Writing a good press release is only half the job. The other half is submitting it well. A strong announcement can still underperform if it goes out as the wrong version, through the wrong channel, at the wrong moment, or with its images and links missing. Submission is the unglamorous stage where most avoidable damage happens, which is why knowing how to submit a press release properly is a skill in its own right.

This guide walks through the whole process end to end: the checks to run before you submit anything, how to choose between your own newsroom, direct outreach and a distribution service, how to prepare the submission package, the submission steps themselves, timing and embargoes, what happens after you press send, and how to follow up and measure results without fooling yourself. None of it is complicated. All of it rewards care.

Before You Submit: Three Checks

Submission should be the least creative stage of the whole process. Everything creative — the angle, the writing, the quotes — should already be settled. What remains is verification, and three checks cover nearly all of it.

Is It Genuinely Newsworthy?

Apply the editor’s test before anyone else has to: does this announcement contain one clear piece of news that matters to people outside your organisation? A launch, an appointment, a result, a date, a decision — something has to have happened, changed or become available. If the honest answer is that the release is mostly self-description, submitting it will not fix that, and sending weak stories has a real cost: it spends the credibility your next, better announcement will need. Hold it, strengthen the news, or use your own channels instead.

Is the Release Finished and Approved?

Confirm you are holding the final version: every quote approved by the person quoted, every name and title spelled as its owner spells it, every date, figure and price checked against its source, and every link live and pointing where it should. Version confusion — submitting draft three when draft four exists — is one of the most common causes of corrections, and corrections are far more visible than the original error. If you are still at the writing stage, work through the structure first; our guide on how to write a press release, step by step, covers the drafting and approval discipline in full.

Are the Assets Ready?

Gather everything that travels with the release before you start any submission form: photographs at usable resolution, with captions and clear rights to publish them; a logo file if the format asks for one; video or document links, tested; and a named media contact who will actually be reachable on the day. Do a final read of the text itself with fresh eyes, checking it is the length the announcement needs and no longer — the section-by-section guidance in our article on how long a press release should be is a useful yardstick here.

Choosing Where to Submit

There are three routes a release can take, and they are not rivals. Most well-run announcements use a combination, weighted according to the story. What follows is an honest account of what each route does well and where it falls short.

Your Own Newsroom and Website

Publishing the release on your own site gives it a permanent, controlled home: the reference version journalists check, the page your links point to, and the copy that remains findable long after distribution day. The limitation is reach. Your newsroom is read mainly by people already looking for you, so on its own it announces to the converted. Treat it as the foundation every other route builds on, not as distribution in itself.

Direct to Journalists

Sending the release yourself, to named journalists whose coverage genuinely matches your subject, is the most personal route and often the most effective for strong local, trade or specialist stories. It is also the most labour-intensive: it needs an accurate, current list, a short tailored covering note for each recipient, and the discipline to leave everyone else alone. A bulk email to hundreds of uninterested addresses is not this route; it is the thing that gives this route a bad name.

A Press Release Distribution Service

A distribution service submits your release to its network of media outlets, news sites and journalist lists, publishes it online, and reports back on where it appeared. What you are buying is breadth, infrastructure and a paper trail: wider circulation than most organisations can assemble themselves, consistent presentation, and a distribution report you can file and share internally. What you are not buying is a substitute for targeting. The journalists who matter most to your story still deserve direct, personal outreach alongside any service submission, and services differ in their networks and reporting, so compare press release distribution services on the outlets and audiences they actually reach in your sector.

In practice, the strongest pattern combines all three: the release published on your newsroom as the reference copy, distributed through a service for breadth, and pitched personally to the handful of journalists whose coverage would matter most. Each route covers the others’ blind spots.

Preparing the Submission Package

Submission forms reward people who arrive prepared. Assemble the complete package first, so that filling in any form becomes transcription rather than improvisation:

• The final text as clean copy — a plain, approved version you can paste anywhere without dragging stray formatting with it.
• The headline and a short summary — many forms ask for a one- or two-sentence summary separately; write it deliberately rather than copying the lead paragraph by default.
• Category, industry and region choices — decided in advance, based on where the story genuinely belongs, not where you wish it belonged.
• Images ready to upload — sensibly named files, captions written, credits noted, rights cleared.
• Every link clicked — the story links, the company link in the boilerplate, and the contact email, all tested on the day.
• A named media contact — a person, not a department, with an email address and phone number that will be answered.

Once assembled, this package becomes a reusable template. The second submission takes half the time of the first, and the tenth is routine — which is precisely the point.

The Submission, Step by Step

The exact screens differ between services and newsroom systems, but the sequence of the submission itself is remarkably consistent:

• Sign in and set up. Create the account if your chosen route needs one, and confirm the package, price and turnaround before your deadline is upon you.
• Enter the headline, summary and body. Paste the text in cleanly, then restore any formatting — paragraph breaks, lists, emphasis — deliberately, the way you want it read.
• Read the proof as a journalist will. Check the rendered version, not the form: spacing, quotation marks, special characters, and whether every link lands where it promises to land.
• Choose categories, industries and regions. Narrow and accurate beats broad and hopeful; irrelevant targeting teaches recipients to ignore your organisation’s name.
• Attach images and multimedia. Confirm the order, the captions and the credits, and that the lead image is the one you would choose yourself.
• Set the timing. Immediate release, or schedule for a specific date and time — and check the time zone twice, out loud.
• Add embargo details if you are using one, worded exactly as agreed with the journalists who accepted it.
• Submit, then save the evidence. Keep the confirmation, any reference number, and the exact version sent, filed where colleagues can find them.

That last step is skipped surprisingly often, and it matters: when a journalist queries a detail a week later, the submitted version — not the draft on someone’s desktop — is the document that settles the question.

