Press is paid. We say so.
Most B2B marketing teams cannot tell you, with any precision, where their content distribution dollars actually land. The dashboard shows activity. The agency reports back wins. The contracts get renewed. Underneath, someone takes a margin at every layer between the budget and the byline.
Presscart is the inversion of that system. We are paid editorial, on the record, with every dollar, outlet, and live URL on the receipt. Here's where we stand.
What the public data says about the rest of the channel
$439
Of every $1,000 spent programmatically, only $439 reaches a real human as a quality impression. The rest is absorbed by fees, fraud, and low-quality inventory.
ANA Programmatic Transparency Benchmark, Q2 2025
13%
Share of open programmatic spend flowing to likely made-for-advertising sites. Bot traffic on those sites runs roughly 6× higher than legitimate inventory.
Pixalate, 20B+ ad impressions analyzed
These numbers describe programmatic content distribution, not Presscart. We publish them because most B2B marketers buying 'distribution' have no idea what share of their budget falls into the $561 that doesn't reach a human, and the industry has spent a decade making sure that question is hard to ask.
Where Presscart stands
Seven operating principles. None of them are aspirations. Each is something you can verify on your next order.
Paid is paid. We say so.
Presscart is transparent paid editorial, on the record. We don't sell 'earned coverage' or wrap a media buy in a retainer line item. Marketers can build credibility on paid distribution if it's done with named outlets, real readers, and disclosure — and we've built the company on the bet that you prefer honest paid to laundered paid.
One receipt per placement.
Every order shows the outlet name, the writing fee, and the publishing fee — separated, before you check out. There is no markup stack between you and the publisher. Compare this to a monthly retainer line that says 'media outreach $12,000' and ask your finance team to reconcile it.
No publisher contributor laundering.
Presscart does not place articles through unpaid contributors who get reimbursed by publicists behind the scenes. Our publisher network is contractual: each outlet opts in to a paid editorial program with disclosed terms. The payment that makes the placement happen is the payment on your invoice. There is no second one.
Domain-level reporting by default.
You see the exact domain, the live URL, and the indexed status — before you order and after publication. Not 'distributed across 800 partner sites.' Not 'estimated reach 4.2M.' One placement, one publisher, one URL you can open in a browser and send to your CMO.
No programmatic syndication.
We do not push your content into syndication networks, programmatic ad slots, or made-for-advertising shells. ANA's Q2 2025 transparency benchmark found that only $439 of every $1,000 spent programmatically reaches a real human. Pixalate has flagged 13% of open programmatic spend as flowing to likely made-for-advertising sites, where bot traffic runs roughly 6× normal levels. We don't compete on that inventory because there's nothing on it worth competing for.
Disclosure surfaced before you order.
Each publisher's labeling policy — sponsored, partnered, branded, contributor — is listed on the marketplace listing before you buy, not buried in a post-purchase email. Disclosure varies by publisher because publisher policies vary. Our job is to surface that variation so you can choose with full information.
Outcomes, not activity.
We don't report impressions, estimated reach, or 'media value.' We report: did it publish, does it index, what does it rank for, and is it cited by AI answer engines. Activity metrics are what an arbitrage system inflates. Outcomes are what your pipeline actually feels.
What a Presscart receipt looks like
One placement. Three line items. No 'media outreach' bucket. The example below is illustrative; the structure is real.
Receipt
Order #PC-XXXXX
May 2026
Outlet fee
Named publication you selected from the marketplace
$X,XXX
Editorial Studio writing fee
Human-written, fact-verified article. Optional — bring your own draft to skip.
$XXX
Publishing fee
Coordination, compliance review, publication confirmation.
$XX
Total
$X,XXX
Also included on every order:
- Live URL of the published article
- Indexed-status check after publication
- Publisher's disclosure policy, surfaced before checkout
- Placement Assurance — full refund if it doesn't publish
You will not find a 'media outreach' line, a 'distribution package' line, or a 'retainer hours' line on a Presscart receipt. If a vendor can't break their bill down to this level, ask why.
Six questions to ask your current PR agency
Paste these into an email. The answers tell you whether you're buying press or buying the appearance of press. A credible agency will itemize without hesitation. Hesitation is the answer.
- 01
On my last placement at a major business outlet, what was the publication paid? What did the contributor or writer receive? What did the agency keep?
- 02
Was that placement labeled 'sponsored,' 'contributor,' 'partner,' or something else? Show me the live page.
- 03
Can I have a domain-level list of every site my last syndication budget actually ran on?
- 04
What share of my reported 'impressions' last quarter came from sites with a Made-for-Advertising designation by Pixalate or Adalytics?
- 05
Are any placements you're billing me as 'earned coverage' actually paid arrangements with the publication or contributor? List them.
- 06
If you can't itemize the above today, what would it take for you to itemize it next quarter?
We do not publish this list as a sales tool, though we are aware that it functions as one. We publish it because every B2B marketer who has ever stared at a quarterly PR report and wondered what they actually paid for has been asking some version of these questions in their head for years. Putting them on paper is the smallest favor we can do for the ecosystem.
Owned media compounds. Paid distribution decays. Transparent paid distribution is the only kind worth buying — because it's the only kind you can audit.
— Edgar Li, Founder & CEO, Presscart