which company delivers superior value, reach, and results for clients investing in MAT release distribution.
At NewsUSA, we’ve been the gold standard in content syndication since 1987—a full decade before Brandpoint even entered the market. And while newcomers can sometimes disrupt industries with innovation, in this case, our 38 years of experience, unmatched network relationships, and transparent pricing model reveal why we remain the dominant force in guaranteed media coverage.
The Tale of Two Guarantees: 2,500 vs. 850 Placements
Let’s start with the most important metric: guaranteed placements. When you invest in a MAT release campaign, you’re paying for guaranteed media coverage. This is the fundamental promise of the service.
NewsUSA guarantees a minimum of 2,500 placements for our standard campaign. Brandpoint? They guarantee just 850 placements—less than 35% of what NewsUSA delivers. That’s not a minor difference. That’s a massive gap in reach and exposure for your brand.
Think about what this means for your ROI. You’re getting nearly three times the guaranteed exposure with NewsUSA compared to Brandpoint, yet we’re charging less for the service (more on pricing in a moment). From a pure numbers standpoint, there’s simply no comparison.
Premium Publisher Access: What’s Really Included?
Both companies tout their relationships with major publications, but here’s where the marketing gloss meets reality. Brandpoint prominently displays logos for the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, and San Francisco Chronicle on their homepage. These placements look impressive—and they are.
But there’s a critical detail that Brandpoint doesn’t advertise as prominently: these premium placements come at an additional cost. They’re add-on charges beyond the base package price. The 850 guaranteed placements in their standard offering don’t necessarily include these marquee publications.
NewsUSA takes a fundamentally different approach. We include access to premium publishers as add-on options, but our base package already delivers 2,500 guaranteed placements across our extensive network. And when you do want to add premium placements, we offer an incredibly robust selection:
- USA Today
- Wall Street Journal
- Los Angeles Times
- Forbes
- Entrepreneur
- Plus 1,300+ additional premium publication options
That’s right—over 1,300 premium publications available as add-ons, giving you unparalleled flexibility to target exactly the audiences and publications that matter most to your brand. Whether you’re looking to reach business executives through the Wall Street Journal, entrepreneurs through Entrepreneur magazine, or general consumers through USA Today, NewsUSA has you covered.
The Hidden Costs: Where Transparency Matters
Here’s where things get particularly interesting from a value perspective. Let’s break down what you’re actually paying for:
Brandpoint’s Approach:
- Base price: $6,000+
- Guaranteed placements: 850
- Premium publications (LA Times, Chicago Tribune, etc.): Additional charges
- Photos and images: Extra fees
- Total investment: $6,000+ (and climbing with add-ons)
NewsUSA’s Approach:
- Base price: $5,500
- Guaranteed placements: 2,500
- Premium publications: Available as transparent add-ons with extensive selection
- Photos and images: Included at no additional charge
- Total investment: $5,500 for a comprehensive package
Let’s do the math on value per placement for the base packages:
- Brandpoint: $6,000 ÷ 850 placements = $7.06 per guaranteed placement
- NewsUSA: $5,500 ÷ 2,500 placements = $2.20 per guaranteed placement
That’s a 221% price premium for Brandpoint’s service on a per-placement basis. And that’s before adding photos or premium publisher placements.
The photo inclusion alone represents significant savings. Professional photography and image licensing can easily run $500-$1,500 per campaign. NewsUSA includes this in every package. Brandpoint charges extra.
The Click-Through Conversation: Vanity Metrics vs. Real Reach
Brandpoint has made much of their “guaranteed engagement” and “guaranteed traffic” options available through their Premium MAT Release product. They advertise the ability to drive clicks to your article headline and guarantee traffic to your brand’s website.
While clicks and traffic sound impressive, savvy marketers know that raw traffic numbers can be misleading. What matters more: 1,000 clicks from highly targeted, genuinely interested readers, or 10,000 clicks that bounce immediately because they weren’t organically interested in the content?
NewsUSA focuses on what we believe matters more: authentic, earned placements in publications where readers are already engaged with the content. When your article appears in 2,500+ publications with a combined readership of millions, the organic discovery and engagement tends to be more valuable than paid traffic amplification.
We’re not dismissing the value of traffic guarantees entirely—for some campaigns, they make perfect sense. But we believe the foundation should always be genuine, widespread media coverage first. Everything else is amplification.
The Experience Factor: 38 Years vs. 28 Years
NewsUSA was founded in 1987, entering the market when newspapers were still the dominant media force and building relationships with editors and publishers that have now spanned nearly four decades. Brandpoint entered the market in 1997, ten years after we had already established ourselves as a trusted partner to thousands of publications nationwide.
Those extra ten years matter. They represent:
- Deeper, more trusted relationships with editors and publishers
- Proven performance across multiple economic cycles and media landscape shifts
- Refined processes built on nearly 40 years of client campaigns
- Institutional knowledge about what works (and what doesn’t) in content syndication
Both companies have talented teams with journalism and editorial backgrounds. Both have adapted to the digital transformation of media. But there’s something to be said for being the pioneer who helped define the MAT release industry as we know it today.
