Get the most out of our product. Contact us if you don’t find what you’re looking for.
Need help with a more specific problem? Contact our nice people over at support.
Get in touchThe following applies to the Categorization that you set
– as a default in Newsroom settings (in the menu under the gearwheel).
– in the distribution settings for any material in Publish.
After adding one or more topics and subcategories, the material (e.g. press release) will at publication be sent to journalists that are following any of these.
By adding one or more regions, you will in addition also reach journalists that are following any of those provinces and/or districts. Even though they are not necessarily following any of your topics or subcategories.
Adding regional distribution is a good way to reach local journalists, who might not so much be focused on certain topics, but are keen to find out about everything that relates to their province or district.
Read more about Publish in our Guides
or learn more about Categorization in our guide on publishing a new press release, news article or blog post.
To add an image to a press release, you start off by going to Publish > Press releases, continue by clicking Create New, or simply pick Edit by using the menu button (three dots).
There are three ways to add an image to a Press release, News article or Blog post:
Header image
Underneath Header image you add the image you wish to use as the main image for the story. To add a new image, click on the frame and pick an image stored on your computer. You can also add it by dragging and dropping the image to the frame, then it will be uploaded automatically.
The header image is also added to the Image handler under Publish > Images, but will not be automatically published in the Media library of your newsroom. If your image is already uploaded to your Image Handler, you will be able to find it by clicking “Choose image from media bank”.
The header image, or main image, will be shown at the top of your press release, as well as in list views – for example in search engine results, social media, or on Mynewsdesk Stories. However, this does not mean that the image is downloadable.
Related content
In the section of Related content you click to add images from your Image Handler. If you (in the last step before you confirm publication of the press release) choose to publish your related content, these images will also be published on their respective site in the Media library of your newsroom. Here they will – as long as you have not selected All rights reserved as image licensing – be available for download. Therefore it is important that, if you want the header image (see above) to be downloadable, you also add it as related content.
Body text
It is also possible to add images to the body itself. Firstly you click where you want the image to be in the text, and then click the image icon in the body text’s tool menu. If you then wish to change its size, simply click the image itself once uploaded, and move your cursor to the bottom right corner until an arrow appears. Click this arrow and drag it to the size you wish the image to be.
The advantages of adding images to the body text is that you can customise where they are located. Keep in mind that if you want these images to be downloadable, you also need to add them under Related content (see above).
Feel free to check out our guide about Publishing an image.
If the number of contacts on Mynewsdesk after import is smaller than the number of names in the imported file, this may be due to contacts
– in your list without email address
– that hold duplicates within your list
– that are already saved to Contacts in your newsroom
– who have previously opted out from from Mynewsdesk
Please also see:
Import contacts into your lists
How do I add contacts?
Why is my file not being imported?
In computing, beta version is the term for an application (or an update of it) that has not yet been completed and fully tested. Although largely fulfilling the expected functionality, some functions may not yet have been fully implemented, and a beta version is likely to contain some bugs.
To see available beta versions of Mynewsdesk, you click on Settings (gearwheel in the upper right corner) and select Newsroom settings. Then you switch from the tab General to the tab Beta. Click to activate or deactivate a beta version. You can switch back and forth at any time and as often as you like during the beta period. The changes that you set in this section will affect all users of the newsroom.
The file to be imported may be up to 5 MB in size, and needs to be one of the following file types:
XLS, CSV, TSV, ODS or XLSX
If the import of a file is failing, it is mostly due to shortcomings in the file itself.
Please check that your file doesn’t contain:
– mis-spelled email addresses (e.g. gmail,com instead of gmail.com)
– fields filled with more than 180 characters
– data that is not organised in columns
– any combined cells
– multiple tabs
If none of the above applies, it might be some bad formatting that is causing issues. To get rid of the bad formatting, you can try to mark all names, copy, and then paste them as values into a completely new file that you create in Excel. Then save and import this new file.
Alternatively, you can use the Paste function instead, as described in the Paste section in our guide Import contacts into your lists.
Please also see:
Import contacts into your lists
How do I add contacts?
