Actually, usually that message comes from sites that participate in digg circles, have you ever posted ur url in a thread here (or on DP, etc) that says.. hey digg for me.. or will ya.. or I will?
Bunch of ppl get banned for that, and then another bunch get banned for.. nothing really. Pearl Gaming for instance got banned right after their launch, I wrote a newsletter entry for them, I was proud of it, I dugg it. Steve he diggs me .. he dugg it

PG was banned the next day, I felt sooo bad!
They're unbanned now, about gosh 5-8 months ago digg seemed to have unbanned everyone (even digital point was banned back then) I think they realized they had gone ban zealous, but digg circles then and now = bans.
As for paying for the press release.. I think it's .. pr-usa.net or something like that.. I don't remember for sure, it's google adsence supported, but it is included in google news and it is free. So it's worth a look.