Well I didn't mean article websites
I had an article picked up by a UK national newspaper, they found it by simply visiting Google and finding the article. This newspaper has a distribution of 1million all over the UK. It cost me nothing and brought thousands of new visitors to my travel blog.
The only way your going to get a story picked up on the likes of PRweb.com by the likes of CNN is if you pay big money to get on the first page or have a very unique story to tell.
Yes these sites are good at getting links, but unless you have the $$$ or have a very unique story you have no chance of getting featured on CNN.