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The 2026 State of the Media Report is here: We surveyed 1,800+ journalists to find out what they really want and need from PR professionals.

Discover CisionOne: Onboarding Overview & Common Questions

Looking for the All-in-One PR Platform Built for Communicators? Welcome to CisionOne!

 

Choosing the right PR platform tool is no easy task, our team is ready to support your communication goals every step of the way.

What to Expect as a CisionOne Customer

When you choose CisionOne, you'll be paired with a dedicated account manager who becomes your product expert. They'll take the time to understand your unique challenges and objectives, providing personalized guidance tailored to your specific needs.

Comprehensive Support at Your Fingertips

Our commitment to your success includes:

  • Personalized Onboarding: One-on-one training sessions to hit the ground running
  • Self-Service Resources: Access to in-app training videos and detailed help articles
  • Ongoing Education: Regular webinars to help you maximize platform value
  • Expert Assistance: Direct support from your account manager whenever questions arise

We pride ourselves on being more than just a platform provider – we're your strategic communications partner.

Below, you'll find answers to frequently asked questions. Can't find what you're looking for? Please don't hesitate to contact us anytime – we're here to help.

Coverage and Data Quality

CisionOne monitors the following media types:

  • Print: Newspapers, magazines (articles from March 2022 onward for LexisNexis; other print content may vary)
  • Online: News websites, online publications (articles from March 2022 onward)
  • Broadcast:
    • Television: TV stations, programs (coverage from April 2023 onward)
    • Radio: Radio stations (coverage from April 2023 onward)
  • Podcast: Podcast episodes (coverage from June 2023 onward)
  • Social Media: 
    • Facebook (public pages, from October 2023)
    • YouTube (video titles and descriptions, from October 2023)
    • X/Twitter (tweets, comments, reposts, 30 days of historical data)
    • Reddit (threads and comments, rolling 90-day archive)
    • Bluesky
CisionOne offers extensive media monitoring across industries and regions, tailored to your specific needs. As part of our content enrichment process, we add audience and circulation data to all tracked articles, helping you understand the potential reach and impact of your media coverage. The depth of this data can vary depending on the product package you use and the region you're monitoring, but our goal is always to provide you with the most relevant, insightful, and actionable information for your PR efforts.
The database is a living, breathing resource that is being updated every day with new profiles, influencers moving publications, stale accounts being deleted, etc. We leverage proprietary data from our Outreach and Monitoring tools to understand the most important journalists and outlets to our clients, and prioritize the updating of these records accordingly.  
At CisionOne, journalist profiles are sourced through a combination of automated tools and trusted third-party providers. To maintain accuracy, our dedicated team of media research analysts regularly reviews and verifies this information, ensuring the database stays current, reliable, and relevant for your outreach needs.

CisionOne retains different types of content for varying lengths of time. Here's a breakdown:

  • Online Content: Generally available from March 2022, but this may vary by customer.
  • Broadcast (TV/Radio):  Available from April 2023 (TV/radio) and June 2023 (podcasts). Clips expire after 28 days (TV/radio) or 90 days (podcasts). After expiration, only the mention remains. Archiving is available for TV and radio content.

  • Print: Generally, from March 2022 (LexisNexis) with full content access for about two years. After that, only the mention is retained. NLA and CLA content have different rules:
    • NLA Print: 28 days
    • NLA Online: 100 days (NLA eClips), No Limit (NLA Wise)
    • CLA Print: 30 days
    • CLA Online: No Limit
  • Financial Times:
    • Print: 28 days (eClips)
    • Online: 30 months (defaults to CisionOne's 24-month limit)
  • Social Media Posts: Performance data for social media posts is kept indefinitely. Data is updated hourly for the first seven days and daily thereafter. Three months of retrospective data are fetched upon connection.

Features and Functionality

CisionOne monitoring offers extensive customization options for searches and alerts through Mention Streams: 

  • Keywords: Use simple keyword searches, advanced keyword searches (with Boolean operators like AND, OR, NOT), or even complex Boolean queries for precise targeting. Refine keywords with filters like case sensitivity, title search, author, media type, mention frequency, and proximity.
  • Media Types: Filter by online, print, broadcast, podcast, and social media, or select specific outlets within each type.
  • Sources: Include or exclude specific sources, or use advanced filtering by keyword, location, sector, category, source group, and media type.
  • Content: Filter by language, tags, author, word count, and page number. Cision-specific options include content type (NLA/CLA) for print.
  • Date Range: Specify custom date ranges for your searches.
  • Metrics: Filter by Potential Audience Reach (PAR), Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), sentiment, Impact Score, and React Score. PAR and AVE allow setting to minimum and maximum values.
  • Other: Exclude or include only external items. Control the handling of duplicate content.
  • Advanced Filters: Combine multiple filters for granular control. Access advanced source filters directly within the main filter pop-up.
  • Sorting: Sort results within Mention Streams by various metrics, including sentiment, reach, impact, and domain authority.
  • Mention Stream Reports: Generate filtered reports in PDF or CSV formats.

