Peter GranatPeter Granat at Jack Rose in Wash., D.C.

photo: Geoff Livingston
Cision is the name for the combined operations of Cision and Vocus, which provide contacts to hundreds of thousands of editors and many related services, it was announced last night by CEO Peter Granat.

Vocus offices in Beltsville, Md., are being moved to new h.q. of the company in 50,000 sq. ft. of space at One Prudential Plaza, Chicago.

The combined organization, with more than 1,500 employees, also has offices in Canada, England, France, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and China. Cision by itself had about 900 employees.

Cision and Vocus were acquired earlier this year by the GTCR hedge fund of Chicago. GTCR revealed this week it is moving to acquire Gorkana, PR database and media monitoring company. The deal could be worth $250 million.

Cision Takes on New Roles—Granat
Granat told more than 150 at an announcement party at the Jack Rose restaurant in Washington, D.C., that “PR has expanded and traditional PR is just one part of our job. Our roles now include digital, social and content—with a new emphasis on measurement and analytics.”

Among those present were attendees from the national conference of PR Society of America which was taking place a few blocks away at the Marriott Wardman Park. Both Cision and Vocus were “gold” sponsors of the meeting which included having exhibits.

Granat noted that the company has just acquired Visible Technologies, described as “a worldwide market leader in social media listening and analytics, insights and engagement.”

Chris Porter, analyst for Burton-Taylor International Consulting, said the combination “brings together all the key assets to address the software and informational needs of the PR professional. The combined company also has significant geographic reach, putting it in a strong position to bid for leadership in this $2.2 billion global market.”

Brian Solis, principal analyst, Altimeter Group, said, “The PR industry is long overdue for disruption and new technology is going to push it forward. Companies that empower PR professionals through technology to innovate in how they create, communicate and invest in relationships are overdue and promising. I look forward to how the combination of Cision and Vocus influences the industry.

Integration of Services Under Way
Granat said that while integration of the two services will take place over the next few months, Vocus and Cision customers are already getting some of the benefits.

Cision users received access to the premium edition of Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and PRWeb, two heavily used services of Vocus.

Vocus users can access premium content from Lexis/Nexis, building on a relationship Cision established in 2012. The combined company has taken the Cision name but the iContact, PRWeb, HARO and Visible brands will continue.

“We are thrilled to move an international company’s headquarters here to the U.S. to be part of Chicago’s budding tech scene,” said Granat. “Cision is poised for growth and locating the new global headquarters in Chicago gives the company access to talent and a strong customer base to fuel that expansion.”

Cision’s new leadership team includes executive VP and CFO Jack Pearlstein; COO Dawn Conway; chief people officer Maureen Calabrese; chief marketing officer Mark Thabit; chief tech officer David Pearah; managing director, Europe, Magnus Thell; president, Canada, Terry Foster, and President, iContact, Geoff Alexander.

“As the scope of work for PR evolves beyond traditional PR, our roles must also evolve or they will become obsolete,” said Granat. “As we focus on the intersection of content marketing, PR and social, our combined company will continue to invest in the communication space to serve the PR and communication professional’s complete workflow.”