Sources

Email sources

A private address for agencies that send their press releases by email, and how their emails become stories.

Many police forces, councils and agencies send their press releases by email, sometimes before or instead of putting them online. An email source gives you a private address to subscribe to their mailing list, and every release that arrives there is treated like news from a website.

#Get an address

1. On your site's Sources tab, open Get an email address for press releases.
2. Enter who sends the emails, like "Valley Police press office", and their website.
3. Press Get an address, then Copy the address on the new source card.
4. Subscribe that address on the agency's website, or ask their press office to add it to their list.

Each site gets 10 on Pro and 40 on Agency. An email source also counts toward your plan's sources like any other, or as a lead if you tick that it's another news outlet. If your plan changes to one with fewer, the newest ones are paused: their emails are still taken, so the agency's list keeps the address, but they aren't used until there's room again.

#Which emails become stories

• Emails from the website's own domain, including its subdomains, that pass the sender checks mail servers use (SPF, DKIM and DMARC). That way nobody can pretend to be the agency.
• Emails from a sender you accepted.

Anything else waits on the source card with the reason, like an email from the mailing-list service's own address. Press Accept this sender to accept that address: its waiting emails become stories, and so do the ones after. Nothing is written from an email while it waits.

#Confirming the subscription

Most mailing lists send a confirmation first. It shows on the source card with its link: open it to confirm.

#Good to know

• Attachments aren't read, so the release has to be in the email itself. When it links to the release on the agency's website, that page is read too.
• Each address takes up to 50 emails a day, and emails up to 5 MB.
• Automatic replies, delivery reports and emails with almost no text are ignored, and the same email arriving twice counts once.
• While the source is turned off, emails to its address are refused. Removing the source ends the address for good.
• The card lists the latest emails. They're kept for 30 days.
• Keep the address to yourself. If it ends up somewhere it shouldn't, remove the source and get a new address.