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How to Submit and Distribute a Press Release

Write a press release, pass review, choose the newsrooms that should receive it, and distribute it. Your first submission takes about fifteen minutes once your text and images are ready.

No account yet?

You need an organization account before you can submit. See How to Create Your Organization Account first.

A Note About Early Access

While Inbox is in early access, you won't be asked to pay anything: every target shows a green "Free during beta" badge instead of a price, and no payment step runs. Neither submitters nor newsrooms are charged during early access. We really appreciate your help improving the platform.

Before You Begin

You will need:

  • An organization account on Inbox (see How to Create Your Organization Account)
  • Your press release text: headline, dateline, lead paragraph, and body
  • A media contact: the name and email a journalist should follow up with
  • Any images or documents you want to attach (optional, up to 25 MB per file)

Instructions

Start a New Submission

  1. Sign in and open your dashboard at https://business.pluckyworks.org/app/.

  2. Click + New Submission in the navigation bar.

  3. A pop-up window called a modal asks "What would you like to submit?". Click Press release, "Standard announcement distributed to newsrooms."

    The other types (media opportunity, op-ed, financial report, sponsored content) follow these same steps; guides focused on them are coming soon. The Event type is not available yet and is marked "Coming soon".

  4. A draft is created and the four-step wizard opens on its first step. The progress strip across the top shows all four: Content, Media, Distribution, and Review & Pay.

    Your work is saved as a draft at every step, so you can leave and come back any time. Unfinished drafts wait on your dashboard.

Write the Content

The Content step holds the press release itself. Fields marked with * on the page are required.

Field Required? What to enter
Headline Required The announcement's title, as editors will see it in their search results.
Subheadline Optional A secondary line of context under the headline.
Dateline City Required The city the news is datelined from (for example, "Kokomo").
Region Optional The state or region for the dateline.
Dateline Date Required The date for the dateline, usually the announcement date.
Lead Paragraph Required The opening paragraph: who, what, when, where, and why, in up to 1,000 characters. Editors often read only this far, so put the news here.
Body Text Required The rest of the release, written in the rich text editor, the writing area with a formatting toolbar for bold, lists, and links.
Boilerplate Optional The standard "About [your organization]" paragraph that closes a press release.
Contact Name Required The person a journalist should contact with questions.
Contact Email Required That person's email address.
Contact Phone Optional That person's phone number.
Priority Optional Leave on Standard for most releases. Urgent marks the release with an "Urgent" flag in editors' lists. Reserve it for genuinely time-critical news.
Hold for embargo Optional Check this to block downloads until a date you choose, then set Embargo until. Editors can see the release is coming but cannot download it until the embargo lifts.
SEO Title / SEO Description / Canonical URL Optional Search-engine settings for the public copy of your release. Leave them blank to have sensible values generated. Review will suggest improvements if they help.

Click Continue to media (or Save as draft to stop here).

Add Media

All media is optional. You can embed videos by URL, or attach files up to 25 MB each: images (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, SVG), PDFs, and Word documents.

  1. Under Add a file, choose a file from your computer, or paste a YouTube or Vimeo link under Or paste a video / embed URL.

  2. Click Add to media. The file uploads and appears in the media list, where you can add a caption.

  3. Repeat for each additional file, then click Submit for review.

Pass Review

Submitting takes you to the Submission review page, which first shows "Reviewing your submission" while Inbox's custom AI reviewer checks the release for safety, editorial quality, and search-engine optimization, making sure everything you send is easy for editors to actually use. The page updates by itself, and most reviews finish within a few minutes. There are three outcomes:

  • Review passed: "Your submission is ready to distribute." If a Recommended SEO improvements panel appears, you can click Apply suggestions to accept the suggested search-engine settings, or ignore them. Click Continue to distribution.

  • Review needs revisions: the page lists specific findings, grouped by category, and suggested next steps. Click Return to draft and edit, fix the flagged items, and submit again. There is no limit on resubmissions.

  • Awaiting manual review: the newsroom partner that runs this Inbox site reviews submissions by hand. Your release waits in their queue, and you'll be notified by email when a person approves it or returns it with notes. Once approved, you can continue to distribution from your dashboard.

Choose Where to Distribute

The Distribution step, titled "Choose where to distribute", is where you pick the newsrooms that will receive your release.

  1. Find newsrooms using the map or the search box. Targets come in two kinds, listed beside the map:

    • All groups: networks of newsrooms. Adding a group reaches every outlet in it at once.
    • Individual outlets: single newsrooms.

  2. Click + Add next to each group or outlet you want. It moves into your Distribution list on the right, where each entry shows its price. Remove an entry with its × button.

  3. When your list is complete, click Continue to review.

Review and Distribute

The final step, "Review & submit", shows everything in one place: an "About this submission" summary and the total cost on the left, and a full preview of your press release, exactly as editors will see it, on the right.

  1. Read the preview carefully. This is your last look before editors see it.

  2. Check the Legal agreement box:

    I confirm that I own or have rights to all content and media in this release. I grant receiving outlets the right to reproduce, modify, and quote this material in news coverage. I understand that payment does not guarantee publication by any outlet.

  3. Click Distribute (no payment required).

What Happens Next

  • Your release is delivered to every newsroom on your distribution list, directly into their editors' editorial workflow: it appears in the Paid Content tab on Wire, where editors can search it, read it, and download the text and media for their coverage.
  • A public web page for your release is created; its link appears on the submission's detail page in your dashboard, ready to share on your own channels.
  • If you set an embargo, editors can see the release listed but cannot download it, and the public page stays hidden, until the embargo lifts.
  • Your dashboard moves the submission to Distributed and starts counting engagement (headline views, previews, downloads, and inquiries) so you can see exactly how editors interact with your work.
  • Whether any outlet publishes a story is each editor's decision. Distribution puts your news in front of them; it does not guarantee coverage.

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

  • The review page has said "Reviewing your submission" for a long time: The page refreshes itself every few seconds and most reviews finish within minutes. If yours hasn't finished after half an hour, email support.
  • "Awaiting manual review" isn't changing: A person at the newsroom reviews submissions by hand, on their own schedule. You'll get an email as soon as they decide.
  • Review keeps returning my release: Each finding names what to fix and where. Address every finding before resubmitting: the same problems produce the same result.
  • My file won't upload: Check that it's under 25 MB and in a supported format (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, SVG, PDF, DOC, DOCX). Video must be added as a YouTube or Vimeo link, not a file.
  • A newsroom I want to reach isn't listed in Distribution: The list shows only newsrooms accepting submissions through this Inbox site. If a newsroom you work with isn't there, email hello@pluckyworks.org and we'll let you know when they join.
  • I distributed it and then spotted an error: Publish a correction. See How to Correct, Retract, or Archive a Press Release.
  • Still stuck? Email support@pluckyworks.org.