Most press releases never get read. They sit in overflowing inboxes, ignored by journalists who receive dozens of pitches before lunch. The ones that do get coverage share a common trait: they are written for the journalist, not for the company issuing them.
A press release is not a marketing brochure. It is not a blog post. It is a structured, newsworthy announcement written in journalistic style — clear, factual, and immediately useful to the reporter who might cover it. Get the format wrong or bury the news, and your announcement goes nowhere. Get it right, and a single well-placed press release can generate coverage that takes months to replicate through paid advertising.
This guide covers everything: what a press release is, when to send one, the anatomy of every section, a copy-paste template, distribution channels, and the most common mistakes that kill otherwise good announcements. If you are also building out your broader marketing strategy, see our guides on how to create a marketing plan and how to write a business proposal.
What Is a Press Release?
A press release (also called a news release) is a short, official statement issued by an organization to media outlets announcing something newsworthy. The goal is to inform journalists about developments that may be worth covering for their audience — not to advertise, not to promote, but to report.
Press releases follow a specific format that journalists recognize instantly. This format exists for a reason: it puts the most important information first and gives reporters everything they need to verify the facts and write a story, without requiring back-and-forth communication.
A press release is not the same as a media pitch. A pitch is a personalized email to a specific journalist suggesting a story angle. A press release is the factual document that supports that pitch — or that gets distributed more broadly when the news is significant enough to warrant wide distribution.
When to Send a Press Release
Not everything is newsworthy enough to warrant a press release. Before drafting one, ask yourself: would a journalist's audience genuinely care about this? If the honest answer is no, you are better off publishing a blog post and skipping the media outreach.
Situations that typically merit a press release:
- Product launches — a new product, service, or major feature that has clear audience appeal
- Funding announcements — seed rounds, Series A, significant grants or awards
- Partnerships and acquisitions — especially involving recognizable brands or significant strategic moves
- Leadership changes — new executives, major hires, or notable departures at established organizations
- Company milestones — reaching meaningful user, revenue, or growth benchmarks (especially if you can share the numbers)
- Events — major conferences, community events, or speaking engagements worth coverage
- Research and data — original studies, survey results, or industry reports your organization has published
- Responses to industry news — if your company has a genuinely relevant, expert perspective on a breaking story
Before writing a press release, read your announcement from a journalist's perspective. Does it affect their readers? Does it include a genuinely new development — not just something that is new to your company, but something that is new to the world? If you cannot answer yes to both questions, reconsider whether a press release is the right format.
The Anatomy of a Press Release
A professional press release has seven standard components. Each one serves a specific purpose. Miss one or use it incorrectly, and you signal to journalists that you do not know what you are doing — which reduces the chance your release gets read at all.
1 Headline
Your headline is the single most important line you will write. It must communicate the full news in one sentence — ideally under 100 characters — in active voice, present tense. Write it like a newspaper headline, not like an ad. No hype words. No exclamation points. No vague claims.
The headline's only job is to get the journalist to keep reading. If they cannot understand what happened from the headline alone, they move on.
Strong: "Acme Analytics Partners With Salesforce to Bring Real-Time Revenue Forecasting to 150,000 SMBs"
2 Dateline
The dateline appears at the very start of the first paragraph — not as a separate line, but embedded in the text. It includes your city of origin and the release date. This convention tells journalists the location of the news source and confirms the announcement is current.
3 Lead Paragraph
The lead (sometimes spelled "lede") is the most critical paragraph in the body of your release. It must answer the five W's: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. A journalist who reads only the lead should understand the complete story. Keep it to two or three sentences. No jargon. No setup. Start with the news.
Think of the lead as the entire story compressed into a single paragraph. Everything after it is elaboration and supporting detail.
4 Body
The body expands on the lead with supporting details, context, and quotes. It typically runs two to four paragraphs. Structure it using the inverted pyramid: most important information first, progressively less critical details as you move down. This mirrors how journalists write stories — and it means editors can cut from the bottom without losing the essential facts.
Include at least one quote from a company executive or relevant spokesperson. Quotes humanize the announcement and give journalists a ready-made sound bite. Make them substantive — say something that cannot be conveyed in a straight news sentence. Avoid generic filler like "We are thrilled to announce this exciting partnership."
