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Every 15 minutes

Turn emailed press releases into draft articles in Drive

Press releases that reach your inbox come back as publish-ready article drafts in Google Docs, with the link emailed to you.

Runs
Every 15 minutes
Apps
Gmail, Google Drive
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Gmail gmail.modify; Drive write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when an email with a press release arrives (in the body, a PDF or a Word file), rewrite it as a publish-ready article, save it as a Doc in my Drive and email me the link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

An editor at a regional trade site receives a dozen press releases a day. Most are worth a short news item, but each needs rewriting from promotional language into a neutral story with a headline, which takes twenty minutes she does not have.

Getting a first draft in a Google Doc for each release means she spends her time checking facts and choosing which stories to run, not retyping the same structure.

What you get out of it

  • More stories with the same team

    Starting from a draft instead of a blank page lets a small newsroom cover releases it would otherwise skip.

  • Consistent house style

    Each draft follows the same structure and tone you describe, so articles read the same whoever edits them.

  • Drafts ready to edit together

    Saving as a Google Doc means colleagues can comment and edit in the same file before it goes to your publishing tool.

  • Nothing slips through the inbox

    Every release gets a draft, so a useful story is not lost under the next fifty emails.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every few minutes ClickRuntime checks your Gmail for new press release emails.

  2. It reads the release from the email body or from an attached PDF or Word file, and skips emails it has already handled.

  3. AI rewrites the release as a news article with a headline in the style you described.

  4. The article is saved as a Google Doc in your Drive folder and you get an email with the link.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect Google Drive

What you get

RunsEvery 15 minutes
Turn emailed press releases into draft articles in Drivetoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · Article draftNew article draft: Northwind Logistics opens second warehouse in Leeds. Open in Google Docs

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Gmail and Google Drive steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
press_releases_turned_into_articles_in_drive.pyexample
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, notify, ai, report_fetched, http

FOLDER = "articles-folder-id"
STYLE = "Neutral news style, 300 words, headline first, no superlatives."

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    creds = Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work"))
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False).users()
    msgs = gmail.messages().list(userId="me", q='label:press-releases -label:drafted').execute().get("messages", [])
    report_fetched(len(msgs))
    if not msgs:
        return {"summary": "No new releases"}
    for m in msgs:
        snippet = gmail.messages().get(userId="me", id=m["id"]).execute()["snippet"]
        body = gmail.messages().get(userId="me", id=m["id"], format="full").execute()["payload"]
        text = snippet if not body.get("parts") else str(body["parts"][0].get("body", {}).get("data", snippet))
        article = ai.generate(f"{STYLE}\nRewrite as an article:\n{text[:8000]}", max_output_tokens=900).text
        doc = http.post("https://www.googleapis.com/upload/drive/v3/files?uploadType=multipart", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {creds.token}"},
                        files={"metadata": (None, f'{{"name": "{article.splitlines()[0][:80]}", "mimeType": "application/vnd.google-apps.document", "parents": ["{FOLDER}"]}}', "application/json"),
                               "file": ("a.txt", article, "text/plain")}).json()
        notify.email_me("New article draft", f"https://docs.google.com/document/d/{doc['id']}/edit")
    return {"drafted": len(msgs)}

FAQ

Common questions

How does it recognise a press release?
You can point it at a label, a forwarding address or emails with words like press release or for immediate release in the subject. Other emails are left alone.
Does it check facts in the release?
No. The draft only uses what the release says. Names, figures and quotes should still be checked by an editor before publishing.
Can I set the length and tone?
Yes. Describe your house style once, such as 300 words, neutral tone, no superlatives, and every draft follows it.
What permissions does it need?
Gmail gmail.modify; Drive write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Turn emailed press releases into draft articles in Drive” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.