Sending a release is the step where your article leaves the dashboard and actually reaches journalists. The UI is intentionally short — you pick the article, pick the lists, review what you're sending, and click send.
Before you send
Three things should be in place:
- The release is written and published as a regular article. Unpublished drafts can be sent, but when the email links back, the recipient sees a 404 — so publish first.
- Your distribution lists are built and current. See Distribution lists.
- The article has a sensible title, main image, and short description — those are what journalists see first in the email.
Step by step
- From the channel's dashboard, click Press → Send.
- Pick the Article you want to send. The dropdown is every published article in the channel.
- Pick one or more Distribution Lists. Contacts on multiple selected lists are de-duplicated.
- Review the Subject line. It defaults to the article's title — edit it freely. The subject is what drives open rates, so don't just accept the default.
- Write a Custom Message if you want a personal note above the article content. This shows at the top of the email before the article body.
- Review the recipient preview — every contact that will receive this send, with email and preferred language.
- Click Send.
What the recipient sees
- Subject: the subject line you set.
- Your custom message (if any) at the top.
- The article's main image, title, description, and body.
- A link back to the published article URL for the full experience.
Subject-line tips
- Lead with what's new. "OmniCon launches AI content drafting" beats "Announcing exciting updates to OmniCon."
- Skip the press-release jargon. "Press Release:" at the front of the subject is the fastest way to the trash folder.
- Name the company. Journalists triage by outlet and company. Make yours easy to spot.
- Keep it under ~60 characters. Anything longer gets truncated in most mail clients.
The custom message
Two patterns work:
- Pitch framing. A short paragraph framing the release for that list — what the angle is, why it matters to them specifically. Useful for top-tier lists.
- Blank. For broad announcements, skip the pre-amble and let the article speak for itself.
Don't write a long pitch. If it's long enough to be an article, make it one.
What happens after you click Send
- A Distribution record is created pointing at the article, the subject, the message, and the sender.
- For each unique contact across the selected lists, a Recipient row is created with status Pending.
- The email server attempts delivery. As each message succeeds or fails, the recipient's status updates to Sent, Failed, or similar.
- You land on the distribution's history page where you can watch statuses roll in.
To review past sends later, go to Distribution history.