Friday Is 50.6% Quieter Than Tuesday on the Press Release Wire
By the PR Gun Research desk. Updated November 1, 2026.
Friday is the quietest weekday to send a press release, and Tuesday is the busiest. In PR Gun's database, Tuesday carried 24.0% of 97,043 timed press releases published May 7 to October 31, 2026 on five wires with reliable timestamps, and Friday carried 11.9%. That makes Friday 50.6% quieter than Tuesday. Weekends are almost empty at 2.8% combined. On PR Newswire, an average weekday carried 625 releases and an average weekend day 37.
Which day of the week has the fewest press releases?
Among weekdays, Friday. We counted releases by Eastern day on the five wires in PR Gun's database that record a real send time. Those are PR Newswire, ACCESS Newswire, Business Wire, Newswire.com and Send2Press. Releases with only a date were left out, since a stored midnight can fall on the wrong day once converted to Eastern time.
| Day | Releases | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 16,211 | 16.7% | |
| Tuesday | 23,308 | 24.0% | |
| Wednesday | 21,325 | 22.0% | |
| Thursday | 21,998 | 22.7% | |
| Friday | 11,511 | 11.9% | |
| Saturday | 1,426 | 1.5% | |
| Sunday | 1,264 | 1.3% |
- In PR Gun's database, Tuesday carried 24.0% of 97,043 timed press releases published May 7 to October 31, 2026 on five wires, the most of any day.
- Thursday (22.7%) and Wednesday (22.0%) were close behind. Monday carried 16.7%.
- Friday carried 11.9%, so it was 50.6% quieter than Tuesday.
- Monday through Thursday carried 85.4% of releases. Saturday and Sunday together carried 2.8%.
How many press releases go out each day?
PR Newswire gives the clearest daily picture because it is the largest wire and its timed releases cover every day from May 12 to October 31, 2026, 173 days with no gaps. The table shows releases per calendar day by weekday.
| Day | Days | Mean per day | Median per day | Quietest day | Busiest day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 24 | 560 | 574 | 174 | 722 |
| Tuesday | 25 | 768 | 818 | 141 | 934 |
| Wednesday | 25 | 709 | 724 | 572 | 829 |
| Thursday | 25 | 724 | 723 | 442 | 897 |
| Friday | 25 | 363 | 369 | 199 | 513 |
| Saturday | 25 | 37 | 36 | 16 | 88 |
| Sunday | 24 | 37 | 33 | 17 | 93 |
A typical PR Newswire Tuesday carried 818 releases (median). A typical Friday carried 369, less than half as many. A weekend day carried about 37. Averaged over all 124 weekdays, PR Newswire carried 625 releases a day, against 37 on the 49 weekend days. That's a ratio of 16.9 to 1.
The busiest single day in the window was Tuesday, September 15, 2026, with 934 timed PR Newswire releases. The quietest Tuesday on record, with 141 releases, was May 12, the first day of timed coverage and likely a partial day. The quietest Monday was May 25, Memorial Day, with 174, and the quietest Friday was July 3, the day before Independence Day, with 199. Holidays empty the wire.
Is Friday quieter on every wire?
Yes, but by different amounts. Each wire's timed releases cover a different window, so read each row on its own.
| Wire | Timed releases | Window (2026) | Tue | Thu | Fri | Fri vs Tue, quieter by | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR Newswire | 79,338 | May 12 to Oct 31 | 24.2% | 22.8% | 11.4% | 52.7% | 2.3% |
| ACCESS Newswire | 11,314 | Jul 10 to Oct 31 | 24.1% | 20.8% | 13.0% | 46.2% | 4.9% |
| Newswire.com | 3,135 | May 12 to Oct 31 | 20.6% | 19.6% | 15.9% | 22.9% | 8.6% |
| Business Wire | 2,777 | Sep 24 to Oct 18 | 21.9% | 30.2% | 15.0% | 31.5% | 1.9% |
| Send2Press | 479 | May 7 to Oct 30 | 28.0% | 21.9% | 11.5% | 59.0% | 0.6% |
On PR Newswire, Friday was 52.7% quieter than Tuesday across 79,338 timed releases published May 12 to October 31, 2026. On Newswire.com the gap was only 22.9%, and 8.6% of its releases went out on a weekend. Business Wire is the one wire where Thursday led, with 30.2% of 2,777 releases published September 24 to October 18, 2026. That window is under four weeks, so treat it with care.
Does the best day depend on the type of news?
