diff --git a/src/app/api/submission-receive/route.ts b/src/app/api/submission-receive/route.ts
index d49ff77..1ce0ba6 100644
--- a/src/app/api/submission-receive/route.ts
+++ b/src/app/api/submission-receive/route.ts
@@ -110,8 +110,52 @@ export async function POST(request: NextRequest) {
     .trim()
     .slice(0, 240);
 
+  // Passthrough mode (skip_rewrite=true): publish the original PR body
+  // VERBATIM with byline = firm + noindex=true on the wp_imported_posts
+  // row. No AI rewrite, no Google News indexing, no sitemap. For clients
+  // flagged in distribute.users.skip_rewrite (e.g. Mike Nann / Writeturn).
+  const skipRewrite = !!body?.skip_rewrite;
+  if (skipRewrite) {
+    const wpId = Math.floor(900_000 + Math.random() * 99_000_000);
+    const wpSlug = `${baseSlug}-pr-${randSuffix()}`;
+    const byline = contributor?.contact_name || contributor?.firm_name || 'PR Submission';
+    const { error: wpErr } = await supabase
+      .schema('av')
+      .from('wp_imported_posts')
+      .insert({
+        wp_id: wpId,
+        wp_slug: wpSlug,
+        title,
+        excerpt,
+        content,
+        author_name: byline,
+        category: 'Industry News',
+        status: 'published',
+        wp_published_at: new Date().toISOString(),
+        noindex: true,
+      });
+    if (wpErr) {
+      return NextResponse.json({ error: wpErr.message, where: 'passthrough wp_imported_posts insert' }, { status: 500 });
+    }
+
+    // Keep the audit trail in original_submissions even for passthrough.
+    await supabase.schema('av').from('original_submissions').insert({
+      submission_id: submissionId,
+      property,
+      title,
+      body: content,
+      featured_image_url: featuredImage,
+      attachments,
+      contributor,
+      contributor_email: contributor?.email || null,
+      raw_payload: body,
+      native_article_id: null,
+    });
+    return NextResponse.json({ ok: true, slug: wpSlug, status: 'published_passthrough', noindex: true }, { status: 201 });
+  }
+
   const { data: article, error: artErr } = await supabase
-    .schema('bb')
+    .schema('av')
     .from('native_articles')
     .insert({
       slug,
@@ -129,7 +173,7 @@ export async function POST(request: NextRequest) {
   if (artErr) return NextResponse.json({ error: artErr.message, where: 'native_articles insert' }, { status: 500 });
 
