Compare
Tier-1 screening at indie prices.
Looking for a desk for local news or a creator outlet? WordPress, Ghost, Indiegraf, and TAPinto sell software or a franchise kit — you are still the newsroom. Press wires sell a blast. Factual Media is screened publishing on your outlet: Classic, Assist, or Gather (Gather is in development for partners). Humans approve. Editorial placement is never for sale.
Side by side
Same questions. Different products.
| Press wires | Sponsored tier-1 | CMS-only | Factual Media | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $100–$10k+ / release | $1.5k–$27k+ / article | $49–$900+/mo software | Pilot free · from $49/mo |
| You get | Blast to many sites | Brand lift on their homepage | CMS + hosting — you staff it | Your branded, screened outlet |
| Screening | Weak / volume-first | Their sales desk, not your newsroom | You are the editors | AI gather + human staff on flags. Source photo credited, or illustration if none. |
| Your outlet | No | No — their brand | Yes — software only | Yes — subdomain → own domain |
| Pay-to-play | N/A | Yes (sponsored) | N/A | Never — merit only |
| Rejected billed? | Usually paid upfront | Paid for placement | N/A | No — approved only |
| Built for the field | N/A | N/A | You build it | Offline-first capture · files on reconnect |
The three lanes we are not
Press wires
CryptoWire, BTCPressWire, Chainwire and peers: roughly $100–$10,800 per release for outlet bundles. Distribution pipes. Volume over credibility.
Sponsored tier-1
CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, The Block, Decrypt and peers: roughly $1,500–$27,000+ per sponsored article. Brand lift and backlinks — often labeled sponsored. Not a self-serve newsroom.
CMS-only
WordPress / Newspack, Ghost, NewsPro, AutoNews, Indiegraf, Newsifier and peers: roughly $49–$900+/mo for software (or a local-news kit). You are still the editorial team. No shared evidence bar. Strong for design, SEO, and newsletters — not a screened desk.
If you are comparing Newspack, Ghost, Indiegraf, or TAPinto
Those are good tools for a site you run yourself. Factual Media is a different job: a screened desk on your brand, with an evidence bar, optional Gather (in development), and a human still publishing.
CMS / newsletter / local kit
WordPress + Newspack — design, local SEO, ads, event calendars. You staff it. Ghost — fast site + memberships. Indiegraf — ops help for independent local publishers. TAPinto — hyperlocal franchise framework. You still write, edit, and stand behind every piece.
Factual Media
Your outlet, our bar. Run Classic (no AI), Assist, or Gather (autopilot drafts + credited art — in development). Pilot free, Creator from $49/mo. Not pay-to-play. Not a WordPress theme. Not a blast wire.
What Factual Media is
- Screened publishing on your outlet — gather and AI assist, human staff on flags.
- Editorial surfaces (briefs, pins, merit lists) — never sold.
- 10 free approved publishes on Pilot, then Creator from $49/mo, Ship from $149/mo (Founding $99×12 invite).
- Subscriber options you control — early / delayed / free — with a thin platform fee.
- Built for the field — offline-first capture that files when you reconnect, encrypted on-device. How it works →
Press wires charge hundreds to thousands for distribution. Tier-1 media charges thousands to tens of thousands for sponsored posts. Factual Media prices for ecosystems that want a real desk — not a spam pipe and not a Fortune 500 PR budget.
What you don’t get
- Front-page placement by payment
- Guaranteed positive tone
- Skip review / auto-publish on day one
- Endorsement by Factual Media