FAQs

I am unable to see all of the editorial stories I saw on the Mediadirect feed, why is this?

A common reason is that the 'Create' product parameter isn't being used.

Add the following to your feed url will make you see all of our Create content= &product=paproduct:create

Sports data that may have been contracted under the original Mediadirect feed can now be found in either our Sports, Football or Cricket APIs.

Why am I unable to see the Finance data that was in the Mediadirect feed?

We've recently launched Finance data feeds inside Content API - If you require access to these then please get in touch.

They are published under a separate product from Create (the newswire) so to access them you must add the product parameter &product=paproduct:data

You could also request another API key that only has the data feeds on, please get in touch if that is required.

If you want to only access the Finance data feeds and protect against future data feeds being added you can add a parameter of &andSubject=paservice:data:finance

To see examples of the content published on the Finance feed please see this page RSS Examples

The Images coming via the new feed are too large, can these be compressed?

The images from the SFTP are full resolution and aren't compressed.

If you require compression you can make use of the CDN that Content API Images are served via.

This CDN supports dynamic image parameters like resizing, cropping and compression.

Example - limit to 1080 width

Use width or w

e.g. - https://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/c033ff613ee7e73c3a8b38055458a73c/2.60645727.jpg?width=1080

For this example it reduces a image that is size 8.9MB to 48KB

Example - limit to 1080 height

Use height or h

e.g. - https://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/c033ff613ee7e73c3a8b38055458a73c/2.60645727.jpg?height=1080

For this example it reduces a image that is size 8.9MB to 79KB

Example - reduce Device Pixel Ratio (DPR)

Use dpr

e.g. - https://image.assets.pressassociation.io/v2/image/production/c033ff613ee7e73c3a8b38055458a73c/2.60645727.jpg?dpr=1

For this example it reduces a image that is size 8.9MB to 358KB

How often do we need to poll the Content API?

The Content API should be polled every 30 to 60 seconds.

The Content API CDN contains a small cache to protect our infrastructure so polling more than this won't have much benefit but will run through your quota much quicker.

If receiving breaking news much quicker than this is a requirement then please get in touch to give us feedback and discuss options.

I am getting 403 errors when calling the Content API. Have I exceeded my Quota?

It sounds like you have exceeded your quota. Please get in touch with us to change the quota.

Usage quotas vary by contract.

PA’s API usage tariffs are listed below:

1. 100,000 total calls per month and up to 10 calls per second (default for clients moving over from Mediadirect)

2. 250,000 total calls per month and up to 10 calls per second

3. 1 million total calls per month and up to 10 calls per second

What is the final date to move off Mediadirect?

March 31st 2026