Why were not all contacts included when importing my list?
Out with the old, in with the new. Let the new newsroom design show you.
Mynewsdesk has been keeping this under wraps for weeks—just when you thought all the New Year’s surprises were over.
If you didn’t already know, all customers can enable the latest design themselves. To understand the biggest changes you can look forward to, give these FAQs a read.
Q: How do I get the new newsroom design?
A: Go to Newsroom settings > Beta, then switch on Activate new newsroom design. To preview the new design and test it before going live, click the preview link.
Q: Can I go back to the old newsroom design?
A: Yes. Go to Newsroom settings > Beta, then switch off Activate new newsroom design
Q: What are brand colors?
A: Brand colors are introduced for the first time in the new newsroom design. There are two brand colors—primary and secondary—that you can fully customize to match your own company colors.
Q: How do I change brand colors?
A: Go to Newsroom settings > Beta > Brand colors. Click the box and pick a color from the color wheel or input a hex code.
Q: What is a news archive?
A: This is where you find all your published press releases, news and blog posts. Filter by content type or tags to make your search easier.
Q: What is a media library?
A: This is where you find all your published photos, videos and documents. Filter by content type or tags to make your search easier.
Q: Is there a rule of thumb for selecting header images?
A: As they are the main visual for your press release, blog post or news article, they should be presented in the best light. Always upload images in landscape format and at least 700 pixels wide and 300 pixels high.
Q: Does the new design apply to hosted newsrooms?
A: We now have a beta version of the new newsroom design available for hosted newsrooms, working for both iFrame and Cname solutions. You activate this separately, under Newsroom settings > Beta.
Q: Will brand colors and individual customizations also apply to my hosted newsroom?
A: Your selected brand colors will apply to the hosted newsroom as well.
In contrast, any individual customer styling will be disabled. This includes CSS and HTML styling in header and footer that you might have applied to the previous hosted newsroom design.
However, these customizations will not be removed completely, and will work if you decide to switch back your hosted newsroom again to the old design.
Q: Will it be possible to customize the new newsroom design on hosted newsrooms?
A: Yes, as a next step we are now looking into adding new ways of styling and customizing a newsroom that fits the new design.
Q: Is the new newsroom design compliant with the EU Web Accessibility Directive?
A: The new design will be meeting the compliance deadline on September 23, 2020 for public sector organizations.
Hope this sorts it all out for you. A toast to the improved newsroom design for the new decade!
Look up and select one or more contacts in Contacts -> Contact lists.
Upon selecting one or more contacts, the following buttons will appear:
Please also see:
How do I add contacts?
How do I download my contact lists?
If you wish to highlight one of your tags you can pin it to make it show at the top of the News, Images & Videos or Documents pages in your newsroom. Pin your tags by pressing the pin icon in Tag Management in Settings. You can drag and drop to rearrange your pinned tags.
Learn more about structuring your content in Tag Management in our Guides
or learn how to create a new tag.
You manage all your tags from Tag Management in Settings. You’ll find your pinned tags at the top of the page, click on Choose image to add an image to illustrate your tag with. To change an existing image, hover over the tag and select Change image. Choose from images in your image bank or upload a new one from your computer.
Learn more about structuring your content in Tag Management in our Guides
When you’re working on a content piece in Publish you’ll find Tags. This is where you add the tags you wish to use for your content and also where you create new ones. Just enter the name of your tag and click the Enter tab and it will be added to your content piece. Once you’ve published your content, the tag will be saved in your newsroom so you can use it in more releases in the future.
You will find all your tags in Tag Management in Settings.
Learn more about structuring your content in Tag Management in our Guides
On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has taken effect. This new regulation might be a bit confusing, or difficult to understand. That’s why Mynewsdesk has improved, updated and adapted our product to comply with GDPR seamlessly. We take anonymization and integrity policies very seriously and welcome this development.
On this page, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions on how Mynewsdesk is handling the new EU regulation. For more information, please also see our Data Protection Terms (DTP) which include Mynewsdesk’s Data Processing Agreement (DPA), and our updated General Terms and Conditions.
