Every company thinks their announcement is newsworthy, and most journalists disagree. The gap between what a company believes is worth covering and what a reporter will actually pitch to their editor is where most press releases die. The angle is unclear, the lead buries the news, and by the third sentence it reads more like a sales pitch than a story worth telling. It's not a news problem. It's a writing problem, and it's more fixable than most teams realize.
Journalists aren't hard to write for once you understand what they're actually looking for. Is the angle clear? Is it relevant to their audience right now? Is there actual proof behind the claims? Can they get the full picture in under 30 seconds? A release that checks all four gets read. One that misses even two of them usually doesn't make it past the headline.
To make that easier, everything here is broken down into 10 practical steps, with a free press release template and a pre-send checklist built around how newsrooms actually work. Writing is only one half of the job. Once the release is ready, how to send a press release covers everything on timing, targeting, and outreach.
How to Write a Press Release Step by Step (Guideline)
Writing a press release involves following a standardized structure designed to help journalists quickly identify a story's news value. Most press releases are concise, typically 300 to 500 words or one to two pages maximum. Every section has a specific job, skip one and the whole thing gets harder for a journalist to use.
Step 1: Define Your Goal and Audience
A press release written for everyone is written for no one. Journalists know within the first sentence whether something was built for their beat or bulk-sent to a list. The problem is not always the news itself. It's that most teams skip the targeting step entirely and wonder why nothing lands.
Before you write, get clear on three things. What does your company actually need from this release: investor credibility, inbound leads, hiring traction? What specific story do you want placed, and where exactly, not "tech press" broadly, but the payments columnist at TechCrunch or the HR tech reporter at Insider? Who else needs this beyond journalists: the VC doing due diligence, the engineer Googling your company before they apply, the partner deciding whether you're worth building with?
Pick one primary journalist target and write for them first. The release doesn't change. The pitch angle does. Let’s say, a SaaS company launching a new onboarding feature pitches "cuts onboarding time by 40% for remote teams" to HR tech reporters, and "100 engineering roles added in [city]" to local business press. Same announcement. Completely different story depending on who's reading it.
PR Pro Tip: Use Muck Rack or Qwoted to check a journalist's last 10 bylines before pitching. If fewer than three of them could have featured your company as a source, move on. A tighter list of well-matched reporters will always outperform a long list of loosely relevant ones.
Step 2: Find Your Newsworthy Angle
The most common reason press releases don't get picked up has nothing to do with writing quality. It's that the announcement wasn't press release material to begin with, and no amount of polished copy fixes a story without a genuine news hook. Journalists aren't looking for company updates. They're looking for stories their readers will care about, and those are two very different things.
Run your announcement through a quick triage before you draft anything. Tier A angles always justify a release: funding rounds, major product launches with measurable impact, significant partnerships, proprietary research, and executive hires. Tier B angles like smaller feature updates, awards, and new integrations can work if you tie them tightly to something already moving in the market. Tier C items like minor UX changes, routine hires, and internal process updates belong on the blog. If you can't finish the sentence "this matters right now because..." without reaching for vague language, you don't have an angle yet.
For example, "Version 4.2 of our platform is live" tells a journalist nothing useful. "New feature cuts chargeback disputes by 35% for fintech SMEs, based on a six-month pilot with 120 merchants" gives them a who, a what, a proof point, and a ready-made angle for anyone covering payments or SME finance.
PR Pro Tip: A release that announces three unrelated things forces the journalist to pick an angle themselves, and most won't bother. One release, one story, one angle.
Step 3: Write the Headline
Think about the last ten press releases you skimmed. You probably remember one headline, maybe two. That's the standard you're writing against. Your headline is the only guaranteed read in the entire release, and if it doesn't earn the next click in under three seconds, nothing else you wrote gets a chance.
Keep it under 15 words, lead with an active verb, and put your core keyword close to the front. Strip out "leading provider," "innovative solution," and "revolutionary" entirely. Those words don't add meaning, they replace it, and experienced journalists read them as signals that nothing worth saying is being said. Three formulas that consistently work: [Who] + [does what] + [for whom] + [result]. [Metric or finding] + [action] + [audience]. [Tension or trend] + [who's solving it] + [proof].