   const { error: subErr } = await supabase
-    .schema('bb')
+    .schema('av')
     .from('original_submissions')
     .insert({
       submission_id: submissionId,
diff --git a/src/app/articles/[slug]/page.tsx b/src/app/articles/[slug]/page.tsx
index 81f613c..0a9557b 100644
--- a/src/app/articles/[slug]/page.tsx
+++ b/src/app/articles/[slug]/page.tsx
@@ -52,10 +52,15 @@ export async function generateMetadata({ params }: PageProps): Promise<Metadata>
   if (!article) {
     return { title: "Article Not Found", description: "The article you are looking for does not exist." };
   }
+  const noindex = !!article.noindex;
   return {
     title: article.title,
     description: cleanExcerpt(article.excerpt),
     alternates: { canonical: `/articles/${article.slug}` },
+    robots: noindex
+      ? { index: false, follow: false, nocache: true, googleBot: { index: false, follow: false, noimageindex: true } }
+      : undefined,
+    other: noindex ? { "googlebot-news": "noindex" } : undefined,
     openGraph: {
       type: "article",
       title: article.title,
diff --git a/src/app/news-sitemap.xml/route.ts b/src/app/news-sitemap.xml/route.ts
index bff4779..b78df43 100644
--- a/src/app/news-sitemap.xml/route.ts
+++ b/src/app/news-sitemap.xml/route.ts
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ export async function GET() {
       .select('wp_slug, title, wp_published_at, ai_rewritten_at, author_name, tags')
       .eq('status', 'published')
       .not('ai_rewritten_at', 'is', null)
+      .or('noindex.is.null,noindex.eq.false')   // exclude noindex=true (passthrough PRs)
       .gte('wp_published_at', since)
       .order('wp_published_at', { ascending: false })
       .limit(1000),
diff --git a/src/app/news/[slug]/page.tsx b/src/app/news/[slug]/page.tsx
index b7238ef..2f5a010 100644
--- a/src/app/news/[slug]/page.tsx
+++ b/src/app/news/[slug]/page.tsx
@@ -64,10 +64,17 @@ export async function generateMetadata({ params }: PageProps): Promise<Metadata>
   // contain <p>...</p>, which Next.js then HTML-escapes, surfacing as
   // literal `&lt;p&gt;` in page source.
   const cleanDesc = cleanExcerpt(article.excerpt);
+  const noindex = !!article.noindex;
   return {
     title: `${article.title} — AV Beat`,
     description: cleanDesc,
     alternates: { canonical: `/news/${article.slug}` },
+    // Passthrough PR submissions (Mike Nann / Writeturn etc.) get a hard
+    // noindex on robots + googlebot-news so they don't pollute Google News.
+    robots: noindex
+      ? { index: false, follow: false, nocache: true, googleBot: { index: false, follow: false, noimageindex: true } }
+      : undefined,
+    other: noindex ? { "googlebot-news": "noindex" } : undefined,
     openGraph: {
       type: "article",
       title: article.title,
diff --git a/src/app/rss/route.ts b/src/app/rss/route.ts
index fccd916..6306d8f 100644
--- a/src/app/rss/route.ts
+++ b/src/app/rss/route.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ export async function GET() {
   try {
     const articles = await getLegacyArticlesBySection("news", 50);
     items = articles
+      .filter((a) => !a.noindex)  // exclude passthrough PR submissions
       .map((a) => {
         const url = `${SITE_URL}/news/${a.slug}`;
         const pubDate = a.date ? new Date(a.date).toUTCString() : new Date().toUTCString();
diff --git a/src/lib/articles/legacy-source.ts b/src/lib/articles/legacy-source.ts
index bcf330b..48b61a4 100644
--- a/src/lib/articles/legacy-source.ts
+++ b/src/lib/articles/legacy-source.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ interface ImportedPostRow {
   featured_image_alt: string | null;
   status: string;
   wp_published_at: string | null;
+  noindex: boolean | null;
 }
 
 interface RewriteRow {
@@ -146,6 +147,7 @@ function rowToArticle(row: ImportedPostRow, section: Section = "news"): Article
     readTime: readTime(row.content),
     tags: row.tags || [],
     content,
+    noindex: !!row.noindex,
   };
 }
 
@@ -193,7 +195,7 @@ function humanBeat(beat: string): string {
 }
 
 const SELECT_COLS =
-  "wp_id,wp_slug,title,excerpt,content,author_name,category,tags,featured_image,featured_image_alt,status,wp_published_at";
+  "wp_id,wp_slug,title,excerpt,content,author_name,category,tags,featured_image,featured_image_alt,status,wp_published_at,noindex";
 
 const REWRITE_SELECT_COLS =
   "id,slug,title,excerpt,body,category,tags,status,published_at,created_at,persona:ai_personas(slug,name,beat,avatar_url)";
diff --git a/src/lib/articles/types.ts b/src/lib/articles/types.ts
index c6a12b9..b6e9755 100644
--- a/src/lib/articles/types.ts
+++ b/src/lib/articles/types.ts
@@ -14,4 +14,8 @@ export interface Article {
   readTime: string;
   tags: string[];
   content: string;
+  /** When true, render robots noindex + googlebot-news noindex and exclude
+   *  from sitemap / RSS. Set on passthrough-mode imports from contributors
+   *  flagged in distribute.users.skip_rewrite (e.g. Mike Nann / Writeturn). */
+  noindex?: boolean;
 }