The small files we set in your browser, what each one does, and how you stay in control of them.
Cookies are how a website remembers you between clicks. Some are essential: without them you couldn't stay logged in to your account or submit a release for review. Others help us see which pages get read and where our reporting earns its keep. This policy lists every type we use, explains why, and shows you exactly how to turn the optional ones off. None of it is buried in legalese you'd need a lawyer to read.
A cookie is a small text file that a site asks your browser to store on your device. The next time you visit, your browser hands that file back, so the site can recognise your session and remember things like your language or whether you're signed in. Cookies can't run programs or carry viruses, and they only hold the information a site chooses to put in them.
A few related technologies do similar jobs, and we group them under the same banner here. Local storage and session storage keep small amounts of data in your browser without sending it back and forth on every request. Pixels, sometimes called web beacons, are tiny image requests that confirm a page loaded or an email was opened. Wherever this policy says "cookies", read it as covering these similar tools too.
Cookies come in two flavours by how long they last. Session cookies disappear the moment you close your browser. Persistent cookies stick around for a set period, which can be anything from a day to a couple of years, until they expire or you clear them. They also split by who sets them: first-party cookies come from Newswire Distribution, while third-party cookies are set by other companies whose tools we've chosen to use, which we cover further down.
We set cookies for a handful of practical reasons, not to follow you around the web. Keeping you securely logged in is the big one: when you submit a release or open your placement report, a cookie is what keeps that session alive so you don't have to re-enter your password on every page. Beyond that, cookies remember your preferences, help us measure which content actually gets read, and let us spot and stop fraudulent or abusive activity before it reaches the platform.
Analytics cookies tell us things that genuinely improve the product. If we can see that the pricing page gets plenty of traffic but few people reach the signup step, that's a signal to fix something. The same data helps us decide which case studies to feature and where the site is confusing. If you'd rather we measure none of that, you can opt out without losing access to anything you actually came here to do, and you can still read up on how distribution works on the way through.
Here's the full picture, grouped by purpose. The strictly necessary category is always on because the platform can't run without it. Everything else runs only if you agree, and you can change that decision whenever you like through the controls described below.
| Category | Purpose | Examples | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Keep you logged in, secure your session, balance server load, and remember the cookie choices you've already made. The site won't work without these, so they don't require consent. | nw_session, nw_csrf, nw_consent, load_balancer | Session to 12 months |
| Performance / Analytics | Count visits, show which pages and features get used, and flag where people drop off, so we can fix and improve the platform. The data is aggregated. | _ga, _gid, nw_stats | Up to 26 months |
| Functional | Remember choices you make, such as language, region, time zone, and whether you've dismissed a notice, so the site behaves the way you left it. | nw_lang, nw_region, nw_prefs | Up to 12 months |
| Targeting / Advertising | Measure the performance of our campaigns and, where you've agreed, show you relevant Newswire Distribution ads on other sites and limit how often you see them. | _fbp, li_sugr, nw_ads | Up to 13 months |
Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
Cookie names and lifespans can shift a little as we update the tools behind them, so treat the examples above as a representative sample rather than a fixed list locked in stone. The categories themselves stay the same, which is what your consent choices are tied to.
Some cookies are set by companies whose services we've built into the site rather than by us directly. We pick these partners carefully and only enable the ones that need consent once you've given it. The main ones fall into three groups.
We don't control the cookies third parties set, and we can't read the data they collect for their own purposes. For the detail on what we collect ourselves and how we handle it, see our Privacy Policy.
You're in charge of every cookie that isn't strictly necessary, and you can change your mind whenever you want. When you first arrived we asked for your choice through our cookie banner: "Accept all" switches on the analytics, functional and advertising categories, while "Decline" leaves only the strictly necessary ones running. To revisit that choice, use the button below. It clears the answer you gave earlier and brings the banner back so you can decide again. Your new decision is saved straight away and applies across the whole site.
The same control sits in the footer of every page under "Cookie settings", so you never need to come back here to change your mind. Your browser offers a blunter but broader set of controls too. Every major browser lets you see the cookies a site has stored, delete them, and block new ones, either across the board or site by site. The exact steps differ, so the menus to look for are these:
One thing to keep in mind: if you block strictly necessary cookies through your browser, parts of the platform will stop working. You may not be able to log in, submit a release, or view your placement report until you allow them again.
Some browsers can send a "Do Not Track" signal that asks sites not to track your activity. There's still no agreed industry standard for how a site should respond to it, so, like most services, we don't change our behaviour based on that signal alone. We do honour the Global Privacy Control signal as an opt-out where your browser sends one, and our cookie banner already gives you direct control over everything that isn't essential. Between those two, your choice is respected without relying on a signal nobody has settled the rules for.
We'll update this policy as we add or retire the tools that set cookies, or when the law changes what we have to tell you. The date at the top always reflects the latest version. When a change is significant, we'll surface it through the cookie banner so you can review and reconfirm your choices rather than having a change slip past unnoticed. It's worth a quick look now and then.
If anything here is unclear, or you want to ask about a specific cookie, email us at privacy@newswire-distribution.com or write to Fresh Pond Road, Maspeth, NY 11378, United States. This policy works hand in hand with our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service, so those are the next places to look if your question is broader than cookies. For anything else, the team on our contact page will point you the right way.