You can further customize how these Mention Streams are organized and displayed:

  • Grouping: Organize Mention Streams into custom groups.
  • Color-Coding: Assign colors to Mention Streams for easy visual identification.
  • Expiry Dates: Set expiry dates for Mention Streams to automatically remove outdated searches.

Yes, CisionOne allows you to set up various alert frequencies:

  • Real-Time Alerts (Live Notifications): Enable instant alerts for new mentions matching your criteria. Configure these for specific Mention Streams and choose delivery via mobile, email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams. More details can be found here: Monitoring - How to enable Live Notifications
  • Daily/Weekly Alerts (Scheduled Reports): Create automated reports delivered daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly, as needed. Customize the report content, format, recipients, and delivery time. You can also set up multiple schedules within a report to capture different timeframes. See Monitoring - Scheduled Email Reports for further information.

CisionOne offers automated sentiment analysis and manual sentiment overriding.

Automated Sentiment Analysis:

  • Applies to all content automatically.
  • Classifies content as Positive, Trending Positive, Balanced, Trending Negative, or Negative.
  • Uses of AI to assign these sentiment values.
  • Viewable on Mention Stream cards, List View, and Instant Insights charts.

 

Manual Sentiment Overriding (Social Media):

  • Allows manual rating of social media items on a 5-point scale (same as above).
  • Overrides the automated sentiment.
  • Applies the manual rating to all users in your organization.
  • Reflected in Social Stream and Sentiment charts.

 

React Score:

  • Uses 17 NLP models to measure impact indicators, including emotionality.
  • Emotionality indicators include sentiment, emotion, sarcasm, and subjectivity.
  • Viewable on Mention Stream cards, filterable in Mention Stream and List View, and charted in Instant Insights.
Yes, you can track competitor coverage alongside your own. You can create Mention Streams to monitor your organization and up to 10 competitors.  The Mentions Benchmark chart in Launchpad displays and benchmarks coverage volume for selected Mention Streams. Share of Voice compares coverage volumes for up to 12 Mention Streams. You can customize these charts to select the streams you want to compare. Click through to each Mention Stream to review the associated coverage.

Journalist profiles include:

  • Name
  • Job Role
  • Primary Email Address
  • Phone Number
  • Location and Address
  • Social Media Links (X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Websites)
  • Career/Biography
  • Language
  • Address
  • Outlets
  • Sectors
  • Recent Articles (past 30 days, filterable by Mention Stream for Monitoring customers)
  • Public Activity (past 30 days, filterable by date range or keyword search)
  • Lists (public lists, including the journalist)
  • Private Data (for adding private notes or contact details visible only to your organization)

Yes, you can segment media lists using a variety of criteria, including outlet type, region, and beat (topic/area of coverage). There are several ways to create targeted lists:

  • Outlet Profile: Access outlet information, including media type and location, directly through the Outlet profile. From there, you can add journalists associated with that outlet to a new or existing list. You can search outlets by name using Quick Search or the Search page.
  • Journalists Tab: Within the Outlet profile, the Journalist tab allows you to view and select journalists based on their affiliation with the outlet. Use the search bar within this tab to filter journalists by name. Selected journalists can be added to lists.
  • Mention Stream Filters: Filter news coverage within Mention Streams by keywords, date range, sources, and media types. This allows you to identify relevant journalists and outlets based on their published content, which can be used for list creation. Access Mention Stream Filters via the funnel icon at the top of any Mention Stream.

User Experience

CisionOne is built with the user experience at its core -designed to streamline your PR workflow and ensure you have the tools and insights needed to execute your PR strategy effectively. Key features include:

  • All-in-One Platform: Seamlessly integrates Monitoring, Social, and Outreach tools into one streamlined workspace.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive layout for easy navigation and quick access to essential tools.
  • Quick Action Buttons: Perform frequent tasks in just one click to save time and boost efficiency.
  • Customizable Widgets: Personalize your experience with data visualizations that reflect what matters most to you.
  • Tailored Dashboards: Choose from a variety of chart types and new widgets that deliver actionable insights from both Mention Streams and Social Streams—giving you a full view of media coverage and social conversations in one place.
Cision One does have a mobile app for iOS. You can switch between multiple Cision One accounts within the app.
Training needs vary depending on the features included in your package. However, most teams find that a one-hour session is sufficient to get up and running with confidence.