In which way is the Data Controller responsibility split between the client and Mynewsdesk?
When uploading, downloading, storing or updating contact information within the Contact feature of an account, the responsibility as Data Controller lies with the client.
Does our contract with Mynewsdesk comply with GDPR?
Yes. Prior to the launch of GDPR, we rolled out a revised version of our General Terms and Conditions that are now related to our Data Protection Terms (DTP), which in their turn include Mynewsdesk’s Data Processing Agreement (DPA). This way our General Terms and Conditions also fulfill the function of a Data Processing Agreement (DPA). In this context, we also updated our Privacy Policy and Security Policy.
Who is responsible for the data that I upload in Contacts?
As our client, you are responsible that the data you upload in Contacts is handled legitimately according to GDPR. You need to define routines with regard to e.g. why and how you store and handle contact lists.
Therefore we recommend you to always have your lists updated, so that they do not include any contacts you are not using. All emails that you send from Mynewsdesk include a link which the recipients can use to unsubscribe.
Please see our Data Protection Terms (DTP) for more detailed information on the processing of personal data in the Contacts feature.
Are notices provided when information is directly collected from an individual?
Upon signing up and entering personal data, the user accepts our Terms & Conditions. Specific information about the data processing and its purpose is given to the user when creating an account.
Are controls in place to ensure that collection of personal information is limited to the minimum necessary?
Yes. We have internal routines ensuring that processing of personal data is limited to specific purposes. Furthermore, we have defined routines to ensure that our subcontractors fulfill the GDPR requirements.
What is your policy on data transfer to external data controllers?
Routines for transferring personal data are established and documented. As a general rule, no personal data can be transferred to external data controllers (not even between companies in the same corporate group) without notifying the corporate group’s Data Controller and/or the Data Protection Officer.
Transferring personal data abroad is only permitted to EU/EEA countries and to the US (given that the data processing subcontractor is Privacy Shield certified). For any other transfer, the corporate group’s Data Protection Officer would have to be notified, with decisions to be made on a case by case basis.
Which are your main data processing subcontractors?
Our principal subcontractors, administering our hosting and storing data from Mynewsdesk on their servers, are Amazon Webservices and Heroku. These subcontractors are processing data within the EU (in Ireland).
In which countries are you processing personal data?
We are processing data within the EU/EEA (Sweden, Norway, Germany and Ireland) and in some cases in the USA. Regarding data processing in the USA, our policy is to collaborate with Privacy Shield certificated suppliers. The term data processing denominates all kinds of data handling such as for example storage, transmission, calculation.
Can you supply information on which specific addresses your data is stored?
For security reasons, most hosting providers do not hand out detailed information on this. Mynewsdesk does not consider it to be necessary to give specific street addresses of server locations to comply with GDPR.
Is there physical and electronic protection for stored personal data? Do you use data encryption and how is your intrusion protection?
Protection of our data is administered by our hosting partner Heroku (via Amazon). For more information, please see https://www.heroku.com/policy/security
Is there a process for data erasure?
We have defined a process to ensure that data is deleted when its further storage is not required anymore, or in case it has to be deleted for juristic reasons.
Do you support removal of personal data upon request by the person concerned?
We do support this and we have defined processes and routines for removal requests.
Are there backup copies of stored personal data, and do you have in place routines for deletion of those copies?
We are storing backup copies of our production database via our hosting partner Heroku. These copies are being stored for three years before deletion. Revised routines for erasure of personal data from the backup copies in connection with deletion of pieces of data on the original database were implemented before GDPR took effect.
Are there identified security risks about your data processing?
We are conducting a continuous identification, evaluation and follow-up in order to fix any security risks that might be found.
Is there a process for detecting and reporting security incidents?
We have a partly automated process for identification of security risks and incidents in our database. Moreover, we have defined a routine for reporting to all persons concerned and The Swedish Data Protection Authority (Datainspektionen) within 72 hours.
Can I have our Data Processing Agreement signed by Mynewsdesk?
