Frequently Asked Questions
If your question isn't here, email us at support@pluckyworks.org. We read every message.
What it costs
Yes. Uploading and downloading stories, search, RSS feeds, correction alerts, photo sharing, and analytics are all free. There is no trial period and no credit card required. The only things that cost money are optional services, where our team sets things up for you or gives you direct advice. See Pricing.
We charge for our time, not for the software. Newsrooms that want help can pay us to set things up or for one-off consulting. See Pricing for what that costs. Many newsrooms use Plucky Wire without ever paying us, and that is fine. The service works better for everyone as more newsrooms join.
This includes hands-on support from our developers, technical account managers, and newsroom or collaborative experts. We'll gladly help you with whatever issue you're facing, including deciding whether Plucky Wire is a good fit given your goals, understanding how to get started on Plucky Wire, and we'll even do all the trainings and troublshooting you need to get fully up and running. See Pricing or email our team.
Who it's for
Any organization that publishes original local news. That includes nonprofit and for-profit newsrooms, daily and weekly papers, online-only outlets, print-only outlets, broadcasters, student newsrooms, and more. The only groups we reliably turn away are ones that don't publish original reporting. If we have any questions about your outlet, we'll reach out to you directly using the email you provided during registration.
No. Many newsrooms use Plucky Wire on their own to share their stories and to see where they ran. (This is especially popular with non-profit newsrooms who need to write impact reports.) After you join Plucky Wire, you can join an existing sharing group, start your own, or pick up free stories from the Open Library.
Yes. Plucky Wire's original purpose was to help keep tiny local newsrooms in New Hampshire running during the COVID pandemic. We assume you do not have a developer, an IT department, or much spare time, and we build the tool around that.
We are a team of four. We spun off from the Granite State News Collaborative, one of the oldest news collaboratives in the country. See About.
A traditional wire service sells newsrooms a subscription to its content. Plucky Wire works differently. We're here to facilitate sharing, not to sell content. The stories on Plucky Wire come from newsrooms like yours, each newsrooms and group/collaborative sets its own terms for sharing, and no one pays for access.
How sharing works
Yes. You decide which sharing groups your newsroom joins, and your stories are only available to the newsrooms in those groups. No stories are public unless you choose to add them to the Open Library.
Each newsroom controls how licensing and credit work for their stories. Stories can have a standard license, such as Creative Commons, or a custom license you upload to the platform.
Up to you. Some licenses let other newsrooms make small edits or cuts. Others require running the story unchanged. Either way, the terms are shown next to the story before anyone downloads it. Keep in mind that Plucky Wire is a sharing platform, not a publishing platform, which means that we don't ultimately control what republishing editors do. In practice, we've found that the best way to ensure that republishing editors following your license is to make those terms clear and easy to follow.
When you update a story on Plucky Wire, every newsroom that downloaded it gets an automatic correction notice.
Getting started & technical
Registering and creating your newsroom takes a few minutes, and most newsrooms share their first story the same day. Connecting your website so stories import on their own, or setting up your licenses and credit lines, takes a bit longer. Our paid setup can handle that part for you if you prefer. See Pricing.
Yes. Every story can be downloaded as a simple .txt file that you can copy and paste into whatever program you use to publish. If you want to speed up that process, we offer RSS imports and exports, which work with WordPress, Newspack, Ghost, BLOX CMS, and Drupal. We also offer a Wordpress Plugin that helps you create an RSS feed for sharing your stories with us.
Plucky Wire records every download of your story, and that information appears in your analytics. You can see which newsrooms previewed or picked up your work, which helps with impact reports and with funders.
Yes. We are a small team, so email is the fastest way to reach us at support@pluckyworks.org. We read every message. To get guaranteed help for a one-off issue or while you're getting set up, you can buy a support package tailored to your needs. See Pricing for details.
Still have questions?
Open a free account for your newsroom, or email us. We read every message.
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