"Startup Launches AI Tool" tells a journalist nothing they can act on. "Fintech Startup Cuts Chargeback Disputes by 35% for Small Retailers with New AI Tool" gives them the sector, the result, and the audience in a single line.
PR Pro Tip: Write the headline last, not first. Draft your lead and first body paragraph, then come back to it. The strongest version almost always reveals itself once the actual story is on the page.
Step 4: Write the Dateline and Lead Paragraph
The lead paragraph is your entire pitch compressed into one short block of text, and it either earns the next 30 seconds of their attention or doesn't. Getting it right matters more than any other part of the release.
Start in the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why now), plus one concrete proof point: a stat, a recognizable name, or a problem statement that makes the timing feel urgent. Open with the dateline (CITY, Month Day, Year), then get straight to the news. Skip the company background, the mission statement, and the market overview as those belong further down.
Two leads that get it right: "DENVER, March 12, 2026 — The Aurora Literacy Fund today launched a free tutoring program pairing 300 elementary students with volunteer mentors to close reading gaps widened during pandemic school closures." For tech: "LONDON, March 12, 2026 — AcmeCloud today released a workflow tool that helped early users cut project overruns by 28% across 150 client projects in a three-month beta."
PR Pro Tip: Paste your lead into an email subject line and read it on your phone. If the key news doesn't land in the first eight words or feels vague on a small screen, it needs trimming, that's exactly how most journalists first encounter it.
Step 5: Build the Body
Your headline got them to open it, your lead kept them reading, and then the body lost them. That's where internal stakeholders take over, and the result is always the same: a wall of copy that reads like a product page rather than a story. The body exists to give journalists something they can actually work with, not to satisfy everyone who had notes on the draft.
Structure it across three paragraphs, each doing something different. The first gives context, what's broken or shifting that makes this relevant right now. The second explains the solution, what it actually is and what makes it different from what existed before. The third lands the impact, real results, proof points, or what happens next. Keep it short, write it plainly, and only use bullet points when you have hard data worth listing.
Weak: "Our platform empowers customers to unlock unprecedented operational efficiencies across their entire workflow ecosystem." Strong: "In a three-month beta with 60 mid-market customers, the module reduced false-positive security alerts by 40% without changes to existing infrastructure." Same product, completely different credibility.
PR Pro Tip: Before finalising the body, send it to someone outside your company and ask them two questions: what problem does this solve, and who does it help? If they can't answer both in 30 seconds, the body is still too internally focused to be useful to a journalist.
Step 6: Add a Strong Executive (or C-Level) Quote
CEO and investor quotes carry weight only when they sound like something a real person actually said. Most fail because they read like a brochure with a name attached such as generic enthusiasm. A good quote shows a human reaction, adds context only that person can provide, or takes a light stance with a real point of view. Write it last, then ask: would a journalist actually pull this line?
Name the pain first, state what's changing second, add a forward view if it strengthens the story. Keep it to two or three sentences and write it like something a real person said in a real conversation, not a statement drafted for a press page. The simplest test: if the company name could be swapped for a competitor's without changing anything, it isn't specific enough to use.
Weak: "We're thrilled to bring this innovative solution to market." Strong: "Most finance teams still rebuild cash flow models from scratch every month. That made sense when rates were stable. It doesn't in 2026. We built this so mid-market CFOs get the same real-time visibility the big banks have had for years," said [Name], CEO of [Company].
PR Pro Tip: Write the quote yourself first, then send it to the executive for approval rather than asking them to write it from scratch. Quotes written by committee go through so many rounds of softening that all the specificity gets edited out before anyone signs off.
Step 7: Write the Boilerplate
The boilerplate is treated as an afterthought by most teams, but it's one of the first places an unfamiliar journalist looks when deciding whether to take a release seriously. It's not just an "About" section. It's a trust signal that tells editors whether you're a credible source worth quoting or a company making claims they can't verify. A weak boilerplate quietly undermines everything the release built above it.