Mynewsdesk does not sign individual agreements since we, being a SaaS Company, have elaborated a DPA (Data Processing Agreement) that is adjusted to our specific services.
Our Data Processing Agreement (DPA) forms part of our Data Protection Terms (DTP) which in their turn are related to our General Terms and Conditions that were agreed upon original contract signature.
Who has responsibility as Data Controller and Data Protection Officer?
Data Controller is the chairperson of NHST Media Group, while Petter Irgens Gustafson is appointed as Data Protection Officer for the corporate group and all affiliates. In addition, all businesses within the corporate group have their own Data Controller with delegated responsibility for their respective business. Data Controller for Mynewsdesk is the Mynewsdesk CEO.
Which personal data is being processed by Mynewsdesk?
Mynewsdesk processes the following personal data
– with regard to user accounts:
Name, username/id, email, user password, skype, google, role, api token, newsroom name, tool usage data, title, country, city, phone number, image, Google Talk user name, Skype; ICQ, AIM, Yahoo!Messenger, biography, interests, positions/assignments
– with regard to Contacts:
Email, country, first name, last name, organization, job title, work phone, mobile phone, address, postcode, city, country, website, email events (received, opened, clicked)
If you have a Professional or an Enterprise subscription you may use our story widget and implement it on your website. The story widget shows the latest press releases, news and blog posts from your newsroom and will help making your website more living. It also drives traffic to your newsroom.
In the drop down menu Settings you’ll find Story widget where you select the type of content you wish to show, you may also add your own CSS design. When you’re done styling the widget, copy the code snippet on the bottom of the page and paste it in your own website.
We also provide another widget that shows a news feed based on topics you choose. This widget can be used for free and you don’t need a newsroom to use it. Click here to create a widget for your website – for free!
Learn more about different ways of showing content from your newsroom on your own website.
Using a Hosted Newsroom allows you to automatically display the content you publish on Mynewsdesk on your own website as well.
Cname
A Cname is a way of showing your newsroom on your own website. When you create a new newsroom on Mynewsdesk we automatically create a Cname for this newsroom. By creating a Cname on your own website you’ll be able to display your newsroom there. To be able to set this up you’ll need access to the DNS settings for your domain. Point your Cname to mnd-ssl-proxy.mynewsdesk.com.
Setting up a Cname of your own can be done in just a couple of minutes. When you’re done, enter your Cname in the field Your own domain (CNAME), which you’ll find under Hosted Newsroom in Settings.
By using the tabs Design and Advanced settings you can easily style your Hosted newsroom as you please.
iframe
This option allows you to embed your newsroom in a tab on your own website, keeping your own design, header and footer.
The tab where the iframe is embedded is actually empty and the content visible there is hosted on another site. Setting up an iframe usually takes between 15 minutes and an hour, depending on the web administrator’s knowledge level.
In Hosted Newsroom under the tab Settings you’ll find the iframe settings. Under Embed on your site, type the web address where they frame shall appear. In the settings you’ll also find a javascript code. Paste this code into your page source where you want your Hosted newsroom to appear.
By using the tabs Design and Advanced settings you can easily style your Hosted newsroom as you please.
API
Another option is to fetch the content with API. With API you make requests to us in which you choose what content to fetch from your newsroom and display on your own website. This way you can also customise the design as you please. Using API requires a broader technical knowledge than the other Hosted Newsroom options above. For a technical documentation, or if you need our API key, please contact our support.
Other
In excess of the options above you may also show your latest press releases, news or blog posts by implementing our story widget. Also, our RSS feeds, which can be found in the lower right corner of your newsroom, can be used to show content from your newsrooms on another website.
Please note that a Hosted Newsroom and API are not included in all of our subscriptions. Your account manager will gladly provide information about your subscription and how to upgrade it as needed.
To send content that has already been published to another recipient you will use the Send exclusive feature, located under Contacts.
Start typing the name of a contact or list in the To field and you’ll find suggestions from which you choose. You may also add email addresses that are currently not in Contacts by typing or pasting them, and then clicking the Enter key. Next, click on Attach content to attach one or more content pieces.
