NYC company spreads information nationwide about Recovery Act

(NEW YORK CITY) -- A New York City company is working with the U.S. Government to help small businesses nationwide tap into federal funds available through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.


North American Precis Syndicate is a service that distributes news articles for publications and broadcast to newspapers, radio stations and television stations across the county.

According to NAPS President Dorothy York, the company sends out a booklet once a week including press releases with information from more than 2,000 clients that use their services.


NAPS was founded in 1958 and has received $48,000 under federal contract to assist the government in publicizing Recovery Act funds available to various companies.

"[Companies] pay us to get the word out to newspapers and we monitor to see who is actually using the information," York said. "We use several clipping bureaus to monitor newspapers and we also have a staff in house that subscribes to newspapers the bureaus do not monitor so we are able to get [companies] the maximum number of clips back as possible."


She said at a time where media organizations are struggling to stay in business, NAPS charges organizations to distribute news to media organizations for free. Among her customers: Progressive Car Insurance, BMW, Pfizer, Nestle, The National Soft Drink Association, Century 21, Microsoft, Apple, Sony and Ralph Lauren.

NAPS distributes news about a variety of topics including recipes, home and garden, personal health, family, beauty, personal finance, automotive articles and business information.

"We are in touch with all the news and TV stations across the U.S. The news organizations get our material free of charge," York said. "So, if they have a space to fill and a deadline to meet, they can use some of our material."


She said the company has recently started distributing video releases in addition to the radio and newspaper press releases.

 "We distribute radio releases to more than 65,000 radio stations and we also distribute video releases to over 1,000 TV stations," she said.
According to the ARRA website, the goals of the Recovery Act are to Create new jobs and save existing ones, spur economic activity and invest in long-term growth and foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending.
Through the Act, the U.S. Government is distributing $275 billion dollars for federal contracts, grants and loans to businesses and organizations in need of funds.
The government is using NAPS's services to get news organizations to publish information about the funds available through the ARRA.


"The reason [the government] uses us is to get the maximum number of placements possible in newspaper at the minimum cost," York said.

York said the U.S. Government is getting both print and radio articles through NAPS. She said NAPS is still working on the project, but that they project seems to be right on track.


"We are trying to reach as many people in the United States by blanketing the media with their key message, including information about their website and contact information for people that are interested," she said.