Keep it under 100 words, and have a clear structure. What you do and who you serve. One or two credibility markers: customer count, years operating, funding stage, or geographic reach. Use core focus areas in plain language. If you're in a regulated space, add one line: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, or FCA-regulated. Journalists use it to assess risk before quoting you, and missing that signal costs coverage.
Generic: "Acme is a leading provider of innovative cloud solutions for modern enterprises." Strong: "AcmeCloud is a project management platform for marketing agencies and creative teams. Over 2,500 teams across North America and Europe use it to plan campaigns, track budgets, and deliver projects on time. Founded in 2018 and SOC 2 Type II certified, the company focuses on workflow automation for growing agencies."
PR Pro Tip: Search how your company has been described in past media coverage and compare it to your current boilerplate. If journalists consistently reword it into something simpler, that's a signal your version is too complex or too vague. Use the language reporters naturally reach for, not the language your marketing team prefers.
Learn more about the boilerplate in a press release
Step 8: Add Contact Information and a Press Kit
A release that makes follow-up difficult loses coverage the writing earned. Contact details and press assets aren't administrative afterthoughts. They're the last mile between a strong release and actual coverage. Press kits are typically shared as a link to a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, not attached to the release itself. Attachments clog inboxes and often trigger spam filters, so a clean link to organized assets does the job better.
Include full name, title, direct email, mobile, time zone. You should add logos in PNG and SVG, headshots with names in the filename, two to four product images, charts for any key stats, and a one-line usage rights statement. That's the kit.
"Media Contact: Jana Kowalski, PR Manager, jana@company.com, +1 (555) 234-5678, EST. Press kit: [direct download link, no login required]."
PR Pro Tip: Host everything on a publicly accessible press room page with direct download links. If your kit requires a login, a form, or a reply email to access, most journalists will skip it entirely, and you'll never know the coverage you missed because of a password field.
Step 9: Format It for Newsrooms
Formatting is the last thing most teams think about and the thing that quietly kills otherwise strong releases. If the lead is buried, the quote takes work to lift, or the image is locked in an attachment, they move on.Good formatting removes every reason to stop reading before the story gets filed.
Three versions, each built for a different purpose. The email version goes inline, single-column, no attachments, links kept to a minimum. The press room version gets H1 and H2 structure, short paragraphs, and structured data markup where possible. The PDF works for internal approvals and archives, but it's not what journalists reach for when they need to file fast.
Standard order, top to bottom: company logo and contact details, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, headline, optional subheading, dateline and lead, body paragraphs, quote, boilerplate, contact information, ###.
PR Pro Tip: Treat the email version and the press room version as two separate documents. The email should be stripped down and scannable in a preview pane. The press room version should be built for long-term discoverability, longer, linked, structured with headers, and findable well after the news cycle has moved on.
Step 10: Distribute and Follow Up
You can spend a week perfecting a release and lose the coverage in the last five minutes by sending it to the wrong person at the wrong time. Distribution doesn't reward effort. It rewards precision. The teams that get covered consistently treat it as its own discipline, and every round of outreach generates data that makes the next release sharper.
Match the channel to the announcement. Direct pitching to three to five specific journalists works best for niche or high-value stories where the angle fits the beat. Wire services like PR Newswire or Business Wire handle broad reach and long-term search indexing. For a major funding round, proprietary research, or a significant hire, offer one top-tier outlet an exclusive under embargo before going wide.
After each release, track which outlets covered it, which subject lines got opened, and which angles got picked up. That's your input for Step 1 and Step 2 next time. Distribution without a feedback loop is effort without learning.
PR Pro Tip: Your follow-up email is where you either recover a missed opportunity or quietly burn a media relationship. Two sentences, reference the original pitch by name, make it easy to say yes. Offer an extra data point, a source for interview, or an asset they might have missed. One follow-up. Never two.
Press Release Template
[COMPANY LOGO]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / EMBARGOED UNTIL: [Date, Time, Time Zone]
[Headline: Who + Does What + For Whom + Result -- under 15 words]
[Optional subheading: one sentence expanding on the headline, adding context or a secondary proof point]
CITY, Month Day, Year -- [Lead paragraph: 2-3 sentences maximum. Answer who, what, when, where, and why now. Include one of the following: a specific number, a recognizable customer or partner name, or a clear problem statement that makes the timing feel urgent. Do not open with company history or mission. The news goes first.]
