I have a large number of on-topic backlinks from sites in my sector. My site is a news site, and generally gets new links to it each and every day. I have very few OBLs.

I'm trying to rank higher in Google, but I'm getting beat by some older authority sites that have been around for 5 years or so. This is despite the fact that I have more backlinks and in some cases more PR.

Because I have a PR5 and I'm very well known and respected in my industry, I have the opportunity to do some link exchanges other sites in the sector.

My basic stats are:
4,300 linking to
8,800 pages in Google
PR5 main page

My idea is to exchange top menu bar links with the following sites:

Site A
2,900 linking to
17,300 pages
PR5 main page
traffic: 500k daily pages
alexa 7000

Site B
828 linking to
325,000 pages
PR4 main
traffic: 2.5M daily pages
alexa 4000

Site C
3,500 linking to
1,200 pages
PR6 main

Site D
3,800 linking to
4,500 pages
PR7 main

Site E
2,900 linking to
100,000 pages
PR5 main

The links to me would be in the form of "widget news."

The links I'd send out would be in the form of "widget pictures," "widget videos," and so on. So these would be reciprocal, on every page, strictly between me and the partners... no linking across the other partners.

All links would be in a top above-the-fold navigational menu.

Would this help my ranking? Are there any risks to watch out for?