Editorial & Image Guidelines
By using our Services, you are agreeing to the Terms of Service (“Terms”). Some of our Services allow you to submit or store content including but not limited to press releases. When you submit or store content to or through our Services, you must follow these editorial guidelines. Please read them carefully.
Quality Content
All press releases submitted to Signal Presswire must:
- Be written in an acceptable press release format.
- Avoid inflammatory language, hyperbole, and unattributed opinion, or invasion of someone’s privacy.
- Be accurate and free of potentially libelous material.
- Clearly identify opinions in quotes or attribute these statements as opinions belonging to the organization, and not state as fact.
- Cite from a fact-checked news source.
- Contain explicit attribution to an authorized source such as court documents.
- Not be threatening, abusive, menacing, offensive, violent, intimidating or otherwise objectionable.
- Not make attempts to incite fear or panic.
- Not intend to harm or exact revenge upon an individual or group, which is defined as content that is deemed intended to: (i) incite, advocate or express hatred, bigotry, racism or gratuitous violence; (ii) promote personal opinions attacking an individual or group; (iii) maliciously affect a company’s stock; (d) stalk, defame, defraud, degrade, shame or victimize an individual or group.
Signal Presswire will review your press releases before distribution to ensure that content is newsworthy, accurate and in an acceptable format. Attention to the following guidelines will help your press release get speedy approval and distribution on our platform.
All press releases must contain a clear, timely and newsworthy angle and be free of advertising hype, direct address, and spam. Press releases should incorporate the following features/qualities::
Newsworthy Content: Common news angles include timely information about a new product or service, business expansion or recent event, an organizational milestone like an anniversary or award or the issuance of a tip sheet or expert opinion on a topic currently in the news. The news announcement must be clearly stated in the headline.
Objective Tone: Signal Presswire press releases should be free of hype flags and direct address (i.e. “you,” “I,” “we,” etc.) unless used within a quotation from a spokesperson from a company or organization. Direct address is a flag that the content is an advertisement rather than a news release. Similarly, hype flags — exclamation points; hyperbolic product/service claims; descriptions of a product or service as AMAZING, or the use of upper case characters to create emphasis — challenge the credibility of your news announcement.
Legally Accurate: Signal Presswire requires a case number, court of record, complaint number or other sufficient documentation for all press releases referencing legal action or criminal matters.
Valid Contact Information: Signal Presswire press releases must contain a valid contact name, phone number, and email address in the contact information.
Written Authorization: In certain cases, such as with network marketing companies, with the use of a stock ticker symbol, or with major corporate announcements such as (but not limited to) those related to Mergers & Acquisitions, Signal Presswire may require written authorization from a company executive before a press release is approved for distribution. Independent representatives of network marketing companies, MLM or party plan companies must always obtain the express consent of the company’s executive.
Standard Length: Signal Presswire press releases should be between 300 and 800 words. The length of your release directly affects its distribution, and press releases that are overly short or long may have trouble being indexed in the search engines.
Standard Grammar and Spelling: Signal Presswire press releases should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Although jargon and acronyms are commonplace in natural language, make sure to include definitions for industry jargon so the average person can understand you well.
Formatting: Signal Presswire press releases cannot contain HTML tags and other formatting such as non-standard characters, tables or forced line breaks. Releases also should not be written partially or entirely in all capital letters. Before submitting your release, please ensure all links in your release are fully functional. If your website is not available or fully functional at the time of editorial review, you will need to remove the links from your release or wait until the website is operational to submit.
A Clear News Source: Signal Presswire requires a clear news source to be identified in the headline. The news source is the company or organization that is issuing the release. If your agency, firm or business is distributing on behalf of a client, then the source would be the client’s company or organization’s name. It should also be clear how that company or organization relates to the news announcement.
Email Addresses: Signal Presswire does not recommend the use of email addresses within the body of the press release. If an email address is included, our editorial team will modify the email address to be in this format Name (at) example (dot) com.
Accepted File Types: Signal Presswire only accepts releases containing images with the following extensions: .jpeg, .gif, .png.
Things we don’t distribute
Advertisements: If your press release is primarily aimed at selling a product or service, then it is an advertisement and not a press release. A good press release informs the media and the general public about a newsworthy topic. If the primary purpose of the document is to sell without any other newsworthy element, then it will be denied publication.
Sexually Explicit Content: To ensure the integrity of our service for all, Signal Presswire does not accept content about sexually explicit material or products. Press releases should not contain references or links to explicitly sexual material, illegal material or profane language. Please note that all 18-and-older websites are considered sexually explicit.
Link SPAM: Please limit your link count to 1 per 100 words. This policy is in place to protect the value of the links in a press release and the value of links within the Signal Presswire network.
