Welcome to your go-to guide to Newswires! The Newswire feature allows you to assemble a press release and send it to global, national, and/or regional wires; groups of publications and downstream partners.
This article will walk you through the following.
What is Newswire?
Newswire is integrated into the Meltwater Platform, so you now have the luxury of sending your release whenever you'd like (whether it's in real-time or scheduled), on your own and without the hassle of going through a representative.
Newswire will take a press release and put it on the wire, an electronically transmitted service providing up-to-the-minute news stories to news desks and journalists. With over 100+ newslines, you can gain targeted, guaranteed coverage in a particular geo or beat.
Initial Set-Up
Before you send your first wire, you need to provide some details about your company (Name, Address, Primary Contact and a ticker symbol if you're public).
This approval process is in place to avoid spoofing and it takes the place of the verification call that used to happen with every single Newswire distribution. This process can take up to 24 hours to be completed. Because there is a one-time vetting process during the initial set-up, don't wait until the last minute to send your first wire.
To manage your accounts available to distribute wires:
Select Media Relations from the left-hand side navigation bar
Select the Newswire tab
Select the purple Actions button in the top right-hand corner (if you do not see this, check your user settings)
Select Manage Accounts
All approved companies will be displayed in the list with a green tick icon
To add a new company, Select + Add Company
Complete the fields
Select Ok
How to send a Newswire
Check out this product tutorial which will walk you through how to send a wire on your screen!
Select Media Relations from the left-hand side navigation bar
Select the Newswire tab
Select the purple Actions button in the top right hand corner
Choose to Create a Newswire
Select the destination for your newswire.
This page will display the number of wire credit remaining on your account. For further details into the exact areas included within your wire credit, please Live Chat into our Support team who can review your specific account detailsSelect Next
Complete the fields on the page, all fields with a * symbol are required.
Enter the Headline and point of origin within the designated fields and exclude this content from the body of the release.
When entering the Body content, we recommend copying the content from an already formatted document onto the text box. Remember to keep your formatting as simple as possible.
To include images, please note that these can not be embedded in the body of the release rather must be uploaded as attachments and require a byline for each image.Select up to 3 Industries (trades) available for the wire circuit you've selected.
Select up to 5 Subject Codes. Select the purpose for the release from the preset list (i.e. company announcement, etc)
Include 3 - 5 Release Tags. Tags improve your release's SEO with downstream partners.
Select Next
Select one of the scheduling options for when you want your newswire to go out. Here you can choose the release to be distributed to 'Send as soon as possible', 'Schedule date and time', or 'Save as a draft'.
Select Next
Review the final version of your release via the Preview Release option.
Under Send Notification Emails, enter recipient email addresses to receive reports on the wires progress such as the Cross Time and Full Reports.
Select Save
Once the status of your release has been updated to Scheduled, please note that the details of the release have been submitted to our newswire distribution partner and can not be edited.
If you would like to edit a scheduled distribution follow the steps below:
Hover over scheduled newswire, click 3 vertical dots, and then "Cancel"
The status of the newswire will change from "Scheduled" to "Cancelling"
After a few minutes, refresh the page. The release status will read "Canceled"
Hover over the canceled release and click "View Release"
A prompt will appear asking if it's okay to return the drafted newswire to a draft status - Click OK
Now that the newswire is a draft again, it can be edited and re-scheduled accordingly
Rejected Wires
If your wire is rejected that status of the release will update to 'Rejected'. For further details as to why this was rejected, please reach out to our team via Live Chat with the details of your release.
Translations & Financial Wires
There are regulatory requirements for earnings releases and financial wires with limit the ability for these to be submitting with the app.meltwater.com platform. As such our Support team will assist in the submission of these specialized wires.
Please note that if this is your first release we must allow time for additional account set up to ensure the distribution is formatted to meet regulatory requirements.
Wires which require translation also need additional processing time and as such our Support team will assist in the submission of these specialized wires. Note that the translated wires can be distributed at different times to the original wire if desired.
Please follow the below steps for our Support team's assistance with specialized wires:
Provide your release instructions within the GNW Required Form Required.docx
Download the file linked above and email the following items to wires@meltwater.com Completed Wire Required Release Form Press Release in a Word Document Issuing Company Logo in a JPEG format
Difference between Newswires and Pitching to Contacts
Distributing a press release with the Newswire integration and sending an email to Contacts are both great ways for you to publicize your brand, campaign or issue. However, they should be used differently.
| Newswire Integration | Pitching to Contacts |
What and how? | Coverage from a newswire is essentially paid media. Some even call it an advertisement. Because it’s paid, it guarantees a certain amount of coverage. | Coverage from interacting with a contact is earned media. You’re selling to a person, not a machine. Create very personalized communication in order to build a relationship. Remember: people don’t like to be spammed. |
When to use them | It’s good if you’ve got general news that you want broad coverage on. Examples: company announcements, new board members, funding & investment news, financial news | If you’ve discovered a contact who writes about things that are similar to what you want to publicize. Example: You found a tech writer that profiles female CEOs and you represent a tech company with a female CEO |
How does a journalist interact with them? | Traditionally, journalists subscribe to a newsline. Newswire services help them identify new stories & fact check. More often than not, journalists do not interact with them. Local papers & online sites will automatically reprint the release verbatim or pull headlines from distributions. They are also used by individuals in other roles, such as assignment editors, who distribute the releases to their writing staff based on their area of interest or beat. | If the email looks like a brochure or a press release, they’ll probably delete it or mark it as spam. If the email is personalized and shows you’ve done some research, they may respond |
Key Takeaways
Approval process
Before you send your first wire, you need to provide some details about your company (Name, Address, Primary Contact and a ticker symbol if you're public).
This approval process is in place to avoid spoofing and it takes the place of the verification call that used to happen with every single Newswire distribution. This process can take up to 24 hours to be completed. Because there is a one-time vetting process during the initial set-up, don't wait until the last minute to send your first wire.
Attachment Sizes
The total size of all wire attachments and your company's logo is up to 1.4MB
Logos appear properly on many downstream endpoints – like Yahoo – with the following dimensions: 400x400 with a white background. These dimensions are the most compatible we have seen, but it also does depend on the logo (rectangular vs square, for example).
Headline requirements
All headlines must be submitted in lower case as all caps headlines can not be accepted. Please ensure your submitted headline is accurate as this can not be changed after publishing.
Where can I find out more information? I want to become a Newswire expert.
Conner, Cheryl. “Press Releases Still Matter, But Not for the Reasons You Think.” Forbes.com. 28 Aug 2013.
Finley, Kate. “Why Newswire Services Don’t Work (and When They Do)” spinsucks.com. 27 Nov 2013. ← great comments on this one
Jas. “How Journalists Use Newswires.” Vitispr.com. 20 May 2015.
Sprung, Rachel. “When Press Releases Do (And Don’t) Help Your Marketing.” blog.hubspot.com. 14 Jan 2014.
Willaman, Mark. “Are Newswires Still Relevant?” hrmarketer.com. 5 Mar 2015.
💡 Tip
Need more help? Feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat or check out our Customer Community.
Find answers and get help from Meltwater Support and Community Experts.