Yes, CisionOne allows multiple team members to collaborate within the platform using Team Workspaces. Super Users can create dedicated workspaces and assign users to different teams. This allows for collaboration within the assigned team, while keeping information separate from other teams. Members of a team can share:

  • Mention and Social Streams
  • Tagged Folders
  • Public Reports (Curated Email Reports and Scheduled Reports)
  • Dashboards (Instant Insights and Social Analysis)

Users can also be assigned to multiple teams, enabling collaboration across different workspaces as needed. Super users have access to all team workspaces.

Yes, unlimited dashboards are included, and you can share them with only specific people, a specific team, or every user on the account. CisionOne’s Instant Insights tool allows you to create and save customized Dashboards to display and compare data from your chosen Mention Streams in various interactive charts and tables. Insights Dashboards can be used to track ongoing issues in real time and to produce tailored monthly, quarterly, and ad-hoc campaign reports for your stakeholders in both PDF and HTML formats.

Reporting and Analytics

CisionOne offers several reporting options:

  • PDF/HTML Reports: These standard reports encompass your media coverage and analysis for a specific timeframe, incorporate your branding, and allow you to add a custom summary. They are ideal for comprehensive campaign summaries.
  • CSV Reports: These reports present your data in comma-separated values, enabling custom analysis, data merging, and chart creation. They are suitable for tracking coverage, performing analysis, and establishing KPIs.
  • Social Stream Reports (PDF/HTML & CSV): These reports collate social coverage and insights from a chosen Social Stream. They offer filtering options like author/handle, verified/followers, keywords, sentiment, etc. You can generate them directly from a Social Stream or the Reports tab.
  • Mention Stream Reports (PDF & CSV): These reports compile coverage and insights from a dedicated Mention Stream. They can be filtered by author/source and other criteria. You can access them via Launchpad, an individual Mention Stream, or the Reports tab.
  • Scheduled Email Reports: Designed for internal use, these automated reports keep stakeholders informed about media activity. You can customize the frequency of the scheduled email reports from hourly to weekly.
  • Tagged Mentions Reports (Curated Email Reports): These curated reports focus on specific coverage pieces, making them useful for targeted reporting or including only a small portion of your total coverage.
  • Curated Email Reports: Generate curated reports based on specific media briefs, group media into sections, and prioritize articles within those sections. You can also track analytics like email opens, item views, and engagement rates. Access audience data directly on the Launchpad after sending the report.
Yes, CisionOne makes it easy to connect media coverage to your business KPIs. With advanced analytics and customizable dashboards, you can track metrics like reach, sentiment, share of voice, and media impact over time. These insights help you understand how your PR efforts contribute to brand awareness, audience engagement, and business goals, so you can make data-driven decisions and demonstrate ROI to stakeholders.

CisionOne tracks several metrics beyond simple mention counts to provide deeper analysis of media coverage. These include:

  • Sentiment: Automated sentiment analysis on a 5-point scale (Positive, Trending Positive, Neutral, Trending Negative, Negative).
  • Share of Voice: Comparison of social mention volumes across different social streams.
  • Leading Hashtags: Word cloud of most commonly used hashtags.
  • Leading Themes: Word cloud of the most prominent keywords and themes.
  • Emoji Count: Volume-based analysis of top emojis used.
  • Influencers: Top X influencers based on following and mentions within selected Social Streams.
  • Article Impact Score: Assesses the impact of articles based on factors like sentiment, audience, domain authority, and entities mentioned. This score is categorized into Low (0-200), Medium (201-350), and High (351+).
  • React Score: Employs 17 NLP models to measure indicators of harm, controversy, spam, and emotionality within media content. This provides a contextual analysis of the articles. Each category is scored as a percentage.

Additionally, for social media, CisionOne tracks:

  • Total Engagement: Total number of reactions, comments, and shares.
  • Engagement Rate: Percentage of impressions that engaged with a post.
  • Impressions: Total number of times a post appeared on someone's feed.
  • Reach: Unique views of a post.
  • Reactions: Total of all different reactions (likes, etc.) for a post.
  • Comments: Number of comments and replies to a post.
  • Shares: Number of shares and retweets.
  • Total Clicks: Total number of clicks on a post.

Yes, CisionOne offers automated and scheduled reporting. You can set up Scheduled Email Reports for one or multiple Mention or Social Streams. These reports can be customized with your branding, recipient list, and delivery schedule. They can be delivered once, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.

