VMS Aquires PRtrak

September 16, 2023

Video Monitoring Services has acquired Pennsylvania-based PR measurement and evaluation company PRTrak. In addition to its tracking metrics and software, the move gives the media monitoring giant a regular voice on the PR measurement circuit with the addition of PRTrak founder/VP Angela Jeffrey as a VP.

Gary Ghetto, a development VP at Surveillance Data Inc., which acquired PRTrak in 2002, has also joined VMS as a VP.

CEO Peter Wengryn said VMS has licensed services from PRTrak in the past. He said the acquisition gives VMS two things: PRTrak's measurement software tools under its own roof, and "gravitas" in the PR measurement field.

PRTrak has developed software and metrics to gauge the effectiveness of PR programs and media placements, with some offerings available to smaller firms because of relatively low monthly fees. Jeffrey, who earlier ran her own Houston-based PR firm, Jeffrey Communications, has lectured widely on PR measurement with a strong focus on proving PR's value by connecting media coverage to sales and criticizing the use of advertising equivalency as the lone benchmark for gauging PR.

Wengryn said VMS' acquisition will enable Jeffrey and Ghetto to continue developing their products. "We will be able to make investments in the company that they couldn't make on their own," Wengryn told O'Dwyer's.

PRTrak services will be folded into New York-based VMS' flagship Integrated Media Intelligence platform.

Jeffrey remains based in Houston