It’s an exciting day for all of us at Marketwired. Chief operating officer Jim Delaney has been promoted to CEO, and Michael Nowlan, who has served as CEO for the past 14 years, will remain on the Board of Directors.

Over the past year, Michael worked closely with the Board to ensure a smooth transition. In fact, when Jim was named chief operating officer, he filled a newly created role at Marketwired – one that was established in anticipation of this day. Over the past nine months, Jim and Michael have worked closely together to plan for an orderly, evolutionary change in leadership.

In the coming days, Jim will take to the blog to share more about his priorities with you. In the meantime, we’d invite you to read the release distributed earlier today. You can also join us on Twitter to wish Jim and Michael well in their new roles.

Today’s post is courtesy of our COO Jim Delaney

For me, one of the highlights of this time of year is college basketball’s March Madness. This year’s tournament has been particularly exciting because of its mix of traditional powerhouses – like Duke and Michigan – with upstart programs, like fan-favorites Florida Gulf Coast University, Virginia Commonwealth and Wichita State. Every year, I find myself drawn to see which up-and-comers will reshape the basketball landscape and which powerhouses will continue their domination.

Business experiences similar ebbs and flows. We have reliable, mega-brands brands that we can count on to consistently deliver top-notch products and services, just as we have startups seeking to disrupt “the way its always been done.”

What happens when brands embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and forward-thinking ideas found in startups and combine that with the acumen, resources and experience embedded in long-standing, successful companies?

This is the opportunity for today’s brands – big and small, established and emerging.

Our industry talks a lot about social business and the need to incorporate social technology throughout the enterprise. Well, we’re practicing what we preach. Over the past few years, we’ve been quietly embracing social technology to become an “open business.” In the process, we’ve transformed how we work, how our clients reach their customers and how we help them do it.

We’ve evolved from a wire service to a wired company. This week, we debuted a new brand. More than just a new name and fresh logo, this evolution reflects our commitment to blending old and new. Incorporating best practices with fresh practices. Combining tried-and-true reliability with nimble flexibility.  It’s about partnering with our clients to ensure they are “wired, plugged in, and connected” to the voice of their customers.   By harnessing the customer’s power of influence, our clients will fundamentally rethink how they design, develop, market, sell and service their products for their customers.

Today, Marketwired is an innovative, social communications company offering best-in-class news distribution and reporting and state-of-the-art social media monitoring and analytics. Need a game plan to stay ahead of the curve? We’ve got you covered.

Your customers are telling you – directly and indirectly – what they want and expect. Powered by Sysomos, the Marketwired product suite provides decision makers like you with real-time data, actionable insights and the confidence to make informed decisions. Analyze online conversations and data points to create and build influence. That’s what we call turning influence into opportunity.

Or, in the spirit of March Madness, it’s a slam dunk.

Today’s Post is from our CEO Michael Nowlan

It was Robert F. Kennedy who wrote, “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” We asked ourselves, “why not” with respect to our company. Why not evolve from a wire service to a wired company so we’re better positioned to keep our clients ahead of the curve? Over the past few years, we’ve embraced technology to move the company forward. And, now, we’re ready to share the outcome of our answering “why not?”

In the true spirit of business innovation, we’ve embraced technology to become an “open business”—improving our products, people and processes. More importantly, we’ve become a nimble, flexible partner for companies that are looking to leverage actionable insights to improve decision-making.

To reflect this shift, as of today, Marketwire and Sysomos become Marketwired. The updated name represents transformation—in how we work, how our clients reach out to customers and achieve growth, and how we help them do it. The similarity between the new company name and the old signals that we are preserving the best parts of our identity, while making these significant changes.

Our goal is to keep you ahead of the curve and expand how you think about social communications by including all the sources of influence on your business.  We want to help you find the conversations that count—those you want to influence and those that will influence your customers.  As the thousands of people, events and opinions influence your target markets, we can assist in turning that influence into advantage. That’s what we call the “Power of Influence.”

Will this change affect the products and services that we offer? Yes, it actually enhances them. Marketwired will still offer news release distribution and social media monitoring tools. The transformed Marketwired brand integrates these solutions, making it even easier for our clients to ‘create opportunity’ through easier access to all of the Marketwired services.

What is happening to the Sysomos name? It’s still a very integral part of Marketwired. Our social intelligence platform is powered by Sysomos, the world’s most comprehensive social monitoring solution.  A transformation in marketing reveals a rapidly growing emphasis on “revenue marketing” with a clear expectation that marketing efforts must directly drive revenue results.  And, big Data, or what we like to call “Smart Data,” is a major fuel to this revolution. Our technology is a social media guidance system for true customer connectivity—helping brands hone in on the influences that matter and becoming more influential in return.

Our evolution is about our customers and our community. When we talk about the “The Power of Influence,” it’s to show how our services revolve around influence—from the influence our clients want to create through the communications we distribute and publish for them to the influence consumers can have on our clients through social media.

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating our transformation and the opportunities that lie ahead. Tweet me at @MJNowlan and let me know how we can get you wired! You can also follow us at @marketwired and join our Facebook conversations.