What does “Distinguished” mean?

Who selects: nobody

There is no jury and no editorial team picking releases. Discretion plays no part. Every published release is assessed automatically. If it reaches the top stage and meets the conditions below, it is distinguished. No application is needed, and nobody awards it by hand. If a condition later ceases to apply, the distinction ends just as automatically.

All currently distinguished releases are listed under Distinguished press releases.

What a distinction brings

A distinguished release receives:

• the mark “Distinguished” in the release lists and on the release itself,
• a place in the section Distinguished press releases with its own RSS feed,
• a short reason on the release naming its strongest criteria,
• and a notification by e-mail.

We promise nothing more, above all no specific reach and no position in search engines. The distinction shows, visibly and verifiably, that a release is well crafted.

How your release gets there: a clear structure, a factual style, complete information, substantiated statements and a precise headline. An image counts too.

To the guide: What makes a good press release →

How to recognise a distinguished release

A distinguished press release has clear news in the first paragraph. Real quotes instead of empty phrases. Evidence for what it claims. Sentences you can read without a run-up. A complete press contact. A voice of its own. And an image.

Only a small share of releases reaches this stage. The selection is automatic, by fixed criteria and the same for everyone. It cannot be bought.

The basis is the quality assessment every release receives after the content check. It is the same on both portals. If a release narrowly misses the top stage, it is assessed a second time and the average of both results counts.

What is assessed

Seven criteria go into the assessment:

• Press style: informative rather than promotional, active voice, real quotes.
• Structure: a lead paragraph, sensible paragraphs, the essentials on top.
• Readability: sentence lengths you can breathe through; jargon only where needed.
• Completeness: press contact, company information, place.
• Sources and evidence: links, studies, data sources for claims.
• Headline: length, clarity, whether it carries the news.
• Originality: a voice of its own rather than interchangeable boilerplate.

A press image counts as well: a release with an image scores better than the same release without one.

We do not publish how the criteria are weighted or where exactly the cut-off lies. The criteria themselves are public, and working on them genuinely makes the text better. A number, on the other hand, invites writing towards the number. That rarely produces a better release.

The conditions besides the assessment

A good assessment alone is not enough. A release is only distinguished if it also

• is published and publicly accessible,
• has the result green in the content check (yellow, meaning a release with notes, is not enough),
• names a reachable press contact with an e-mail address,
• has no open review note, for example on an image that is still being checked,
• is not affected by an incident: if the account behind it is blocked for a violation, or if we withdraw the distinction after a report, it ends.

The review categories are listed in the publishing guidelines.

Never for sale

Whether a release is distinguished does not depend on who submits it or what was paid for it. Plan, quota, a booked highlight (boost) and the submission route (direct, via the API or through a partner) play no role. The rule does not even read this information. A distinction can neither be bought nor applied for.

A booked highlight is advertising. It is labelled as an “Advertisement” and says nothing about the quality of a release.

No quota

There is no minimum and no maximum. If no release reaches the stage in a given week, none is added. We never fill the section up, not even to make it look fuller. If many reach it, then many are distinguished.

Bound to the content

The distinction applies to the text that was assessed. If a distinguished release is changed, the mark is paused until the changed version has been reassessed. If it still reaches the stage, it stays distinguished. Otherwise the distinction lapses.

It also lapses if one of the conditions is no longer met, for example because the release has been withdrawn. If the same text is assessed again unchanged, on the other hand, the distinction stays.

The short reason

Every distinguished release comes with a short reason, for example:

Distinguished for a clear structure, a factual press style and complete information. Determined automatically by fixed criteria.

It names the criteria in which the release was strongest and is generated automatically from the assessment. Nobody wrote it for the individual release, neither a person nor an AI.

Since when

The rule also applies retroactively, to all releases published since July 20, 2026. That is the day the current platform launched.

How a release gets there

A distinguished release is craft. It has real news, a clear structure, factual language, figures with sources and a reachable press contact. What the assessment looks at and how to check a text yourself before releasing it is explained under What makes a good press release.

In your customer account you see which stage each of your releases has reached: Basic, Solid, Good or Distinguished. You also see how close it is to the next stage. For each of the seven criteria it shows whether the release is strong, solid or has room to improve. Under “What is missing” you read what it still needs for the next stage. Without a press image, a separate note appears. And if one of your releases is distinguished, you receive an e-mail.

Further reading

• Distinguished press releases: the current selection
• What makes a good press release
• Publishing guidelines