1. email submission directly to subscribing journalists.
2. posting on websites, making available to search engines and social media.
3. distribution on a major newswire of press releases, which is by far the most important of the three.

It's important to understand the 80/20 Rule (also known as the Pareto Principle or the vital few vs. the trivial many) - basically this is the observation that everything in life is distributed unequally. For example, a minority of a company's customers are responsible for the majority of revenue.

It's the same with press release distribution. While there's nothing wrong with posting a press release on websites, and nothing wrong with emailing subscribing journalists directly, the great majority of the effectiveness of our press release distribution is contributed by the newswire. When the goal is to reach journalists, the newswire distribution, by itself, is significantly more effective than both the emailing and website posting combined.