Cision US Inc.

Cision US Inc., a foreign-owned for-profit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, operates as a prime contractor providing media intelligence, earned media, and public relations software and services to federal agencies on a full and open competitive basis, with no set-aside posture across its federal prime footprint. The company is a subsidiary parent entity with a named subsidiary, Icontact LLC.

Cision's core federal capability centers on media monitoring, press release distribution, media analytics, and communications management platforms sold to civilian agencies as SaaS subscriptions, platform access, and bundled intelligence services. The company delivers daily news briefings, media clipping services, journalist and influencer databases, social media monitoring, broadcast tracking, and integrated communications dashboards. Representative work includes a $3.12 million definitive contract with the Environmental Protection Agency (awarded November 2021, running through November 2025) providing comprehensive media services to EPA headquarters and ten regional offices, including press release distribution systems, media contact tracking, and analytics capabilities processing up to 300,000 news stories annually; a $1.53 million definitive contract with the Food and Drug Administration (September 2021 through March 2025) for distribution of up to 360 English and 100 Spanish news releases annually to print, broadcast, and online media outlets; a $1.34 million time-and-materials definitive contract with the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (April 2023 through March 2028) for daily news briefings, clipping services, and analytics supporting approximately 4,000 OCC employee subscriptions; and a $611 thousand purchase order from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (March 2025 through March 2030) for news release distribution to a minimum of 3,000 media outlets, 24/7 media monitoring across all 210 U.S. Designated Market Areas, and social media management including access to a database of at least 350,000 journalists and bloggers. Cision also holds a single-award $4 million Blanket Purchase Agreement with the Executive Office of the President (awarded August 2021, running through September 2026) providing news monitoring, media analysis, daily news briefings, news clips, transcripts, and analytics to multiple EOP components including the White House Office, Office of the Vice President, and Office of National Drug Control Policy.

GSA Schedule labor portfolio spans three categories with hourly rates ranging from $95.00 (Analyst, bachelor's degree, two years' experience) to $145.00 (Analyst Manager, bachelor's degree, seven years' experience), with a mid-range Project Consultant role at $125.00 (master's degree, five years' experience). No security-cleared labor categories are offered. The portfolio positions Cision as a SaaS-delivery and business-services vendor rather than a personnel-augmentation or IT-staffing contractor.

Customer concentration is broad across civilian federal agencies. The top five customer agencies by award count — United States Marine Corps (20 awards), Treasury Department's Internal Revenue Service (13 awards), Federal Communications Commission (11 awards), Smithsonian Institution (10 awards), and National Institutes of Health Office of the Director (10 awards) — account for 13% of awards. By potential value, concentration shifts toward larger, longer-running contracts: the Social Security Administration leads with five awards totaling $2.4 million (primarily the $698 thousand maintenance-and-support contract for Cision PR software running through January 2027), followed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (9 awards, $1.4 million combined), Executive Office of the President White House Office (7 awards, $841 thousand), Federal Trade Commission (6 awards, $642 thousand including a $312 thousand recompete definitive contract through December 2028), and the Department of Transportation (5 awards, $630 thousand). Cision has worked across 153 distinct federal customer agencies in recent years, indicating a highly distributed customer base rather than agency-level concentration.

Vehicle positioning centers on two GSA Federal Supply Schedule vehicles: GS35F0668S carries 37 task orders valued at $8.4 million combined and appears to anchor the company's government-wide schedule presence, while GS35F0781R carries 52 task orders valued at $875 thousand combined. The Executive Office of the President single-award BPA (11316021A0006EOP) carries 16 task orders valued at $1.3 million combined, representing Cision's primary IDV footprint outside GSA. The company also holds a newly awarded GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract (October 2025 through October 2030) with a $5 million ceiling, establishing government-wide multiple-award access to media intelligence platform solutions effective in the near term.

Activity shows a declining trajectory year over year: 20 prime awards in 2022, declining through 13 in 2023, 14 in 2024, and 10 in 2025. Only 2 awards have posted year-to-date in 2026 (as of source date 2026-07-15). Fourteen awards (combined potential value $3.3 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, exposing the vendor to recompete risk on a material share of its near-term pipeline. Total combined potential value across the 500-award prime footprint is $51.6 million, with $30.1 million (58%) obligated to date.

SCI-reported activity shows Cision delivering federal services contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold across 17 prime and 1 sub record, generating $1.6 million in invoiced revenue from FY2022 through FY2024. SCI-reported invoicing climbed from $197 thousand in FY2022 (0.6 FTEs) to $860 thousand in FY2024 (2.7 FTEs at contract level), with the second-year FY2023 sitting at $565 thousand across 1.6 FTEs. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates ran around $163.89 per hour, with the 10th percentile at $130.05 per hour and the 90th percentile at $197.72 per hour, reflecting a mix of analyst and project management labor. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, zero percent of contractor hours were performed by subcontractors, indicating Cision builds its own delivery teams and does not rely on sub-engagement for federal services execution. The broader prime award footprint is 100% prime (498 of 500 awards), with only 2 subcontract positions (0% of award count), confirming Cision operates as a prime-only vendor with negligible sub exposure.

Cision's subcontract footprint is minimal in the source data. Two named sub awards position the company as a subcontractor to National Opinion Research Center (NHANES data collection procurement, April 2025) and to ICF Incorporated (National Institute on Drug Abuse media support services, July 2024, procuring Cision Comms Cloud and Bulletin Intelligence subscription). Sub awards are atypical in the footprint and likely represent pass-through arrangements where the prime leverages Cision's SaaS platforms rather than Cision providing direct labor or services.

The company's NAICS and PSC footprint reflects software and information-services posture. Top NAICS codes include Software Publishers (85 awards), Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals (77 awards), and All Other Information Services (56 awards). Top PSCs are Books And Pamphlets (73 awards, likely capturing press release distribution), Information Technology Software (69 awards), and IT And Telecom Web-Based Subscription (52 awards), reinforcing Cision's positioning as a SaaS and subscription-software vendor rather than a labor contractor or traditional IT services prime.