25 years of pressrelations

From a digital pioneer in Düsseldorf to international media intelligence provider

25 years after its founding, the owner-managed company from Düsseldorf has become an international player with approximately 300 employees in eight countries. For the anniversary, pressrelations focuses primarily on the future: on AI, GEO, and the question of how pressrelations can provide orientation in an increasingly complex information world.

When pressrelations was founded in 2001, digital media monitoring was just beginning and marked a shift for the entire industry. 25 years later, generative AI is once again fundamentally changing how people search for, find, and evaluate information—and thus also how reputation and public perception are formed.

"Our industry has undergone fundamental changes multiple times in the last 25 years. Our aim has never been to chase every technological hype, but to understand new possibilities early and develop measurable value for our clients from them", says Fady El-Murr, founder and CEO of pressrelations.

Pioneering proprietary media intelligence technologies from the start

Technology has been part of pressrelations' DNA since its founding—as has the ambition to view communication in an integrated manner. Since 2009, the in-house platform NewsRadar^® has combined traditional, digital, and social media into a data basis for media reviews and analyses. Print, online, TV, radio, as well as podcasts and social media can thus be viewed without breaks; relevant actors from classical journalists to influencers are all considered. This allows clients a 360-degree view of their communication, regardless of how their organization is structured—such as in a corporate newsroom.

pressrelations engaged in machine text analysis long before the current AI boom. In collaboration with Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, the company worked on research projects in text mining and developed proprietary technologies for tasks including Named Entity Recognition and automated text summarization. With FirstSignals^® a data-driven approach to the early detection of media, social, and economic trends followed later.

Today, AI and automation are integral components of the solutions. The approach remains intentionally hybrid: human and machine—instead of human or machine.

"AI can process amounts of information in seconds today, which humans would have taken days. But AI doesn't know the customer, their history, their stakeholders, or the significance of a topic", says El-Murr. "That's why we combine the speed and scalability of AI with experience, contextual knowledge, and personalized consulting."

Grown internationally, still customer-oriented

25 years after the company's founding, teams at pressrelations are working in Europe, the USA, and Asia, complemented by a global partner network.

"As a company that is owner-managed and grown independently, we can invest long-term in technologies, markets, and people", says Jens Schmitz, managing partner of pressrelations and elaborates: "Technology can be quickly implemented even without deep prior knowledge. In contrast, a deep understanding of media, markets, and a client's complex world of topics develops over years. We aim to combine this knowledge and proximity to our customers with the capabilities of new technologies."

AI visibility completes the overall view of media monitoring and analysis

pressrelations also applies this integrated approach to generative AI. Since summer 2026, the company has expanded its media intelligence with AI Visibility and GEO analysis. The focus is on analyzing not only how topics and brands appear in AI responses but particularly which sources and media shape these answers.

Thus, pressrelations does not view GEO monitoring as an isolated channel but as part of the communication cycle extending from classical and social media to AI models. This makes it possible to see on one platform how topics originate, spread, and ultimately influence the perception of a brand through generative AI systems.
At the same time, the role of media intelligence evolves: from documenting and analyzing already published communication to early detection of new topics, dynamics, and reputation risks.

"In this way, we are evolving from a rearview mirror to a more proactive early detection radar", says Schmitz. "In a media world that is becoming more complex due to AI, disinformation, and a flood of information, companies don't need more data but orientation. Our task is to guide our clients through these changes, clarify contexts, and develop the right answers together."

A quarter-century after its founding, the aim remains: to recognize changes early, meaningfully integrate technologies, and develop better solutions together with clients.