The integration uses Acme's proprietary machine learning model, trained on more than $4 billion in closed-won deal data, to generate rolling 30-, 60-, and 90-day revenue forecasts with a reported accuracy rate of 94%. It requires no implementation work and activates directly from the Salesforce AppExchange.
5 Boilerplate
The boilerplate is a standardized paragraph at the end of every press release that provides background on your company. It answers: what does this company do, how big are they, and where can I learn more? Journalists who want to include company background in their story pull it directly from here. Write it once, keep it updated, and use it on every release.
Acme Analytics is a revenue intelligence platform that helps sales teams forecast with confidence. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in San Francisco, Acme serves more than 2,000 B2B companies across North America and Europe. For more information, visit acmeanalytics.com.
6 Contact Information
List the name, title, email, and phone number of the person journalists should contact for more information or to arrange interviews. This should be a real person — a PR representative, communications manager, or founder — who will actually respond quickly. A journalist on deadline who cannot reach your contact will simply not run the story.
Jordan Lee, Head of Communications
Acme Analytics
jordan@acmeanalytics.com
(415) 555-0192
7 End Notation
Signal the end of your press release with the notation ### centered on the final line. This is the universal journalistic convention that marks the end of a release and distinguishes it from any attachments or notes that follow. It seems small, but omitting it marks you as someone unfamiliar with standard press release format.
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Use the template below as your starting point. Replace every bracketed placeholder with your own content. Keep the structure and formatting exactly as shown.
or: EMBARGOED UNTIL [DATE AND TIME]
[HEADLINE: Active Voice, Present Tense, Under 100 Characters]
[Optional subheadline that adds one additional key detail]
[CITY, STATE], [DATE] — [Company name] today announced [what happened]. [One sentence on why it matters or who it affects]. [One sentence on when it takes effect or where it applies].
[Paragraph 2: Expand on the announcement with key details. Include relevant numbers, timelines, or specifics that journalists can fact-check and quote.]
"[Quote from executive or spokesperson that adds color and perspective — not just a restatement of the facts.]" said [Name], [Title] at [Company Name].
[Paragraph 3: Additional context, background, or supporting detail. Secondary quote if applicable.]
About [Company Name]
[Company Name] is [brief description of what you do and who you serve]. Founded in [year] and headquartered in [city], [Company Name] [key stat or notable fact]. For more information, visit [website URL].
Media Contact:
[Full Name], [Title]
[Company Name]
[Email Address]
[Phone Number]
###
Write your press release in a plain text editor or word processor first, then format it as a PDF before sending. Use a clean, readable serif or sans-serif font at 11-12pt. Avoid images, logos embedded in the body, or fancy layouts — journalists often copy text directly and unusual formatting creates extra work.
Press Release Distribution Channels
Writing a great press release is only half the job. Distribution — getting it in front of the right journalists, editors, and aggregators — determines whether it generates coverage or sits in a folder collecting digital dust.
Direct journalist outreach
This is the highest-value distribution method and the one most small businesses skip because it requires research. Identify 20 to 50 journalists who cover your specific beat — not just "tech" or "business," but the precise intersection of topics your news touches. Read their recent articles. Personalize your email subject line. Reference a specific piece they wrote and explain why your announcement is relevant to their readers.
A targeted pitch to 30 journalists who genuinely cover your space will outperform a blast to 5,000 unvetted contacts every time. Journalists remember who sends relevant pitches and who wastes their time.
Wire services
Wire services syndicate your press release to thousands of outlets simultaneously and make it indexable online. The major players are PR Newswire, Business Wire, and Globe Newswire — all effective but expensive, ranging from $500 to $2,000+ per distribution. For most small businesses and early-stage startups, this investment is only justified for genuinely major announcements like funding rounds, acquisitions, or significant product launches with broad appeal.
For budget-conscious distribution, EIN Presswire and PRLog offer free or low-cost tiers that provide online indexing without the premium price tag. These will not land you in the New York Times, but they create a public, linkable record of your announcement and can drive some organic search traffic over time.
Industry publications and trade media
Trade publications often have dedicated news sections that actively seek press releases from companies in their space. Find the three to five most relevant trade publications in your industry and submit directly to their news desks. These outlets have smaller audiences than mainstream media but higher relevance — a mention in the right industry newsletter often drives more qualified traffic than a passing reference in a major daily.