Example: "AMSTERDAM, March 12, 2026 -- [Company], a [what you do] for [who you serve], today launched [what] that helped early customers [specific result] across [scope] in [timeframe]."
[Body Paragraph 1 -- Context] [What's broken, shifting, or at stake in the market right now that makes this announcement relevant. Write for a journalist's reader, not for your internal team. 2-3 sentences. No adjectives without evidence behind them.]
Prompt: "For years, [target audience] has struggled with [specific problem]. As [market shift or trend], the cost of [problem] has grown to [stat or impact]."
[Body Paragraph 2 -- Solution and Detail] [What the announcement actually is, how it works, and what makes it different from what already exists. Plain English, even for technical products. 2-3 sentences. If you can't explain it without jargon, simplify until you can.]
Prompt: "[Company] today released [product/feature/partnership] that [does what] for [audience]. Unlike [existing alternative], it [key differentiator]."
[Body Paragraph 3 -- Proof and Impact] [Early results, concrete data, or a clear next step. This is the paragraph journalists quote and editors use to decide whether the story has weight. One short bulleted list of 3-4 data points is acceptable here if the numbers are strong enough to break out.]
Prompt: "In a [timeframe] [beta/pilot/study] with [number] [customers/users/partners], [Company] found that [specific measurable result]. [What happens next or where to learn more]."
- [Stat 1: specific number + context]
- [Stat 2: specific number + context]
- [Stat 3: specific number + context]
[Quote -- Primary Spokesperson] "[Sentence 1: name the pain or context in the market. Sentence 2: what this announcement changes. Optional sentence 3: forward-looking implication or strategic view.]," said [Full Name], [Title], [Company].
Example: "Most [target audience] still [outdated approach]. That worked when [old conditions]; it doesn't in [year]. We built this so [audience] can [specific outcome]," said [Name], CEO of [Company].
Avoid: "We're thrilled to announce." "We're excited to bring this innovative solution to market." "This is a game-changer for the industry." If the quote could appear in any competitor's release with the name swapped, rewrite it.
[Optional: Customer or Partner Quote] "[One to two sentences from a customer, partner, or industry expert that validates the announcement from outside the company. Specific outcomes preferred over general praise.]," said [Full Name], [Title], [Company/Organization].
Example: "We've tried three other tools in the past two years. This is the first one that actually cut our [specific metric] without adding work for the team," said [Customer Name], [Title], [Company].
About [Company Name] [Boilerplate: under 100 words. Line 1: what you do and who you serve, with sector and company-size hints. Line 2: one or two credibility markers -- customer count, years operating, funding stage, geographic reach, compliance certifications. Line 3: core focus areas in plain language. No "leading provider." No "innovative solutions." If you operate in a regulated space, include one compliance line.]
Example: "[Company] is a [what you do] for [who you serve, with sector/size hints]. Over [number] [customers/teams/organizations] across [regions] use [Company] to [outcome in plain language]. Founded in [year] and [SOC 2 Type II certified / HIPAA compliant / FCA regulated], the company focuses on [2-3 focus areas]."
Media Contact: [Full Name] [Title] [Direct Email] [Mobile Number] [Time Zone] [Press Kit Link -- no login, no form, direct download]
Images may be used for editorial coverage of [Company] with credit to [Company].
###
Learn more about press release format
Press Release Checklist: Before You Hit Send
Every strong press release passes the same basic tests before it goes anywhere. Use this checklist to catch what's missing before a journalist does.
The angle:
- Can you finish "this matters right now because..." without reaching for vague language?
- Does the announcement qualify as Tier A news -- funding, major launch, significant partnership, proprietary research, or a strategic hire?
- If not Tier A, is it tied tightly enough to a current industry trend to justify a release?
The headline:
- Under 15 words?
- Contains an active verb?
- Includes a specific result, number, or unique angle?
