MultiVu (and me) 20 Years On

Picture it…New York City…2002

New York was still reeling from a horrible attack, newly engaged Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were dominating the celebrity headlines, Spiderman was a hot movie ticket, wars were raging in the world…. wait, so what’s changed? Actually, quite a lot.

In the fall of 2002, a 20-something me accepted a position as Manager of Media Relations for MultiVu. As I walked into my first day of work at our (then) office building on 7th Avenue, I was excited (and more than a little nervous) about the huge opportunity in front of me: to build a team and grow on the early success this smart and scrappy crew was already building in the broadcast PR industry and as part of PR Newswire.

From day 1 and every day for the next 20 years, my colleagues have been one of the very best parts of my job. The “MultiVu family” has seen a lot over the years, but these brilliant, funny, creative, inspiring colleagues and friends are a big reason why I’ve not just stuck around, but why I’m proud to work here.

I fully realize that a 20-year job tenure these days pretty much makes me a unicorn, but through the last 20 years another constant of MultiVu (and indeed, of life) is that things change. We adapt, we grow, we evolve, we try things, we learn, sometimes we make mistakes, but we’re consistently challenged and never bored.

Something else I’ve loved about working at MultiVu is that in the course of a day I might help support clients with a new consumer product launch, a breakthrough oncology FDA approval, a travel/tourism campaign, and a nonprofit public awareness campaign.

Although the diverse types of clients and brands we help support hasn’t changed markedly, how we go about supporting these clients and telling their stories has evolved dramatically. Way back in 2002, I would frequently hop in and out of a taxi, my first generation, brick-sized Nokia cell phone in one hand, beta tapes in the other. I’d hand deliver VNRs: produced video news releases that our team produced and pitched and hand them off to the national news desks and the national news feeds in New York. In 2002 the internet was in relative infancy; the only social network was newly launched Friendster.

Today, MultiVu celebrates 20 years of storytelling. We are still passionate about telling clients’ stories in a myriad of new ways. We have developed a Strategy team to harness the powers of all our solutions in more effective ways.

I have seen MultiVu pivot and evolve through innovation and necessity. Through the pandemic, MultiVu launched the Virtual Media Tour and doubled down on our Live Events to continue our partnerships with our clients without being in person. These virtual events have not only become a staple in our product arsenal, but a client favorite as we collectively learned to navigate in this new era.

Today we are Cision and PR Newswire’s content services experts and leaders in the industry. We continue to build on the proven success of our past, always with an eye to the future.

ABOUT THE EXPERT: ALISON WELZ

Alison Welz is the Executive Director, Client Strategy at MultiVu, a Cision company. She leads teams across the media relations, strategy, distribution and broadcast reporting groups. Alison’s strategic counsel has been instrumental in some of the largest consumer and healthcare announcements of the last decade. In 2000, Alison began her broadcast PR career at TVN (later acquired by News Broadcast Network) in New York as Media Relations Manager. While there she gained her first introduction to the world of broadcast PR, managing satellite distribution, media relations and assisting in onsite live event production. Alison forayed briefly into the agency world coordinating media campaigns primarily for technology and consumer clients. A graduate of Skidmore College and University College - Oxford, Alison Welz began her career working in the newsroom for Business Wire in both the Boston and New York offices. Alison splits her time between Austin, TX and New York City and is a two-time national karaoke league champion. Connect on LinkedIn