If you attach more than one, each content piece is displayed with a preview and link to the publication in the newsroom. If you want, you may add a subject for the email and a personal message, but this is purely optional, as it also works also fine to leave those boxes empty.
Another way the use the feature Send exclusive is to share unpublished content without publishing it in the newsroom.
Learn more about Contacts in our Guides
or read about when an email with published content will be sent automatically
By using the feature Send exclusive, located in Contacts, you’re able to send a preview to selected recipients, send a draft copy to a colleague or enter your own email address to preview your content before publishing it.
You start by creating your content in Publish and saving it as a draft, without publishing it. Next, go to Send exclusive in Contacts. Enter the name of the contact or list you wish to send to in the field named To and suggestions from which you choose will be displayed. You may also add email addresses that are currently not in Contacts by typing or pasting them. Click on the Enter key after you’ve added an address.
When you’ve added your recipients, click on Attach content to select and attach your draft.
If you want, you may add a subject for the email and a personal message, but this is purely optional, as it works also fine to leave those boxes empty.
Finally, click on Send Exclusive and your content will be sent by email, but will not be published in the newsroom. It might always be a good idea to first send to yourself only, then you can check if everything looks good before you send the material to other contacts.
Another way to use the feature Send exclusive is to send already published content to more recipients.
Learn more about Contacts in our Guides
or read about when an email with published content is automatically being sent
By backdating your content in the distribution settings you can create a history of press releases, news stories and blog posts. When you backdate a content at least 8 days it will not be sent to followers or subscribers.
To access the distribution settings, create a new content in Publish, add your basic information, related content etc. and click on Save and continue in the lower right corner. If you already have a draft, find your content in Publish and directly click on Distribution.
In the distribution settings you’ll find the publication date. Select Publish on… and backdate it at least 8 days.
Read more about Publish in our Guides
or learn more about when an email with your content will be sent out
The moment you publish content on Mynewsdesk, it is sent by email to subscribers, followers and your own contact lists, though there are a few exemptions.
We won’t send an email when you
In summary, you can say that an email is sent when you publish a press release, news story or blog post for the first time, without backdating it.
Learn more about Publish in our Guides
or learn how to send already published content to more recipients
To manage your contacts and press contacts, select Publish and then Contacts. When you publish a new contact, no emails are sent to followers or subscribers.
Learn more about Publish in our Guides
or learn the difference between a contact and a press contact
If you wish to add new contacts to your network, you can add contacts manually or import them.
Add contacts manually:
– Go to the menu Contacts and select Contact lists.
– Click on the list that you want to add the contact to. Or use the button Create list.
– Click on Add Contact and fill in the contact information, then confirm.
Import contacts:
– Go to the menu Contacts and select Import.
There are two options to imports contacts, import a file or copy and paste contacts from your computer.
For more detailed info on how to import a file, please see our guide about how to import contacts into your lists.
Select one or more contacts by clicking the checkbox for options to add to further lists, or click on a contact to edit lists or contact details.
In the case that you want to add a contact or press contact on your public newsroom, however, this is not handled via the top menu called Contacts, but under Publish, where you select Contacts from the menu. See also where to add or edit a contact on my public newsroom.
Please also see:
How do I add an existing contact to more contact lists?
How do I download my contact lists?
Why is my file not being imported?
Why were not all contacts included when importing my list?
Go to the menu Contacts and select Contact lists. Then you click on the three dots menu, either for All Contacts (to download all your contacts), or for one of your lists (to download a specific list).
The three dots menu lets you choose between export as a CSV or XLSX file. To open easily in Excel, we recommend the XLSX format. The list that you choose to download will be sent to your registered email address.
When exporting all contacts, they will be presented in a list but not divided into the specific lists they’re in.
If you choose a specific list, you will only see the contacts that are included in that particular list.
A filter that you apply to the contacts will not have any impact on the export. To export a filtered list (e.g. your Followers), you set the filter via the dropdown button, then add the contacts to a list that you create yourself, and download that list.
Please note that it is not possible to export contacts from Audience Builder, or any other list bought for usage within Mynewsdesk.
