They were three. And now they are one.

After Cision’s private-equity-fuelled acquisition of Gorkana this week, hot on the heels of the announcement of the company’s merger with Vocus, the media database market in the UK looks radically different.

But what does it mean?

Cision of course claims the creation of a PR software ‘powerhouse’ will bring advantages to its customers.

But some commentators have made utterances of reduced competition.

As someone who operates in this market (specifically with our FeaturesExec Media Database), I would be concerned if market changes resulted in reduced competition. That’s not good for PR customers and not good for the industry.

But I do not think that time is now.

I believe, despite the massive Cision/Vocus/Gorkana family, there is still a healthy amount of competition.

Not that long ago there was a dominant service in the UK media database sector. Its market share gradually diminished as smarter web-based competitors launched and grew. Customers benefited from this increased choice and standards went up.

Now, although the Cision machine has gobbled up two of its competitors in the UK, we are a long way away from those bad old days. There are still a number of players, in addition to us, to choose from. And here at DWPub we’ll be working harder and smarter than ever to provide the media database the UK PR industry deserves.