The best source for local news is other local newsrooms.
Plucky Wire makes it easy for newsrooms to share stories with each other, so readers get better coverage of the issues they care about.
Leading a news collaborative? See how Plucky Wire helps collaboratives prove their impact.
Your readers want broad local coverage, but your reporters are already stretched thin.
This is the problem newswires are designed to solve, but when was the last time a major newswire covered your county council? The high school football state championships? The regional theater company?
The big wires are great for national and international stories, but they are never going to fill some of the gaps that matter most to your community.
Thankfully, nearby newsrooms are already producing the coverage you need. The reporting exists. The problem is finding it when you're on deadline.
We're here to help you solve that problem.
What is Plucky Wire?
It's a simple website that lets newsrooms trade stories with each other at scale.
Plucky Wire helps small newsrooms share selected stories with each other so that each can fill the reporting gaps that the major newswires will never fill. With more than 25,000 stories and more outlets joining every day, for many editors it has become the de facto newswire for local reporting in their state.
Built for local newsrooms
We work with editors to make Plucky Wire fast. Uploading a story takes just a few minutes. Downloading can be instantaneous. If you already have relationships with editors at other newsrooms, you all could start swapping stories through Plucky in less than an hour.
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.
RSS integration
Plucky Wire connects directly to your existing RSS feeds, so uploading stories is as easy as picking them from a list.
On the other end, your CMS can pull stories straight from Plucky Wire. Stories you select flow straight into your CMS with the formatting, bylines, and photos already attached.
What changes when you join
Before
Readers leave your site for stories that aren't hyperlocal
The neighboring county passes a zoning change that affects half your audience, but your reporters are too busy on local stories to cover this issue.
A peer outlet covers it, then eventually your readers hear about it because somebody had a viral hot take about it on social media.
After
Readers stay with you for all their local and regional needs
That other newsroom uploads their zoning story to Plucky Wire under a one-day embargo. You find it, realize your readers will want to know about it, then you publish it when the embargo ends the following day, giving full credit to the original reporter.
Your readers get the reporting they need from a trusted source. The newsroom that wrote it gets its name in front of a larger audience. Everybody wins.
Free to use
Plucky Wire is free for most newsrooms. If your newsroom needs to pull multiple stories a day, you can get unlimited downloads and support the project by upgrading to a paid plan.
Free
$0/mo
Up to 40 downloads/month
Unlimited
$30/mo
Unlimited downloads/month
Leading a news collaborative? Learn how Plucky Wire works for collaboratives.
Join a growing community
Newsrooms across the country are already sharing stories on Plucky Wire.
250+
Newsrooms participating
26,694
Stories shared
49,259
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.
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