Newsroom is PortalHQ’s full email-marketing and digital newsletter platform. It does three big things:
- Email campaigns — design, send and track email blasts to segmented audiences.
- Newsletter issues — collect contributions from staff into a structured newsletter, publish online and via email.
- Mailing lists and contacts — manage who receives what, with manual or rule-based segmentation.
For most schools, Newsroom replaces external tools like Mailchimp — purpose-built around school audiences (parents, students, staff, alumni) and integrated with the school’s SIS data.
The structure
Newsroom
├── Campaigns — one-off emails, designed and sent to mailing lists
│ ├── Templates — saved campaign designs for reuse
│ └── Reports — opens, clicks, bounces
│
├── News Items / Issues — multi-section newsletters with contributions from staff
│
├── Lists — mailing lists and contact segmentation
│ └── Contacts — the people on the lists
│
└── Integrations — APIs for external systems
The KB is organised around the same shape — Campaigns, Lists, News Items, Templates and Integrations each have their own subcategory.
Who uses Newsroom
| Role | Activity |
|---|---|
| Communications team | Designs and sends campaigns. Manages mailing lists. |
| Editor / newsletter coordinator | Builds newsletter issues, collects contributions, publishes. |
| Department heads | Contribute submissions to newsletter issues. |
| IT / admin | Configures sender domains, integrations, API access. |
| Parents and recipients | Read the emails and newsletters. |
Where to start
- New to Newsroom: read this overview, then Getting started with Newsroom.
- Sending an email blast: Creating a campaign.
- Producing the school newsletter: Newsletter issues overview.
- Managing who gets what: Mailing lists and contacts.
Newsroom vs. other modules
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Send an email blast to a list of parents | Newsroom Campaigns |
| Publish a regular newsletter (multi-section, with images, contributors) | Newsroom Issues |
| Send a one-off announcement to staff dashboard | Notices |
| Send an SMS to parents about a specific event | Co-Curricular Alerts |
| Schedule a calendar event | Events |
Newsroom is for mass communication. For one-to-one or in-app messaging, use Notices or the relevant module.
Costs
Sending emails is free (within reasonable usage limits). SMS sends are billed per message via your school’s SMS provider. Check usage in the Reports section.