Do you know the recipe for successful top-search page ranking?

Some top-notch SEO, a volume of high-end content, a hint of proper linking, and, as always - some great PR!

There is no secret that PR stands for public relations, but what makes the concept more intriguing is the way it serves its clients.

While not many tackle PR and SEO tasks efficiently, Svenska Telegrambyrån does!

The first-ever Swedish news agency not only excels in all-things SEO and PR but they also have a platform that implements the very same - only better than the rest!

Introducing Cision, a worldwide leader in quality marketing, leveraging, link building, media management, and everything in between!

No matter if you need quality PR services, establishing a proper relationship with clients and the media, or implementing high-education marketing strategies - Svenska Telegrambyrån's Cision is here to make a difference!

Revolutionizing the world of online marketing, Svenska Telegrambyrån's century-old journey begs one crucial question - how did they pull it all off?

Read more about their journey below:

Back to the Start

To fully appreciate what Cision has become, we first have to examine where it all started.

Cision's heritage is undoubtedly reputable as a whole, a fact seen in 150 years of Svenska Telegrambyrån's existence.

In short, Cision is a family tree where, instead of parents and children, multiple companies, mergers, and partnerships work together with one common goal: to become a leading media platform on a global scale.

Svenska Telegrambyrån's Timeline

The company that we all know today was first born in 1867, courtesy of Svenska Telegrambyrån, founded by the popular Swedish Press Agency.

In 1881, Henry Romeike, the originator of a press-clipping service, founded the first clipping bureau in London.

By 1892, the advertising department of Svenska Telegrambyrån was established and included a press-clipping service, known as Pressurklipp.

Throughout a period of approximately forty years, the agency also created the Bacon clipping bureau, a volume of helpful media books as well as the first PR how-to guide. They literally wrote the book on PR!

In 1970 and onwards Bacon finally introduced its press release mailing services, and two years later, Bacon's clipping bureau Romeike and Curtice Ltd. launched a joint enterprise called Bacon's Information International.

After twenty-five years of improvement, Bacon's Information was ranked as one of the three largest national clipping services, offering three different types of services - directories, distribution of press releases, and press material monitoring.

That same year, in 1995, K Communications bought Bacon's Information and later changed its name to Primedia INC. In 1997, Bacon's and Media Mapp announced a strategic alliance to combine their respective media databases and PR software. For the next couple of years, Pressurklipp was acquired by the Romeike Group, making Sifo the largest media monitoring company in the world.

Later, in 1999, Sifo changed its name to Observer AB.

In the early 2000s, Primedia sold Bacon's Information to Observer AB, the global leader in media intelligence. As a result, Bacon's Information also acquired Chicago News, MediaPulse, Media Clips INC, Delahaye Medialink, and Multivision.

Alas, one too many company names came full circle in 2007, when Bacon's information and its parent company Observer AB were finally rebranded as Cision!

Abel Clark: The New Face of Cision

Abel Clark became Cision's CEO in 2020.

Born in 1971, Abel studied in London, where he acquired an MBA from London Business School followed by a Master's degree in Engineering from the University of Southampton, England.

Prior to joining Cision, Abel worked as the CEO of TruSight, a start-up backed by leading financial services companies transforming third-party risk management.

Under Abel's leadership, the business grew rapidly on the market and expanded its customer base, positioning his company among the most successful of its kind. Among other ventures, Abel had also taken on the role of a Global Managing Director of Thomson Reuters' Financial division, serving 40,000 customers in over one hundred countries.

Abel's focus on strategic growth, resource reallocation, business simplification, and the shift from products to a customer-led platform resulted in increased organic growth and substantial margin expansion.

Before his role within the Financial division, Clark ran the $1.8 billion trading systems, business, and marketplaces. At the time, he led the turnaround and the global foreign exchange repositioning of his business, thus fortifying his market leadership and ensuring sustainable progress - two key factors he implements in Cision even today.

The Modern, Rebranded Platform

Cision is a unique and contemporary cloud platform performing as a PR and media software company, plus a top-notch service provider.

Cision is a leading global media intelligence company, serving the complete workflow of today's communication professionals. The company offers some of the industry's most comprehensive PR, IR, and social media software services, as well as detailed analytics, content distribution, and proper influencer outreach.

The company enables clients to engage audiences, enhance promotional campaigns, and strengthen data-driven decision-making, all through software available in seven languages.

As of June 2014, Cision has been used by more than 16,000 annual subscribers worldwide, including commercial businesses and governmental, educational, and non-profit organizations.

To begin with, the company offers three web-based packages: the 'Cision Marketing Suite', the 'Public Relations Suite', and a 'Government Relations and Political Action Committee Suite', all solving vast problems for emerging tech businesses.

In the following years, the firm took big steps in improving and acknowledging its market spot, this time as a rebranded company in pursuit of stability, endurance, and market dominance.

From 2014 to 2015, Cision merged with Vocus and obtained Gorkana Group, Visible Technologies, PRWeb, Help a Reporter Out (HARO), iContact and ViralHeat. By 2016, the platform also acquired PR newswires like CNW, MultiVu, ProfNet, PRNJ, and VPO.

Things took even more serious turns in 2016: in March, Cision acquired Bulletin Intelligence and Capitol Acquisition Corp in order to become a publicly listed company; and later in June, they agreed acquired L'Argus de la Presse and became a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange!

Still, the company was far from done, as in December of 2017, they agreed to acquire PRIME Research, whose acquisition occurred in 2018.

Cision: Funding & the Future

This super popular and leading global media intelligence company is settled in the Cayman Islands, with headquarters in Chicago, and clients worldwide.

With over 5,000 employees, Cision operates in major markets in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

Since the company was founded in 1867, it has participated in two rounds of funding: the first one took place in June of 2017, when going public brought Cision $2.4 billion, while the second occurred in February of 2019, with Equity pouring an extra $128.3 million into the company.

Throughout the years, Cision has invested in 11 companies, with its latest investment taking place in 2019 and earning Trendkite groundbreaking $225 million.

It is estimated that the company's annual revenue is $748.3 million. Really humble, isn't it?

With a mission to provide its customers with prompt and professional resolutions that answer their questions and meet their needs, Cision achieves its communications objectives and does one heck of a job - both business and service-wise.

There's no doubt that the platform's remarkable journey is but sheer quality business in the making whereas its century-old trailblazing is certainly one for the books!