How do I upload a press release onto the PA Media news wire?
Your press release is uploaded onto the national news wire via a webform. The webform will be personalised to you and your organisation and will look like the below example. Your webform URL will be unique to you and also be password protected. You will be given these details after your onboarding session.
Confirming that you are the sender of the press release
The first field to complete on the upload webform is a radio button which appears alongside your company or organisation name. This needs to be filled in to let our system know who is sending the release so we can tag it in the correct way with your company information and add it to your channel on our Partner Content Page in the Explore platform when the release is distributed.
This is a mandatory field and must be completed. The radiobutton is in question one (see screenshot below) and must be populated.
What is an embargo and how do I add one to my press release?
The next fields on the webform are for embargo.
A news embargo or press embargo is NOT a time save, but a way in which your press release can be distributed on the news wire and seen by media organisations but the content can only be used once the defined date or time has passed.
To add an embargo to your press release, choose ‘Yes’ for question two then select a date for the embargo to be lifted in the next field.
You then need to enter the time for the embargo to be lifted in field number four on the form. The format is HHMM, so for example, 1000 for a 10am embargo time.
PLEASE NOTE: Do not add anything in between the hours and minutes of the embargo time, like a colon or full stop, as this will prevent the release from publishing on the news wire.
The below example shows the correct formatting for an embargo date of 23/09/2022 with an uplift time of 09:00am.
The embargo time is in GMT, so during British Summer Time (Daylight Savings) please subtract an hour.
What if I do not need an embargo?
If you do not require your release to be issued under an embargo, select the “No” option on your webform as shown below.
Selecting a Topic
- The topic of your press release is a mandatory field and must be completed. The topic ensures that your press release is distributed in the correct area of the news wire and reaches journalists who are interested in this area.
- Your webform will have a pre-defined list of available topics which match the topics used for news stories on the PA news wire. There are some which have not been added but can be included on your webform by request if required.
- A full list of available Topics can be found below.
Selecting keywords for your press release
- Each press release needs two keywords. These are mandatory fields and are used as a way to capture the main focus of the release at a glance.
- Keywords can only contain letters, numbers or spaces. Do not use any punctuation or special characters in the keyword fields.
- Keyword 1 is the primary Keyword for your press release and can have a maximum of 21 characters including spaces. We recommend that Keyword 1 is the name of the main company or organisation relevant to the release.
- Keyword 2 is the secondary Keyword and can have a maximum of 14 characters including spaces. This could be a product or service name, the name of an individual or company, or something else central to the release.
- As an example if you were to create a press release relating to a company which has created a series of online music videos you would use the below Topic and Keywords.
Topic: ARTS
Keyword 1: Music
Keyword 2: (Company Name)
Adding a headline
The headline of your press release must be a maximum of 99 characters including spaces. Special characters can be added to your headline. We advise that you use sentence case (see below) for your headline to keep it the same as all other releases and stories running on the newswire.
Please do not add any HTML mark-up to this field.
Adding your press release text
The next three fields in your webform are for the main body of your press release.
- You can type your press release into these fields, or you can copy and paste your press release into the webform.
- When adding text you will not need to add additional line spacing in between paragraphs as the webform will format this in for you when it is uploaded.
- Each field (7, 8 and 9) has a limit of 4,000 characters. If you are copying and pasting into these fields, when you hit the 4,000 character limit the text will be truncated (cut off). In this scenario, please delete back to the start of that sentence then paste from that point into the next field.
- You can add URLs or website links into these fields in the following way:
Please note, you do not need to add any HTML mark-up, the URLs will become hyperlinked when the release is uploaded.
Textfield 1- Mandatory Field
This text field can have a maximum of 4,000 characters including spaces. Please do not add any HTML mark-up to this field.
Textfield 2 – Optional Field
- This text field can be used if you do not have enough characters for your press release in field 7. This field also has a maximum of 4,000 characters including spaces. Please do not add any HTML mark-up to this field.
- When the release is distributed onto the wire the release is formatted so that these text fields will flow seamlessly as one publication.
Textfield 3 – Notes to Editors – Optional Field
- This section is usually used to add any notes to editors, contact details or information you want to give to the media that you do not want to be published.
- This text field can have a maximum of 4,000 characters including spaces. Please do not add any HTML mark-up to this field.
- It is possible to use this field as an overflow for your text should you need to do so if your press release is long and you have exceeded the space in fields 7 and 8.
Adding images to your press release
- You can include a logo and up to three images with your press release.
- In order to add a logo or images you will need to enter a publicly accessible link (URL) for each one into the webform. This means that if anyone pastes one of these URLs into a web browser, the image will resolve and be able to be seen, i.e. it has public and unrestricted access. We recommend using Google Drive for this.
- If you are not using Google Drive to generate the image URL, please ensure you have sent us the domain name of your image hosting site in the customer set-up form to ensure your images get displayed.
- To add images select the “yes” option in field 10 and click “Next”.
- The first image you will be asked to upload is your logo.
- If you do not wish to add a logo then leave the image detail fields blank on this page, select “Yes” on field 14 and click “Next” to add your other images.
