Patent ID: 8364757

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a client device, news content from a user, the news content including a news story to be disseminated to a plurality of news providers; assigning, by the client device, to the news content at least a priority attribute representing a priority of the news content and a category attribute representing a category of the news content, wherein the priority attribute is selectable from a set of priority values recognized by a server as valid priority values and the category attribute is selectable from a set of category values recognized by the server as valid category values, thereby ensuring that when the server processes the news content automatically, the priority value and the category value used are valid, wherein the priority attribute corresponds to a field defined in a standard wire service format and the category attribute corresponds to a field defined in the standard wire service format, and wherein the set of attributes further includes a a third attribute representing a headline associated with the news content, and a fourth attribute representing keywords in the news content; configuring, by the client device, a message with the news content and the priority attribute and the category attribute, wherein the message has a predetermined format that allows the server to perform automated processing; and transmitting the message from the client device to the server for automated dissemination of the news content to the plurality of news providers according to at least the priority attribute and the category attribute.