diff --git a/quantmind/preprocess/pr_newswire.py b/quantmind/preprocess/pr_newswire.py
index 8f0e122..38ed0af 100644
--- a/quantmind/preprocess/pr_newswire.py
+++ b/quantmind/preprocess/pr_newswire.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
     HttpFetcher,
 )
 from quantmind.preprocess.news import (
+    build_news_identity,
     canonicalize_source_url,
     news_document_from_fetched,
     preprocess_news_document,
@@ -560,9 +561,10 @@ def _observation_from_row(
     canonical_url = canonicalize_source_url(urljoin(_BASE_URL, row.href))
     payload_match = _PAYLOAD_ID_RE.search(canonical_url)
     payload_id = payload_match.group("id") if payload_match else None
-    identity = _build_identity(
+    identity = build_news_identity(
+        source_type="press_release",
         payload_id=payload_id,
-        canonical_url=canonical_url,
+        source_url=canonical_url,
     )
     return PRNewswireObservation(
         identity=identity,
@@ -688,16 +690,6 @@ def _artifact_from_fetched(
     )
 
 
-def _build_identity(
-    *,
-    payload_id: str | None,
-    canonical_url: str,
-) -> str:
-    raw = "\x1f".join((_SOURCE, payload_id or canonical_url))
-    digest = hashlib.sha256(raw.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()
-    return f"news:{_SOURCE}:{digest}"
-
-
 def _failure(
     *,
     stage: NewsFailureStage,
diff --git a/tests/preprocess/test_pr_newswire.py b/tests/preprocess/test_pr_newswire.py
index 856b5f7..d7fca23 100644
--- a/tests/preprocess/test_pr_newswire.py
+++ b/tests/preprocess/test_pr_newswire.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import respx
 
 from quantmind.preprocess.fetch.http import FetchPolicy
+from quantmind.preprocess.news import build_news_identity
 from quantmind.preprocess.pr_newswire import (
     _collect_pr_newswire,
     _discover_pr_newswire,
@@ -107,6 +108,15 @@ def respond(request: httpx.Request) -> httpx.Response:
         self.assertEqual(
             len({item.identity for item in result.observations}), 3
         )
+        first = result.observations[0]
+        self.assertEqual(
+            first.identity,
+            build_news_identity(
+                source_type="press_release",
+                source_url=first.canonical_url,
+                payload_id=first.payload_id,
+            ),
+        )
         artifact = result.observations[0].discovery_artifact
         self.assertIn(
             b"Repeated", result.observations[1].discovery_artifact.bytes
@@ -368,7 +378,12 @@ async def test_collects_article_and_discards_raw_html_by_default(
         self.assertTrue(document.article_artifact.content_hash)
         self.assertTrue(document.discovery_artifact.bytes)
         self.assertEqual(
-            document.identity.split(":", 2)[:2], ["news", "pr-newswire"]
+            document.identity,
+            build_news_identity(
+                source_type="press_release",
+                source_url=document.canonical_url,
+                payload_id=document.payload_id,
+            ),
         )
         self.assertEqual(document.ticker_hints[0].symbol, "EXCO")