It does, a little. We sorted releases into types using headline keyword rules.
| Release type | Timed releases | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Weekend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other or unclassified | 72,931 | 16.8% | 23.7% | 21.8% | 22.4% | 12.5% | 2.9% |
| Product launch | 9,882 | 16.9% | 26.3% | 23.8% | 22.4% | 8.8% | 1.9% |
| Investor litigation notice | 4,649 | 13.3% | 18.4% | 18.6% | 28.1% | 14.6% | 6.9% |
| Partnership | 3,932 | 16.2% | 27.3% | 23.6% | 22.3% | 9.4% | 1.2% |
| Executive appointment | 2,914 | 19.7% | 27.2% | 21.5% | 22.9% | 8.3% | 0.3% |
| Acquisition or merger | 1,798 | 17.4% | 27.6% | 23.1% | 22.0% | 9.2% | 0.6% |
| Funding round | 937 | 15.9% | 24.4% | 27.0% | 24.4% | 7.8% | 0.4% |
Business announcements avoid Friday even more than average. Only 7.8% of 937 timed funding releases went out on a Friday, and 8.3% of 2,914 executive appointments. Funding rounds were the one type where Wednesday led, at 27.0%. Investor litigation notices behave differently. Thursday led at 28.1% of 4,649, and 6.9% went out on a weekend, which may reflect court filing deadlines.
Is Friday a news dump?
The old idea is that Friday releases go out late in the day to bury bad news. The timing data doesn't show that on these wires. In PR Gun's 2026 data, 33.3% of 11,511 Friday releases went out at noon Eastern or later, almost the same as 32.9% on Monday through Thursday. The share at 4 p.m. or later was 15.0% on both. Friday is quieter all day, not just in the afternoon.
Low volume isn't automatically a good deal. Weekends are quiet because newsrooms are thin. Friday is more interesting. Newsrooms are staffed, and you face less than half the competition. The risk is that a story which needs a few days to build can stall over the weekend. That matters less for trade and B2B news, where readers work on a weekly rhythm.
What changed since the earlier study?
The first version of this page used an earlier sample of 134,126 releases studied May 7 to August 15, 2026. On the largest service, over 101 consecutive days, it found Tuesday carried 23.6% of the week's releases and Friday 12.7%, making Friday 46% quieter. It counted 46 releases per weekend day against 696 per weekday, a 15-fold gap. The busiest day held 959 releases and the quietest weekday 177.
The 2026 rerun covers five named wires and converts times to Eastern before assigning a day. The pattern held and got a little sharper. Friday is now 50.6% quieter than Tuesday across 97,043 timed releases, and 52.7% quieter on PR Newswire alone. The weekday to weekend ratio on PR Newswire is 16.9 to 1. The numbers aren't directly comparable, because the earlier sample used a different window and didn't name its service.
Which day should you send your press release?
- Midweek for broad news. Tuesday to Thursday is when reporters work and when most releases land. It's crowded but safe.
- Consider Friday for trade news. Competition halves, newsrooms are staffed, and B2B readers keep reading.
- Skip the weekend unless the news is time-bound. A release nobody is working on isn't a bargain.
- Be careful with Monday morning. Reporters are clearing the weekend backlog while volume climbs.
- Pick the day last. A story that isn't news fails on every day. Timing is a tiebreaker, not a fix.
By sender, a startup chasing tech press usually does best Tuesday to Thursday. A small business with local news can use Friday, since local outlets plan weekend stories. An agency with several releases can spread them across the week instead of stacking Tuesday. A public company follows its disclosure calendar first.
See also the hour-of-day study, duplicate releases and press release statistics 2026. Day patterns by type are in the funding, product launch, partnership, acquisition and executive appointment studies.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the quietest day to send a press release?
- Among weekdays, Friday. In PR Gun's 2026 data, Friday carried 11.9% of 97,043 timed releases on five wires (May 7 to October 31), against 24.0% on Tuesday. Weekends are quieter still at 2.8% combined, but few reporters are working.
- What is the busiest day for press releases?
- Tuesday. It carried 24.0% of timed releases in PR Gun's 2026 data. A typical PR Newswire Tuesday carried 818 releases.
- Is it bad to send a press release on Friday?
- Not for most trade and B2B news. You face about half the competition of a Tuesday. For a story that needs several days to build, midweek is safer.
- Should I send a press release on the weekend?
- Only if the news can't wait. PR Newswire averaged about 37 releases per weekend day in 2026, so you'll stand out, but newsrooms are thin.
- Do companies send bad news late on Fridays?
- Not that we can see. In PR Gun's 2026 data, 15.0% of Friday releases went out at 4 p.m. Eastern or later, the same share as Monday through Thursday.
How we researched this
- Source is PR Gun's database of published press releases, queried read-only on November 1, 2026.
- Window is releases with a publish date of January 1 to October 31, 2026. We kept one copy per wire and headline and required at least 50 words of body text.
- Stored publish times are UTC. We converted them to America/New_York (Eastern) before assigning a day. Releases stored at exactly 00:00:00 UTC carry only a date and were excluded.
- Only five wires have reliable clock times in PR Gun's database. That left 97,043 timed releases. PR Newswire 79,338 (May 12 to October 31), ACCESS Newswire 11,314 (July 10 to October 31), Newswire.com 3,135 (May 12 to October 31), Business Wire 2,777 (September 24 to October 18), Send2Press 479 (May 7 to October 30).
- Daily counts use PR Newswire only, 173 Eastern calendar days with no missing days.
- Release types come from headline keyword rules applied in priority order.
- The earlier figures come from a separate sample of 134,126 releases studied May 7 to August 15, 2026.
- PR Gun sells press release distribution and competes with the services on this page.
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