How to write a press release

When I was a business editor, dozens of press releases were waiting in my inbox every morning. Most I deleted after reading the headline. A few I read as far as the first paragraph. The ones that became stories were usually one or two.

On the other side of every press release is a journalist. They’re short on time, their inbox is overflowing, and they read each release with one question in mind: “Is there a story here for my readers?” A release written with that question in mind gets read.

1. First: is there a story?

Not everything that matters to an organisation is news. A new office, an award for a senior manager, an anniversary — they create a buzz inside. For a journalist, though, something needs to be new, important or interesting. Ideally all three.

The question to ask before writing: Does this affect someone’s life, work, city or industry? Is there a number, a first, a change in it? If the answer is no, the organisation’s own channels are often a better home for it.

2. The headline

The headline is where the release gets read or binned. The best headlines tell the story in one plain sentence. “An important step from Company X” isn’t a headline. “Company X opens a new 300-job production line at its Gebze plant” is.

If a journalist can drop your headline into their own story almost unchanged, it’s been written well.

3. The first paragraph

Journalists call it the lede. Who, what, where, when, why and how. When the answers to those six questions are in the first paragraph, a journalist can write the story from that paragraph alone.

The company’s history, its place in the industry, its values don’t belong up there. They belong at the bottom.

4. The body: an inverted pyramid

The most important information at the top, the detail further down. If a journalist has to cut, they cut from the end. That’s why it matters that what gets cut really is the least important part.

A good release fits on one page. Its paragraphs are short and its figures are specific. Not “a significant increase” but “an 18 per cent increase”.

5. The quote

Most executive quotes in press releases sound the same: “We are delighted to take this step. This investment reflects our ongoing commitment to contributing to our industry.” No journalist will ever use that sentence.

A good quote says the part of the story the rest of the release doesn’t. Why now? Why here? What comes next? When it’s a sentence the executive could actually say, one that sounds natural read aloud, the journalist will use it. And of course, the executive needs to approve it.

6. A short paragraph about the organisation

At the end of the release sits a standard four-or-five-line boilerplate. When the organisation was founded, what it does, how many people it employs, where it operates. Writing this well once and using it in every release makes life easier.

Underneath go the press contact details: a name, a phone number, an email address. An “info@” address isn’t a contact. When a journalist calls, there should be a person who picks up.

7. Images

One or two high-resolution photos relevant to the story make a release stronger. Each one needs a caption: who, what, where. Logo graphics unrelated to the story and a headshot of the CEO from years ago usually go unused.

8. Sending it

• A release pasted into the body of the email gets read more than one sent as an attachment. Attachments often go unopened.
• A subject line that is the headline itself grabs more attention than “Press release”.
• Splitting your list by beat works better than sending everyone the same thing: business news to the business desk, arts news to the arts desk.
• Early morning usually works best. The start of the week tends to be busier than the middle.
• Rather than calling the next day to ask “Did you get our release?”, a short note to one or two journalists who might be interested, telling the story in your own words, gets a much better response.

A short checklist

Before sending, it helps to look at the release with fresh eyes: Is the story in the headline? Does the first paragraph stand on its own? Are the figures specific? Does the quote actually say something? Does it run past one page? Is there a name who will pick up the phone?

The organisation writes the release. The journalist reads it. A release that forgets this never leaves the inbox.