diff --git a/extensions_admin/pulp_python/extensions/admin/cudl.py b/extensions_admin/pulp_python/extensions/admin/cudl.py
index ab9de900..ed0424a1 100644
--- a/extensions_admin/pulp_python/extensions/admin/cudl.py
+++ b/extensions_admin/pulp_python/extensions/admin/cudl.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 d = _('if "true", on each successful sync the repository will automatically be '
       'published; if "false" content will only be available after manually publishing '
-      'the repository; defaults to "false"')
+      'the repository; defaults to "true"')
 OPT_AUTO_PUBLISH = PulpCliOption('--auto-publish', d, required=False,
                                  parse_func=parsers.parse_boolean)
 d = _('a comma separated list of package names you wish Pulp to sync')
@@ -57,7 +57,11 @@ def _describe_distributors(self, user_input):
         :rtype:            list of dict
         """
         config = {}
-        auto_publish = user_input.get('auto-publish', True)
+        auto_publish = user_input.get(OPT_AUTO_PUBLISH.keyword)
+
+        if auto_publish is None:
+            auto_publish = True
+
         data = [
             dict(distributor_type_id=constants.DISTRIBUTOR_TYPE_ID,
                  distributor_config=config,
@@ -141,7 +145,6 @@ def run(self, **kwargs):
 
         # Update distributor configuration
         web_config = {}
-
         value = kwargs.pop(OPT_AUTO_PUBLISH.keyword, None)
         if value is not None:
             web_config['auto_publish'] = value
diff --git a/extensions_admin/test/unit/admin/test_cudl.py b/extensions_admin/test/unit/admin/test_cudl.py
index 89d83d77..6fd87610 100644
--- a/extensions_admin/test/unit/admin/test_cudl.py
+++ b/extensions_admin/test/unit/admin/test_cudl.py
@@ -69,7 +69,10 @@ def test___init__(self):
 
     def test_describe_distributors(self):
         command = TestPythonRespositoryOptions.MixinTestClass()
-        user_input = {}
+        # by default the value is set to None
+        user_input = {
+            'auto-publish': None
+        }
         result = command._describe_distributors(user_input)
         target_result = {'distributor_id': constants.CLI_DISTRIBUTOR_ID,
                          'distributor_type_id': constants.DISTRIBUTOR_TYPE_ID,