- Free of "leading provider," "innovative," "cutting-edge," "revolutionary"?
- Core keyword phrase sits close to the front?
The lead:
- Answers who, what, when, where, and why now in 2-3 sentences?
- Contains at least one proof point -- a number, a name, or a problem statement?
- Opens with the dateline, not company history or a mission statement?
- News is in the first sentence, not buried in paragraph two or three?
The body:
- Paragraph one sets market context?
- Paragraph two covers the solution and what makes it different?
- Paragraph three delivers proof -- results, data, or next steps?
- No sentence reads like it belongs on a landing page?
- Bullets used only for hard data, not marketing claims?
The quote:
- Comes from a named, senior spokesperson?
- Names a specific pain or market context in sentence one?
- Could not appear in a competitor's release with the name swapped?
- Written conversationally, not by committee?
- Free of "thrilled," "excited," "innovative," and "game-changing"?
The boilerplate:
- Under 100 words?
- Includes sector and company-size signals in line one?
- Contains at least one credibility marker -- number, certification, or years operating?
- Free of "leading provider" and generic positioning language?
- Consistent with previous releases?
Contact and assets:
- Full name, title, direct email, mobile, and time zone included?
- Press kit hosted on a public page with direct download links and no login required?
- Logos in light and dark versions, PNG and SVG?
- Executive headshots with names and titles in the filename?
- Product screenshots or in-context images with descriptive filenames?
- Usage rights stated clearly?
Format:
- Email version pasted inline, single-column, no heavy formatting?
- Press room version built with H1, H2s, internal links, and structured data?
- Ends with ### or -END-?
- Total length between 400 and 600 words?
Conclusion
A press release has to walk the fine line between self-promotion and plain facts. The moment it tips too far toward promotion, it stops being useful to a journalist. The releases that get picked up are the ones written with enough clarity and proof that a reporter can lift them and run without chasing down missing information or decoding corporate language.
Four checks before anything goes out:
- Easy to scan: headline plus lead communicate the full story in under 10 seconds, on a phone screen, in a crowded inbox
- Easy to use: journalist can copy the quote and boilerplate word for word without editing either
- Easy to verify: stats are sourced, claims are defensible, and the contact person is actually reachable
- Easy to place: the angle matches the real beat of the journalists on your list, not just a broad category like "tech press"
The template gives you the scaffolding. Finding the angle, cutting the internal politics out of the body, and writing a quote that sounds like a real person said it, that's still the hard part. Once that's done, the next challenge is distribution. Everything on timing, targeting, and outreach is covered in how to send a press release. For real-world benchmarks on what strong releases look like across different announcement types, a press release example is worth a look before you hit send.
FAQs
What should a press release include?
Every press release needs a headline, dateline, lead paragraph, body, quote, boilerplate, and media contact details. The headline tells the story in under 15 words. The lead answers who, what, when, where, and why now in two to three sentences. The body adds context, detail, and proof. The quote gives journalists something to lift directly into their story. The boilerplate covers who you are in under 100 words. Contact details make follow-up easy without anyone having to hunt down an email address.
Do press releases need a quote?
Yes, and it has to be a good one. Journalists copy quotes directly into articles because they're pre-cleared commentary that saves them a phone call. A line like "we're thrilled to announce this exciting new solution" wastes that opportunity entirely. Your quote should name a specific problem, state what's changing, and sound like something a real person actually said out loud. A simple test is if it could appear in a competitor's release with the name swapped, it needs a rewrite.
What makes a press release successful?
A genuine news angle, a lead that communicates the story in under 10 seconds, and proof behind every claim. Those three things, in that order. A weak angle won't be saved by a strong headline, but a strong angle with a buried lead won't get read past the first sentence. A release full of adjectives without data to back them up won't be trusted by anyone who covers your space professionally. Get those three right and everything else falls into place.
Should you include links in a press release?
Yes, but keep it selective. Link to your company website, relevant product pages, and your press kit. Make sure every link points to information, not a sales page. For the version you're emailing out, use links lightly so the formatting stays clean and readable. For your press room version, links to related content also help with long-term search visibility, so the release keeps working after the news cycle moves on.