Reprints: News and feature images, articles, opinion columns, editorials or news stories from other websites or publications, especially if they are copyrighted, are not press releases.
Duplicate Content: A press release can only be distributed once through Signal Presswire. In addition, a significant majority of each press release must be original content. Templated content may or may not be permitted. Using copyrighted content from other sources is a violation of Signal Presswire’s Terms of Service.
Third-Party Legal Releases: Signal Presswire only accepts press releases from law firms in which the firm is representing one of the parties in the case. Signal Presswire does not accept press releases regarding legal cases from third-party firms.
Intent to Harm: Signal Presswire does not distribute content intended to harm or exact revenge upon an individual or group. This content is defined as anything deemed intended to: incite, advocate or express hatred, bigotry, racism or gratuitous violence; promote personal opinions attacking an individual or group; maliciously affect a company’s stock; or stalk, defame, defraud, degrade, shame or victimize an individual or group.
Written Authorization: In certain cases, such as with network marketing companies, with the use of a stock ticker symbol, or with major corporate announcements such as (but not limited to) those related to Mergers & Acquisitions, Signal Presswire may require written authorization from a company executive before a press release is approved for distribution. Independent representatives of network marketing companies, MLM or party plan companies must always obtain the express consent of the company’s executive.
Unauthorized Ticker Symbols: While we encourage our clients to use any ticker symbols they are authorized to use in their press releases, we will need to receive the proper authorization from the source company for each ticker symbol used.
Online Gambling: Signal Presswire does not publish releases that promote or link to online gambling, fantasy sports, and related sites that utilize a “pay-to-play” model for participation.
Payday or Short Term Loans: Signal Presswire does not publish releases that promote or link to payday, short term or other unsecured loan services.
Online Pharmaceuticals: Signal Presswire does not accept releases from online pharmacies or websites which sell prescription drugs unless both the website and release explicitly state that a doctor’s prescription is required for purchase.
Unsafe Weight Loss Products: Signal Presswire does not allow any unsafe or potentially hazardous weight loss products or ingredients cited on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Tainted Products list.
Unapproved or Misleading Health Supplements: Signal Presswire does not allow the following health supplement content, irrespective of any claims of legality, such as:
- Prohibited pharmaceuticals and supplements
- Products that contain ephedra
- Non-prescription products containing human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)
- Herbal and dietary supplements with active pharmaceutical or dangerous ingredients
- False or misleading health claims, including claims implying that a product is as effective as prescription drugs or controlled substances
- Non-government approved products and medical procedures that are marketed in a way that implies that they’re safe or effective for use in preventing, curing, or treating a particular disease or ailment
- Products that have been subject to any government or regulatory action or warning
- Products with names that are confusingly similar to an unapproved pharmaceutical or supplement or controlled substance
- Low T and hormone replacement therapy products, unless prescribed by a doctor
Important to note, full disclosure of a product’s ingredients must be available inside the press release or at the associated website.
Sexual Enhancement Products: Signal Presswire does not allow press releases which promote sexual enhancement products.
Easy Money Schemes: Signal Presswire does not accept releases that promote make-money online, work from home programs or get-rich-quick schemes.
Stock Recommendations: Signal Presswire does not accept releases that promote stock picks, newsletters, alerts, recommendations, advice or reviews. Publicly traded companies may still promote their own news.
BlackHat SEO Tactics: Signal Presswire does not allow releases to promote or link to Black Hat SEO tactics and services. These types of services include, but are not limited to, keyword stuffing, link buying, and selling, link stuffing, over-hyphenated domains, paid social media followers, and reputation management.
A Clear News Source: Signal Presswire requires a clear news source to be identified in the headline. The news source is the company or organization that is issuing the release. If your agency, firm or business is distributing on behalf of a client, then the source would be the client’s company or organization’s name. It should also be clear how that company or organization relates to the news announcement.
Viruses, Scripts, and Codes: Signal Presswire does not accept releases that contain or link to any viruses, scripts, programs, web pages or any code that destroys, alters, or inhibits the operation of any computer systems.
Libel and Political Content
Press releases about legal cases and political matters can:
- Contain fair comment of a political or public figure as long as this content does not cross over into libel territory
- Express the opinion or official stance of an organization on a public issue or current event, however, opinions must be put into the form of a quote and properly attributed to the organization making the statement
Press releases about legal cases and political matters are not:
- Announcements of intentions to file a court case against an individual or group.
- Potentially libelous, which is defined as content that falsely depicts or implies a person: (a) has committed a crime or is guilty of illegal activity; (b) lacks mental capacity; (c) has engaged in immoral behavior; (d) has a loathsome disease.
- Interpretations of legal proceedings: (a) all claims about events surrounding a court case need to be attributed to court documents; (b) until a case is decided, events cannot be interpreted, but only detail what court documents allege.