The Wire Service for Scrappy Newsrooms
Join newsrooms around the country who are expanding their coverage and reach through content sharing
Sharing stories with other newsrooms doesn't have to be hard.
You don't need this drama. Plucky Wire will help you get reliable coverage from peer outlets quickly, easily, and affordably.
What is Plucky Wire?
A simple website that lets newsrooms trade stories with each other.
Every editor knows the deal with major newswires: They provide stories on topics you can't cover in-house in exchange for gobs of money. This works well for national and regional stories, but local is different. When was the last time the wires covered your county council? Especially if you're in a rural area, they might not cover your county at all.
Plucky Wire exists to help solve this problem. The site helps small newsrooms share selected stories with each other so that each can fill the reporting gaps that the major newswires will never fill. Thanks to publicly-accesible Groups and the Open Library, it is a national clearinghouse that every editor can use to find the stories they need.
How It Works
Plucky Wire lets Outlets share and access their stories through Groups
Users
Users are editors or reporters.
They upload and download stories on behalf of their Outlet. They also use Plucky Wire to research existing coverage.
Users who work for news collaboratives don't need to belong to an outlet. Email us for more information.
Outlets
Outlets are any news organization, including papers, websites, radio and TV stations, community newsletters, etc.
Outlets upload stories they wrote and/or download stories for republication. They can share their stories as privately or publicly as they want. They can participate in as many Groups as they want.
Some outlets use Plucky Wire only to republish or only to syndicate their stories. Either works.
Groups
Groups are sets of outlets with their own rules for membership, sharing, etc.
Groups can accommodate a wide range of sharing goals, including traditional news collaboratives, one-way distribution, and more. They can be private, for closed news collaboratives, or open, for when outlets want their stories to travel as far as possible.
Groups can pick which of their members are allowed to upload. This lets Groups control exactly which stories are shared.
Practical Features That Save You Time
Find stories quickly and easily
Search by keyword, topic, word count, license type, and more, until you find the story your readers need.
Instant correction alerts
If you ever need to issue a correction, just update the story on Plucky Wire, then we'll make sure the right people know about it. If a story you downloaded ever gets corrected, you'll find out right away. No drama.
Easy and Reliable Analytics
Spend seconds, not hours, collecting data for your impact reports. Plucky Wire can track republications across every medium, including radio, TV, and print. It's built to work with every CMS, and it includes automation for modern systems.
How to Start
Any newsroom can join Plucky Wire on its own, but we're also experienced at onboaring collaboratives.
If you'd like help signing up multiple newsrooms at once, email us at hello@pluckyworks.org. Our network of veteran collaborative leaders will help you make the most of Plucky Wire.
If you want to start by downloading stories...
- Find a Group to join using the Explore Groups page
- Click the "Join" button. We'll walk you through getting a personal account and a free plan for your outlet.
If you want to start by sharing stories...
- Register yourself and your outlet for free
- Create a Group to upload stories to on the Explore Groups page
- Make your Group open to the public or invite trusted peers to join, using an easy registration link.
Pricing
If you're considering using Plucky Wire for your collaborative, email us at hello@pluckyworks.org to get a free trial and volume discount.
Every Outlet gets its own plan. Prices vary by how many stories you download each month.
Free
$0/mo
30 Pack
$15/mo
60 Pack
$30/mo
90 Pack
$60/mo
Join a Growing Community
Newsrooms across the country are already sharing stories on Plucky Wire
250+
Newsrooms participating
13,502
Stories shared
26,621
Photos/audio/videos shared
Johnny Bassett
Founder & Lead Developer
Scrappy newsrooms are the reason we exist.
When the COVID lockdowns began in my home state of New Hampshire, normal news-gathering ground to a halt. Reporters couldn't travel. Newsrooms suddenly needed stories that they could not produce.
The Granite State News Collaborative, led by Melanie Plenda, stepped in to help newsrooms solve that problem through story sharing. As the pandemic ground on, the Collaborative's 20+ partners became close collaborators, even newsrooms that remained competitors on most of their coverage. Working directly with Melanie and the GSNC editors, I began building tools to make sharing stories easier, so the editors could spend more time on actual reporting.
Several years later, thousands of newsrooms around the country still have trouble sharing stories with each other, so we're taking Plucky Wire on the road. We look forward to working with you.
Ready to give it a try?
Open a free account for your newsroom today, or schedule a demo to see how Plucky Wire can work for your newsroom or your collaborative.
Email Us
