PR Newswire started out in 1954 as a vendor hired by companies and agencies to send out text press releases to the media. Today, PR Newswire is hired by corporations, public relations firms and non-governmental organizations to deliver news and multimedia content. Recipients include the media, consumers and investors who access the content via the Web, RSS, e-mail, satellite, equities terminals (such as Bloomberg and Reuters), and direct feeds into newsroom editorial systems. The headquarters are in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Public corporations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other nations, use PR Newswire as a method of reaching the investment and financial news community with important news and announcements, thus achieving the standard of "simultaneous disclosure" required by financial markets and regulatory agencies.

Headquartered in New York, PR Newswire has offices in 16 countries and sends news to outlets in 135 countries. The company has several brands and services that include ProfNet, eWatch, MEDIAtlas, MultiVu, U.S. Newswire, Vintage Filings, MediaRoom and MediaSense. It also has agreements with global news agencies such as Bloomberg, the Associated Press, Dow Jones and Thomson Reuters to send information directly to newsrooms worldwide. PR Newswire is also partner with the African Press Organization. PR Newswire is a subsidiary of United Business Media Limited of London.

La Carmina is a Canadian blogger, author, journalist, and TV host. She specializes in Goth and Harajuku fashion and Japanese pop culture, and has been described as “kind of adorable, in a somewhat bizarre way” by Andrea Walker in The New Yorker. She appeared in one of the segments on the Tokyo episode of Bizarre Foods on Travel Channel.

La Carmina was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Her parents are from Hong Kong. She attended Columbia University and graduated in three years. She was accepted into Yale Law School at age 20 and graduated with a JD.

La Carmina's first book, Cosmos in the Carrot, was published by Parallax Press. She made the deal without an agent, but was later taken on by a New York literary agency. The book combines nutritional information and health advice with Buddhist notions of balance and moderation.

In September 2007, she began her La Carmina blog about Japanese and Gothic subcultures, Harajuku fashion and visual kei music. She is a professional blogger, and has cited sales of direct ads, Google AdSense, affiliate programs, sponsorships, RSS, search functions, and her YouTube videos as among her sources of income. Her blog has been quoted in Boing Boing and Women’s Wear Daily.