Your own channels
Publish your press release on your own website under a dedicated "Press" or "Newsroom" section. Share it on social media — especially LinkedIn for B2B announcements. Send it to your email list as a company update. These channels will not generate media coverage, but they give your announcement a permanent online presence and signal to journalists (who will Google your company) that you are a serious, active organization.
Send press releases on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday mornings — ideally between 9 AM and 11 AM in the journalist's time zone. Mondays are hectic. Fridays get lost. Avoid sending on or around holidays. If your news is time-sensitive, distribute it two to five business days before the announcement date so journalists have time to prepare their coverage before your news goes live.
7 Common Press Release Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Mistake 1: Burying the news. Starting your press release with company background, history, or context before stating the actual announcement is the fastest way to lose a journalist. Lead with the news in the very first sentence. Everything else is supporting detail.
Mistake 2: Writing like a marketer instead of a journalist. Phrases like "revolutionary," "game-changing," "best-in-class," and "cutting-edge solution" are red flags that signal promotional content rather than news. Write in plain, factual language. Let the facts be impressive — they usually are.
Mistake 3: No actual news hook. "Company launches new website" is not news. "Company launches new website" with a data point — "reducing average page load time from 6.2 seconds to 1.4 seconds and projecting a 40% increase in lead conversion" — has a fighting chance. Always ask: what is the specific, verifiable claim that makes this worth covering?
Mistake 4: Weak or generic quotes. A quote like "We are excited to announce this groundbreaking partnership that will transform the industry" tells the journalist nothing they could not infer themselves. Quotes should add perspective, context, or opinion that cannot be conveyed in a factual news sentence. Make them count.
Mistake 5: No follow-up plan. Sending a press release and waiting is not a strategy. If you have not heard back from a journalist within three to five business days, send a short, polite follow-up email referencing your original pitch. One follow-up is appropriate. Two is borderline. Three is too many. After that, move on.
Mistake 6: Making it too long. One page. Four hundred to six hundred words. If your announcement genuinely requires more detail, add a fact sheet as a separate attachment — do not pad the press release itself. Journalists do not read past the first two paragraphs of a release they are not already excited about.
Mistake 7: Missing or outdated contact information. A journalist who wants to cover your story and cannot reach a real human in the next two hours will find a different story. List a contact person who will actually respond to media inquiries within the business day, and make sure their information is correct.
Turn Press Coverage Into Long-Term Growth
The Content Marketing Playbook shows you how to build a content engine that compounds — from press releases and blog posts to email sequences and social distribution strategies that keep working long after you publish.
Get the Content Marketing Playbook — $13Writing the Draft: Step-by-Step
Once you understand the structure and have a newsworthy announcement, the drafting process should be straightforward. Here is a practical approach:
Start with the facts
Before you write a single sentence, list out the five W's for your announcement: Who is making the announcement? What exactly happened? When does it take effect? Where does it apply? Why does it matter to the journalist's audience? Having these answers in front of you before you write prevents the most common error — getting halfway through a draft and realizing you are not sure what the actual news is.
Write the headline last
Counter-intuitively, the headline is easiest to write after the body is done. Once you have articulated your lead paragraph, distilling it to a single active-voice headline is much simpler than starting with the headline cold. Draft the body first, then write three to five headline options and choose the strongest.
Get your quote approved before you send
If the executive quoted in your release is not you, get written approval on the exact quote before distribution. Journalists sometimes verify quotes directly with the quoted person, and if the language does not match what the executive recalls saying or approving, you have a problem. A quick email confirmation thread is all you need.
Proofread for facts, not just spelling
Spelling errors are embarrassing. Factual errors are career-ending. Double-check every number, date, name, title, and URL in your release. If you quote a statistic, verify the source. If you mention a partner company, confirm the correct legal name. Journalists who catch a factual error in your release will not trust anything else you send them.
Our free markdown editor is useful for drafting and reviewing press release text — paste your draft in to catch formatting inconsistencies and review structure before you convert to PDF. For a broader look at how press releases fit into your overall strategy, our marketing plan guide walks through building a coordinated communications calendar.
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