What Is the Best Time To Send a Press Release?

By Danica Djokic

May 11, 2023

Your company has achieved great success, and you’re anxious to blow the horn. Before you impatiently hit that Send button and reveal the good news to the public, think again. Is this the very best time to send a press release to the news agencies and post it on your website? Will the editors have better things to do on, let’s say, Monday than to check their emails and write an article based on your press release? 

What day should you pick for sending out a press release? In this post, we’ll answer that and any related questions you might have, so stay with us and learn how to boost your brand visibility.

What Is the Best Day for Sending a Press Release?

Timing your press release distribution is of crucial importance for getting media coverage and can be even more important than checking it for grammatical mistakes. Press release dates should be hand-picked and carefully thought out. Since most people work from nine to five, Monday to Friday, you should probably rule out weekends right away. On weekends, getting editors’ and journalists’ attention is much more difficult: The rate of opening emails is as low as 2%, and your PR can easily end up lost in tons of other messages. The same goes for holidays. 

Now, let’s take a look at weekdays. If Monday is the first day that comes to your mind as the ideal day for sending a PR, you should know that research shows that the first day in the week is, in fact, decidedly not the best time for a press release. Mondays in newsrooms tend to be extremely busy and hectic. With more than 1,000 emails in their inboxes, editors might not even consider your PR worth reading at the time, as they’ll likely have more important tasks on their plates. 

How about Friday, then? That’s the end of the work week, and those in charge of reading press releases will have plenty of time to give yours enough time and appreciation. You’ve packed your perfectly-styled press kit and you’re ready to send it out on Friday afternoon, thinking it’s the perfect timing, but we have to disappoint you – it’s not. Sending out press releases at the end of the work week is a bad idea as most journalists and editors are wrapping up and prepping for the weekend. They’ll probably leave your press release for the following week. 

We’re left with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to figure out on which day your press kit has the biggest chances of being noticed. Research shows that Tuesdays, with 19% of opened emails, are not significantly better than Mondays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the percentage of opened emails is even lower – about 15%. 

Thursday, on the other hand, has excellent rates, better than any other day in the week – more than a quarter of emails sent on a Thursday will get opened that same day. That’s why Thursday is the best time to send a press release to newsrooms. As the work week approaches its end, journalists and editors have probably already crossed out all of the most important tasks. Now they can dedicate their time to reading all their unopened emails and sift through the press kits and releases they’ve received during the week. 

How About the Time?

Now that your press kit is ready for Thursday, let’s figure out the best time to send a press release to the media. Even though you’ll probably be anxious to send it right away in the morning, that isn’t the best idea, judging by the statistics. Namely, if you decide to hit the Send button between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., you’ll be dealing with an open rate of only 20.5%. Early birds don’t catch worms when the “worm” is media coverage. Submitting your press release in the afternoon or evening isn’t the best choice, either. 

The best time to send a press release falls between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., with a rate of opened emails higher than 45%. Just make sure to pay attention to time zones in various states and countries to avoid time conflicts, and don’t send your PR on the hour. You can also use a time zone converter to avoid sending emails to foreign journalists in the middle of the night.

Press Release Embargo

Here’s a thing: You don’t always have to conform to journalists’ schedules. There are occasions when they are the ones who have to follow your rules. If you need your news to be confidential until a specific date, or if you estimate that your announcement will be more newsworthy if published later, you can send an embargoed press release. Unlike regular PRs, these have a note saying “Not for immediate release” and a date when they should be published instead. 

Embargoed releases are usually sent when businesses want to reveal mergers, acquisitions, new partnerships, new leadership, or announce product releases before they hit the market. They give journalists more time to write an article and ask for additional information, but they also expose you to the risk of your news being leaked.