The Network Question: Breadth and Depth
Brandpoint advertises “1,000 publications in our premium network.” That’s substantial. NewsUSA guarantees 2,500 placements in our standard campaign, with access to 1,300+ additional premium publications as add-ons.
But network size isn’t just about numbers—it’s about the right mix of publications to reach your target audiences. Our nearly four decades of relationship building have resulted in partnerships that span:
- Major metropolitan newspapers
- Regional dailies and weeklies
- Trade and industry publications
- Online news outlets and content portals
- Specialty publications across dozens of verticals
This diversity ensures that regardless of your industry, target demographic, or campaign goals, we can deliver placements where your ideal customers are actually reading.
The “Slick and Hip” Factor: Marketing vs. Substance
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Yes, Brandpoint’s website looks modern and sleek. They’ve invested heavily in digital marketing, content marketing on their blog, and positioning themselves as the innovative choice for brands seeking media coverage.
We respect good marketing. But we also know that clients ultimately care about results, not aesthetics.
When you’re investing $5,000-$10,000 or more in a media campaign, what matters more: a website with trendy design and smooth scrolling effects, or a proven track record of delivering 2,500+ guaranteed placements at a lower cost with transparent pricing?
At NewsUSA, we’ve chosen to invest our resources where they matter most: in maintaining and expanding our publisher network, in editorial quality, in client service, and in delivering measurable results. Our website may be more straightforward, but our performance speaks for itself.
The Premium Service Upsell: Understanding What You’re Buying
Brandpoint has created multiple tiers of service:
- Standard MAT Release
- Premium MAT Release (with amplification, targeting, social media promotion)
- Premium Business MAT Release
- Various customization options
This tiered approach isn’t inherently bad. Different clients have different needs and budgets. However, it can make it challenging to understand exactly what you’re getting at each price point and how much your total investment will be once you add the features you actually need.
NewsUSA takes a more straightforward approach: our base package delivers exceptional value (2,500 guaranteed placements with photos included), and premium publisher placements are available as transparent, à la carte add-ons. You know exactly what you’re paying for, and you’re starting from a position of strength with substantial guaranteed coverage from day one.
The Publisher Relationship Advantage
Here’s something that often gets overlooked in these comparisons: the quality and depth of publisher relationships matters enormously in this business.
After 38 years of delivering quality content to publishers, NewsUSA has earned deep trust throughout the industry. Editors know that when they receive content from us, it will be:
- Well-written and edited to professional journalism standards
- Genuinely useful and informative for their readers
- Appropriately branded (not overly promotional)
- Delivered on time and formatted correctly
- Supported by professional imagery
This trust translates into better placement positions, more consistent usage, and often prominent positioning within publications—factors that significantly impact the visibility and effectiveness of your campaign beyond just raw placement counts.
Making the Right Choice for Your Brand
At the end of the day, choosing a MAT release partner isn’t about who has the flashier website or the most aggressive marketing. It’s about:
- Guaranteed reach: Who delivers more placements?
- True value: What’s included in the base price vs. add-on charges?
- Cost efficiency: What’s the cost per placement?
- Publisher quality: What’s the caliber and diversity of the network?
- Track record: Who has proven performance over decades?
- Transparency: How clear is the pricing and what you’re actually getting?
On every one of these metrics, NewsUSA delivers superior value:
- ✓ 2,500 guaranteed placements vs. 850
- ✓ $5,500 vs. $6,000+ base pricing
- ✓ $2.20 per placement vs. $7.06 per placement
- ✓ Photos included vs. extra charge
- ✓ 1,300+ premium publication options
- ✓ 38 years of proven performance
- ✓ Transparent, straightforward pricing
The Bottom Line
Brandpoint has built a respectable business in content syndication, and we respect their work in the industry. For some clients, their approach and service model may be the right fit. But when you look past the polished marketing and examine the actual deliverables, guarantees, and pricing, the value equation becomes crystal clear.
NewsUSA has been the dominant force in MAT release distribution for nearly four decades because we deliver superior results at a better value. We guarantee nearly three times the placements, we charge less for our base service, we include professional photography at no extra cost, and we offer access to an unmatched network of 1,300+ premium publications for targeted campaigns.
While others focus on slick websites and marketing buzzwords like “guaranteed clicks” and “premium amplification,” we focus on what we’ve always focused on: delivering guaranteed, widespread media coverage that helps your brand reach millions of readers through credible, trusted publications.
That’s not just marketing. That’s math. And the math overwhelmingly favors NewsUSA.
Ready to experience the NewsUSA difference? Contact us today at 703.508.8700 or visit newsusa.com to discuss how we can deliver superior media coverage for your next campaign. With 38 years of proven performance and 2,500+ guaranteed placements, we’re confident we can exceed your expectations while delivering exceptional value.
NewsUSA: Where big brands come for guaranteed media coverage.