  • Scheduled Reports (Monitoring): Ideal for internal use, keeping stakeholders informed. Frequency is customizable, from one hour to one week. Access them via the Reports tab or the “Build a Report” button in Launchpad. More details can be found here: Monitoring - Scheduled Email Reports
  • Scheduled Reports (Social): Set up for one or multiple Social Streams, customized with branding, recipient list, and delivery schedule. Create a new report by clicking the Reports tab and selecting + New Report. For additional information, see Social - Scheduled Email Reports
  • Managing Scheduled Reports: View, edit, pause, resume, or delete scheduled reports in the Reports tab under Scheduled Reports. For more information, see Monitoring - Managing Scheduled Reports
Yes, CisionOne reports generated from Social Streams can be exported in both PDF and CSV/Excel formats. Mention Stream reports can be exported as PDF, CSV/Excel, or both simultaneously. You can access previous reports via the Reports tab. While viewing a report online, you also have the option to download it.

Integration and Workflow

There are several tools you can integrate with CisionOne.

Communication tools:

You can integrate Slack or Microsoft Teams with the CisionOne platform to receive Live Notifications for specific Mention Streams.

Click on your initials at the top left of the screen and select Organisation and then Integrations.

Slack and Teams each have their respective Integrate buttons. To integrate Teams into CisionOne, you’ll need to copy and paste the token displayed on screen when prompted.

Integration through APIs:

CisionOne integrates with other tools through its API. This allows you to connect your media monitoring data with your internal tools. You can access data such as a list of mentions, aggregated Mention Stream data, and a list of Mention Streams in your account. The API returns data in JSON and CSV formats. For more information, see the developer documentation.

Analytics:

CisionOne also integrates with Google Analytics, allowing you to visualize website traffic alongside mention volume. This integration requires a GA4 Property ID and Stream ID. More details on setting up the Google Analytics integration can be found here.

 

Yes, you can distribute press releases directly through the CisionOne platform. You can create and send Media Releases in three ways:

  • From the Outreach Launchpad
  • From any existing List
  • From the Activities page

You can add recipients individually, using lists, or manually, and even schedule releases for future delivery. CisionOne also automatically de-duplicates recipients if they appear in multiple lists. More information can be found in these articles:

Yes, CisionOne offers a REST API that allows you to connect your media monitoring data with your own internal tools. You can retrieve data such as:

  • A list of mentions for a Mention Stream (including metadata).
  • Aggregated Mention Stream data summaries.
  • A list of Mention Streams within a user’s account.

More information can be found in the CisionOne Developer Docs.

Please note: API access requires a token generated through CisionOne Admin.

Cost and ROI

CisionOne offers flexible pricing tailored to your specific needs, including options based on users, features, and service levels. You can explore the standard pricing structure here: Pricing Plans.  For a customized package that aligns with your goals, we recommend speaking directly with your Cision representative.

CisionOne helps demonstrate PR ROI through detailed analytics and reporting within the platform. Specifically, you can use Pitch Analytics (similar to Media Release reporting) to track key metrics. This data can be accessed by clicking the pie chart icon in the Activities table or the “Go to Report Analytics” button when a pitch is sent. For further information on reporting, please see this article on Outreach Campaign Analytics: Outreach: Campaign Analytics

CisionOne is designed to streamline your PR workflow and significantly reduce the time spent on manual tasks. Key areas of time savings include:

  • Centralized Workflow with Launchpad: Monitor all your media coverage in one customizable view, combining Mention Streams for faster insights and decision-making.
  • Shared Mention Streams: Keep stakeholders informed with real-time updates on important topics, streamlining communication.
  • Instant Insights: Create custom dashboards to compare data from up to 12 Mention Streams. Generate tailored reports in PDF and HTML formats.
  • Simplified Reporting: Easily set up and share tailored reports with stakeholders, reducing time spent on compiling and formatting data.
  • Faster Media Outreach: Reduce time spent on cold outreach with tools that identify the right journalists and suggest proven outreach strategies.
  • AI-Powered Drafting: Automatically generate subject lines and pitch copy, enabling quicker, more effective communication.
  • Efficient Personalization: Access journalist profiles directly within the workflow to craft targeted messages without switching tools.
  • Streamlined Distribution: Enjoy an intuitive sending experience similar to Media Releases, with built-in tracking and performance monitoring.

Support and Success

We offer a comprehensive onboarding experience that includes support from a dedicated onboarding consultant. They’ll guide you through the setup process and ensure your team feels confident using all key features of the CisionOne platform. Additional training sessions and resources are also available based on your needs.

CisionOne provides a variety of ongoing support options to ensure your continued success, including:

  • Live webinars and on-demand training sessions
  • Weekly Office Hours with our product experts
  • Access to our Help Site for self-service resources
  • In-platform chat support within CisionOne
  • Direct access to our Customer Support Team for more specific queries
We release new features on a regular basis, ranging from smaller enhancements to major updates, all designed to continuously improve the CisionOne experience.