Timing: When to Send

There is no universally perfect hour, but there is accumulated practice. Releases generally travel best during the working day in the audience’s own time zone, early enough that a journalist who is interested still has time to act on the story that day. Early and midweek days are often favoured in practice, because Monday inboxes carry the weekend’s backlog and Friday announcements compete with the week’s wind-down. Public holidays in your target market, and days dominated by a major story in your sector, are worth avoiding when the announcement date is yours to choose.

Two qualifications matter more than any rule of thumb. First, timing is subordinate to readiness: a correct release an hour late does far less harm than a punctual one with a wrong date in it. Second, fixed-date announcements — events, launches, results — should be scheduled backwards from the date itself, with submission completed and confirmed before the day arrives, not attempted during it.

Embargo or Immediate Release?

An immediate release can be published the moment it is received. An embargoed release is shared in advance on the understanding that it will not be published before an agreed time. Embargoes suit complex stories that need reporting time — research findings, detailed results, major launches — because they let journalists prepare a proper piece rather than a rushed one, and they suit coordinated announcements where several parties must move together.

Handle embargoes with respect. An embargo is a trust arrangement, not a control mechanism: it depends on recipients honouring it, and a release sent widely under embargo may surface early. Keep embargoed distribution to journalists you have a relationship with, state the embargo time and time zone unambiguously, and use the same wording on every copy. Most routine announcements do not need an embargo at all; immediate release is the sensible default, and the embargo is a tool to reserve for stories that genuinely benefit from it.

What Happens After You Submit

With a distribution service, the release typically passes a review first: the provider checks the submission, may query wording, category choices or contact details, and then distributes it to the outlets and lists in your package and publishes it online. Afterwards you receive a distribution report listing where the release appeared, with links. On your own channels, the sequence is simpler: the release goes live on your newsroom, and your direct pitches go out with a link to it.

It is worth being clear-eyed about what distribution does and does not do. Distribution puts the release in front of newsrooms and readers; it is the part of the process you can arrange and verify. Coverage — a journalist choosing to write their own story — is earned on the strength of the news, and it varies from release to release. Any honest account of this process keeps those two things separate, and you should be wary of any service that blurs them with promises about specific coverage.

Following Up Without Spamming

One brief follow-up is normal, professional practice. Send it a short interval after the release, keep it to a few lines, reference the original clearly, and — this is the part most follow-ups miss — add something: a stronger image, an interview offer, a newly confirmed detail, a reminder of a deadline that genuinely applies. A follow-up that merely asks whether the first email was seen gives the journalist nothing new to act on.

Then stop. Silence is an answer, and accepting it gracefully is what keeps the door open for your next story. The one exception to every rule in this section is corrections: if an error has gone out in your release, contact recipients immediately, state plainly what was wrong and what is correct, and do it faster than feels comfortable. Speed and candour about mistakes protect credibility far better than hoping nobody noticed.

Measuring Results Honestly

Measure in layers, and keep the layers separate. Start with the distribution report: where the release was published, with working links you can file as evidence. Then look at what your own channels can show — referral visits to the release or your site, enquiries that mention the announcement, sign-ups or sales where they are genuinely connected. Finally, record the earned layer: which journalists covered the story in their own words, and how accurately the key facts travelled.

Be sceptical of single impressive numbers, particularly large “potential audience” figures that count every reader an outlet has rather than anyone who saw your story. A modest set of figures you can explain is worth more, internally and professionally, than a spectacular one you cannot. And record the lessons alongside the numbers — which categories performed, which timing worked, which journalists responded — because honest records are what turn each submission from an isolated effort into an improving system.

Common Submission Mistakes

Submission errors repeat themselves across organisations of every size. Check your process against this list:

• Submitting an unapproved draft, or a superseded version, because the file names looked alike.
• Broken, missing or mistyped links discovered only after distribution.
• Images absent, low-resolution, uncaptioned, or used without the right to publish them.
• Categories and regions chosen for hope rather than accuracy, spraying the release at uninterested desks.
• A scheduled release set in the wrong time zone, landing hours from its intended moment.
• Embargo times stated differently on different copies of the same release.
• No reachable media contact on the day the release goes out.
• Following up repeatedly, until the goodwill the story earned has been spent on reminders.

FAQs

1. Can I submit a press release myself, or do I need an agency?
You can submit it yourself. Every route in this guide — newsroom, direct outreach, distribution service — is open to the organisation making the announcement. Agencies add experience, media relationships and time; they are a resource decision, not a requirement, and the quality of the submission matters more than whose name is on the account.

2. Can I submit the same release through more than one route?
Yes — combining routes is the normal pattern. The important discipline is version control: one identical, approved text everywhere, so that no two copies of your announcement disagree with each other in public.

3. How far ahead should I submit?
Submit once the release is final, and schedule distribution for the moment you have chosen. For fixed-date announcements, complete the submission well before the day, leaving room for a service’s review queries, rather than uploading against a deadline.

4. What if I find a mistake after submitting?
Act immediately. Tell the distribution service, contact journalists you pitched directly, and provide the corrected fact clearly and in writing. Online versions can often be corrected quickly when the publisher is told promptly; delay is what turns a small error into a lasting one.

Conclusion

Submitting a press release well is a discipline of preparation. Run the three checks before you start: real news, a finished and approved text, assets ready. Choose your routes honestly and combine them where the story justifies it. Prepare the package once, follow the submission steps in order, proof the rendered version, and set the timing deliberately, with an embargo only where it earns its place. Then follow up once, measure honestly, and file what you learn.

None of this guarantees a particular story will be covered — nothing can, and you should distrust anyone who says otherwise. What it does is remove every avoidable reason for a good announcement to fail. The release you submit is the release the media judge you by; submit the one you would want to receive.