Press releases are misunderstood tools in business communications. Every year, millions of them get distributed. The vast majority are ignored by the journalists who receive them. That does not mean press releases are useless. It means most of them are done poorly.
Here is how to write a press release that serves its purpose. We also provide an honest assessment of when a press release is the right tool.
Do press releases still matter?
Press releases are different today. Before email and the internet, a press release was the primary way a company communicated news to the media. That is no longer the case. Journalists today receive too many press releases. Most of them go straight to the trash.
Press releases still serve a few important functions. They create a formal record of an announcement that can be referenced and cited. They provide a structured format. Journalists can pull quotes and facts from them quickly when they are on deadline. When distributed through the right channels, they can appear in news aggregators and industry databases. This provides some SEO and visibility value.
Press releases fail when they are used as a substitute for actual media outreach. Distributing a press release is different from pitching a journalist. A press release sitting on a wire service is passive. A personalized pitch to a journalist who covers your space is active. The press release supports the pitch. It does not replace it.
The structure that works
A good press release follows a proven structure. Deviating from it rarely helps. Start with a clear, specific headline that communicates the actual news. Avoid vague headlines like "Company X Announces Exciting New Partnership." Use specific headlines like "Company X Partners with Company Y to Bring Specific Product to Specific Market." The headline should tell a journalist in one line what happened and why it matters.
The first paragraph should answer the core questions: who, what, when, where, and why. A journalist who reads only the first paragraph should have enough information to decide whether this story is relevant to their beat. Do not bury the news under three paragraphs of company background. Lead with the news.
The second and third paragraphs provide context and detail. Why does this matter? Who does it affect? What problem does it solve? Include a quote from a company executive or relevant stakeholder. This quote should add perspective instead of restating the first paragraph. A good quote provides an insight or opinion missing from the factual paragraphs.
Include a brief "About" section at the end with your company background. Keep it to two or three sentences. Include clear contact information for a real person who can respond to journalist inquiries quickly. A journalist needs to reach someone for comment.
Common mistakes
A major mistake is writing a press release about something that lacks news value. Before you write a single word, ask yourself honestly if a journalist who covers this space would care about this announcement. If the answer is no, a press release will not change that.
Another mistake is using promotional language. A press release should read like a news story. It should avoid sounding like an advertisement. Words like "revolutionary," "game-changing," "industry-leading," and "best-in-class" will get your press release deleted. Journalists see through marketing language instantly. It signals that the content lacks credibility.
Avoid making the press release too long. One page is ideal. Two pages is the maximum. Journalists do not have time to read a five-page document to find the story. If you cannot communicate the news in 400 to 600 words, you need to refine your message.
When to write a press release
A press release makes sense for significant business news. Major partnerships, funding rounds, product launches that represent a market shift, executive appointments at large companies, and major milestone announcements are appropriate. A press release is unnecessary for minor updates, routine business activities, or things that only interest your own employees.
If you are debating whether something warrants a press release, it probably does not. Save your press releases for announcements that matter. This builds credibility with the journalists and outlets that receive them. If you send a press release every week about minor developments, journalists learn to ignore your messages.
The more effective approach for ongoing media presence is building direct relationships with journalists through the strategies we outline in our press coverage guide. The press release supports those relationships by giving journalists a formatted source for the facts when you do have real news.
If you need help crafting press releases or developing a broader media strategy, our press placement service covers the full spectrum. You may also want to read our guide on press release distribution.
Related resources
- How to get press coverage, Build real media relationships beyond press releases
- Press release distribution, Get your releases to journalists and outlets
- Press placement services, We handle media strategy and outreach
What the research says about journalists and press releases
The gap between how companies think press releases work and how journalists use them is significant. Muck Rack State of Journalism report found that the majority of journalists receive more than 50 pitches per week. A large share of them say fewer than a quarter of those pitches are relevant to their beat. That context matters when deciding how much effort to put into distribution versus targeting. A press release sent to 500 journalists who do not cover your space is just noise.
The Cision State of the Media Report shows that journalists rank relevance and accuracy as their top criteria when evaluating pitches and press materials. Promotional language, missing contact information, and vague headlines rank among the top reasons releases get deleted immediately. These reflect a real scarcity of time inside shrinking newsrooms. Pew Research newspaper fact sheet documents that U.S. newspaper newsroom employment dropped roughly 57 percent between 2008 and 2020. Fewer reporters covering more ground means the bar for what earns attention has gone up.
Resources from the Poynter Institute and the Columbia Journalism Review offer practical guidance on what makes source materials useful to working reporters. Both emphasize clarity, speed, and specificity. Provide a quote that a reporter can use. Include a statistic they do not have to verify independently. Provide a contact who picks up the phone. Those three things do more for your media coverage than a distribution platform.
What this looks like in practice
When companies prepare to announce a funding round, their initial draft press releases often open with company history before mentioning the funding amount. We restructure these releases so the headline states the exact funding figure and the purpose of the capital. We move the lead investor name and planned use of capital into the first few sentences. This structure helps trade reporters pick up the story quickly. Wire distribution can then generate additional pickups on local news aggregators. This contributes to branded search results over time.
Companies often try to announce new partnerships using promotional language. They describe deals as groundbreaking strategic alliances. That kind of language signals immediately that the content lacks credibility. We rewrite these releases to focus on specific outcomes. We include a named quote from an executive explaining what the deal means for the market. A rewritten version focused on facts often gets picked up by trade publications and regional business journals. Targeted outreach to a few relevant reporters does the work better than broad wire distribution.
By the numbers: what the research actually shows
The case for writing press releases carefully is backed by data. Muck Rack State of Journalism report found that 48 percent of journalists say irrelevant pitches and press releases are their biggest frustration with PR professionals. This is a complaint about targeting and relevance. A well-structured release sent to the right reporter on the right beat performs differently than the same release blasted to a generic list of contacts.
The picture gets sharper when you look at newsroom capacity. Pew Research newspaper fact sheet documents that U.S. newspaper newsroom employment fell by 57 percent between 2008 and 2020. Fewer reporters are covering more beats. The bar for what earns attention has gone up. Journalists working at reduced staff levels lack the time to untangle a poorly organized release and hunt for the actual news buried in paragraph four. The releases that get used hand the journalist the story structure they need to write the piece themselves.
Columbia Journalism Review has documented the growing pressure on reporters to produce multiple stories per day across digital formats. This changes what a press release needs to do. For a stretched journalist on deadline, a well-sourced release with a real quote, verifiable figures, and a named contact who picks up the phone becomes the scaffolding for a publishable story. This is the use case worth optimizing for. Releases that rely on promotional language are eliminated immediately. Specific numbers, named parties, and a single clear claim in the headline survive the first five seconds of a journalist reviewing their inbox.
All of this data points to the same conclusion for anyone writing a press release today. The margin for sloppiness is gone. Reporters are fewer, faster, and more selective. A release that respects their time by leading with real news, cutting promotional language, and including a responsive contact opens doors. The standard has moved from passable to precise.
Focusing on structure
Companies often come to us after distributing multiple press releases through a paid wire service with no results. These releases are often written internally, run long, and frame genuine business developments in promotional language. They generate few pickups and zero journalist inquiries. We rewrite these releases to cut the word count. We move the most important facts into the headline. We strip every adjective that lacks a fact. We add a direct quote from an executive that explains market conditions instead of praising the deal. A single properly structured release often gets picked up by regional business journals. The difference is structure and discipline.