Adding your logo and images using Google Drive
- Open Google Drive and click “New” in the top left corner.
- Select “File Upload” – This will open your file explorer where you can select the image files you wish to upload. Select the images and click “Open”.
- The images will then appear on your Google Drive.
- Right click your logo/image and click “Get Link”
- You will then need to ensure that you amend the General Access setting to “Anyone with the link” and ensure that it is set to “Viewer” as pictured below.
- Click “Copy Link” to copy it to your clipboard and paste this into the URL field on the webform. Below is an example of how a link should look once it has been pasted into the field.
- Enter a caption for your image/logo. Where possible we recommend a good descriptive caption as this will help to generate further interest with your press release.
- Please enter the copyright information for any images/logo in the copyrights field. It is your responsibility to ensure you have the correct permissions for the distribution of this image to the media.
- You then need to repeat this process to add any images to your press release.
- Once you have added your logo and images, press the ‘Submit’ button in the webform. This will then start the approval workflow.
Approving/Rejecting Submissions
- Once you have pressed the Submit button in your webform you will receive a message on the screen advising you it has been submitted. You will also receive an approval email which will allow you to confirm the submission by either approving the release for distribution, or rejecting it.
- The email will contain a .txt file of your submission. This file contains all of the information you have added into the webform and is your last chance to check the content for errors/formatting issues before it is uploaded to the news wire.
- It is always best practice to open the .txt file and check the file content is correct before pressing approve.
- Below is an example of the email you will receive once you have submitted your Press Release.
.txt File Format
- The below image is an example of what the .txt file should look like when formatted correctly.
- The below image is an example of what an incorrectly formatted .txt file may look like. Here you can see that the text has wrapped and is not displaying correctly.
- In these files, each line equates to a paragraph of text.
- If the formatting is not correct it is best practice to reject the press release and resubmit a new one via your webform. Do this by clicking the ‘Reject’ button in the approval email.
- If the formatting is correct you can approve the press release by clicking on the ‘Approve’ button in the approval email. This will distribute it onto the PA newswire IMMEDIATELY.
- If you want to prepare the press release, check it and then approve it at a specific time, this is possible. Only press the ‘Approve’ button at the time you want the release to be distributed. If you have added an embargo to your release, this will be shown.
Please note: If you send your press release under embargo, the press release will not automatically republish on the newswire when the embargo lifts. If you wish, you can reupload your release again when the embargo date and time has passed and let us know on pabusinessoperations@pamediagroup.com and we will count this as the same credit.
- If you need to change who receives approval emails in your organisation, please let us know at pabusinessoperations@pamediagroup.com.
I’ve noticed a mistake with my press release, what should I do?
- If you spot the error on the day you have uploaded the release:
To correct or update a press release that has already been submitted you will need to submit another form with the same topic and keywords as the initial submission with the corrections/updates.
- If you spot the error any day after the original upload date
You can contact our Customer Services team on customer.services@pamediagroup.com and ask them to remove the press release for you. You can then upload a corrected version using your webform.
If you update a press release by removing an image, this image will be unlinked to the press release however the image could be visible in other parts of the system.
For further guidance or assistance with using your webform or for any queries please contact: pabusinessoperations@pamediagroup.com
What will my press release look like on the PA news wire?
- Once you have approved your press release submission it will be sent down the national newswire and be available to all of our media outlets.
- Below is an example of what a press release typically looks like on the platform.
Topics explainer for Press Release Distribution webform customers
Press Release Distribution Webform customer analytics
Distribution box: The figure here shows the combined number of wire sends and email sends for your press releases for the selected week. This adds together every time a press release was emailed to a journalist, plus the 137 news organisations who receive the press releases directly into their own content management systems.
Views box: This is the number of journalists who have viewed the press release in Explore and also who were sent the release on email and looked at it there. This is a minimum number of views, as some data cannot be captured due to the presence of ad blockers. Also we cannot interrogate data from views of releases made in customer content management systems. When a release is sent on the news wire, it is sent to customer systems which we don’t have access to, so journalists could also view the releases there, but we cannot get the figures for that.
Graph: This shows figures for press release distribution (purple) and press release views (yellow) on a month-by-month basis. Press release distribution counts as wire sends plus email sends. Views count as views in Explore and via email, and does not include any views in customer content management systems.
Top viewers: This shows the news organisations which have interacted with your releases the most. This includes PA Editorial staff (which is split out from other customer data). The ‘Others’ category groups together the smaller numbers to make the pie chart data readable.
Most viewed: This shows the press releases which had the most views that week.
Number of visits to Explore: This shows data on an hourly basis of the number of journalists logging on to our Explore system. This data shows when there are the most journalists using the system and may help to inform when you choose to send press releases.
Number of media organisations: This shows the number of media organisations which have logged in to use Explore on a daily basis. This is the number of organisations themselves and not the number of individual users.
Number of searches in a week: This is the number of searches in Explore by journalists using the search bar.
Number of saved searches: This shows the number of email alert searches set up by journalists. They will be sent an email when the criteria of a press release matches their saved search criteria.
Popular topics on Explore this week: This shows the top three topics which have had the most views by journalists in Explore that week across all content.