I run an E-Commerce site and also am launching a blog shortly. I want to be able to keep up to date on industry news in the industries that I will be both reporting on and writing about and also the companies that I will be selling products from.
How do I go about getting press releases from companies? I have seen bloggers refer to a press release. Is this something I can get automatically and do I contact the companies to get them or do I go to some type of website where I can choose companies to receive press releases from?
It’s not something you can get automatically (as most businesses use different methods and file formats to represent their press releases) and yes you probably will need to get permission to repost the press releases. While most press releases are released with the intention of being reposted elsewhere, they will still be subject to copyright. Essentially, it will be your responsibility to get in touch with those businesses and setup the relationships to relay information about them to your customers (and you’ll need to-do this manually). Though I’m not sure what the unique selling point of your service will be - people don’t want to just read press releases. 
Make a program for this !