Please also see:
How do I add an existing contact to more contact lists?
How do I add contacts?
The standard setting when you send something from Mynewsdesk is that the “from’ address is hello@mynewsdesk.com.
You can customize the from address to your own email address eg. press@company.com. Go to the Settings menu and select Email settings.
To set up a custom “from address”, please read the technical instructions on how to configure DNS settings, giving us authorization to use your email address for your Mynewsdesk account.
This is for Professional or Enterprise customers.
The logo appears at the top of all pages in the newsroom.
To add or change your logo:
– Go to the menu Settings and select Newsroom settings.
At the top of the page on the right, you can remove the existing logo and also choose a new one.
Mynewsdesk supports the following file types: JPG, GIF or PNG.
– Click on Choose image, a folder opens on your computer, and you can navigate from there to find your logo and add it.
– Don’t forget to save at the bottom of the page.
Learn more about Newsroom settings in our Guides
In Settings and Newsroom settings you can write both of the company descriptions.
The Company description can be seen in the newsroom’s first page and the boilerplate is always presented directly at the bottom of your press releases.
The boilerplate may be exactly the same as the company description or a completely different text. You can also change it temporarily in a particular press release if you wish.
You can add more users to get access to your newsroom account:
– Click on Settings (gearwheel in the upper right corner) and select Users and you will see those who have already registered and are users.
At the bottom of the page you can invite the new user by typing their email address.
– Click on Invite and the new user will receive an email with a couple of steps to follow to create their own login details.
If they already have access to other accounts on Mynewsdesk, they must be completely logged out from these before creating new login details.
The link is only valid for two hours.
The number of users is not limited.
All your contacts are visible in the newsroom under the Contacts tab, but the difference is that press contacts are always shown as contacts on the first page of your newsroom, and are automatically included in your publications.
If you wish to include a contact that is not a press contact in a publication, you need to add them under Related content. You’ll find Related content when you create new content in Publish.
Learn more about Publish in our Guides
or find where to add or edit a contact on your public newsroom
At Mynewsdesk, we regard the press release as the classic format for addressing media. Fact-filled texts with a significant news value, often bigger occurrences and more extensive company information, all serve well as a press release. The language in a press release is usually of a more formal kind. To integrate insights and data from e.g. your line of business or society is a good method to further consolidate the content.
A press release can be suitable to communicate the launch of new products, major recruitments, acquisitions and mergers or awards that you have received.
News have a big news value and are important to your corporate communication, however, they are a matter of somewhat minor news compared to a press release. They can also work as a follow up to a press release. A news is directed towards a broader target group than just the media, though still using a more formal language just like in a press release.
Examples of news are minor recruitments, store openings, a customer case or event participation, or minor updates about your business.
Blog posts, contrary to press releases and news, are written in a more personal way, allowing room to deliberate freely using a laid-back language. The blog post can be seen as a company’s voice and aims at different kinds of audiences. Interviews with employees, your charity activities, or tips and tricks are all topics that suit well as blog posts.
A title example for a blog post published by us at Mynewsdesk could be: “Press release, news or blog post – what’s the difference?”
The difference between the three above types of text is basically in the content, how the text is written, and what kind of audience is addressed. From a technical perspective, however, there is hardly a difference in the publishing template. All types of text are structured in the same way, and will appear on your newsroom start page and under the tab News archive.
Please feel free to visit Mynewsdesk’s newsroom to see examples of press releases, news and blog posts.
If you write a summary in e.g. a press release, the summary will not be shown in the actual publication.
The summary will be displayed in list views, like for example search engine results, social media feeds or on Mynewsdesk Stories (http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/stories). Moreover, it will be included in the email alerts which are sent out to followers of categories.
If you want the summary to appear in the press release, you will also have to include it in the body text, for instance as a preamble.
If you have forgotten your password:
– Go to our login page at http://www.mynewsdesk.com/user/signin
– Click on Forgotten password below the green Login button.
– This will bring you to a new page where you enter the email address you used to register your login details.
You will receive instructions by email on how to reset your password.
