A press release is a one-page news story about your company, written so that a journalist could publish it with minimal editing. That last clause is the whole job. Most releases fail because they're written like ads, and journalists delete ads in about four seconds.
This guide walks through the entire process, top to bottom, with a worked example. If you want the anatomy of each section in more depth, see our press release format guide. This article is about the writing.
Step 0: Confirm you actually have news
Before you write a word, pass this test: would a stranger in your industry find this interesting if your company's name were removed?
News is a change in the world: money raised, product shipped, executive hired, partnership signed, milestone hit, data discovered. "We're excited about our mission" is not a change in the world. If you fail the test, stop. No amount of good writing fixes a release with no news in it, and distribution costs the same either way.
Step 1: Find your one sentence
Every good release compresses to a single sentence: who did what, and why it matters.
- "Acme Robotics raised $4M to bring warehouse automation to mid-size distributors."
- "Harbor Dental opened its third clinic, adding Saturday hours to a city with two-week appointment backlogs."
Write this sentence first. It becomes your headline, your lede, and your test for every paragraph that follows: if a paragraph doesn't support the sentence, cut it.
Step 2: Structure with the inverted pyramid
Journalism's oldest rule: most important information first, least important last. The release should survive being cut from the bottom, so an editor who keeps only your first two paragraphs should still have the complete story.
Practically, that means:
- Paragraph 1 (the lede): who, what, when, where, why. The entire story in 25–40 words.
- Paragraph 2: the most important supporting detail, such as the number, the mechanism, or the stakes.
- Paragraph 3: a quote from a named executive adding perspective (not restating facts).
- Paragraphs 4–5: context, secondary details, background.
- Boilerplate and contact: who you are, who to call.
Never build up to the news. There is no "finally, the big reveal" in a press release. The reveal is line one.
Step 3: Write the headline
Your headline is a factual sentence in present tense, under about 80 characters, with the news verb in it: raises, launches, opens, hires, partners, reports.
- Weak: "Exciting News From Acme Robotics"
- Strong: "Acme Robotics Raises $4M to Automate Mid-Size Warehouses"
Skip superlatives entirely. The words "revolutionary" and "game-changing" are journalist repellent, because they signal that the facts can't carry the story. We keep a full set of headline rules and 20+ examples if you want to go deeper.
Step 4: Write the lede and body
Open with the dateline, written as "AUSTIN, Texas, August 10, 2026 —", then deliver your one sentence, expanded with the essential facts.
Then write the body in short paragraphs, two to three sentences each. Rules that separate publishable releases from deleted ones:
- Use numbers. "Serves 400 clinics across 12 states" beats "serves clinics nationwide" every time. Specifics are what make news feel real.
- Attribute claims. "The fastest-growing category in logistics, according to Gartner" is usable. The same claim unattributed is marketing.
- One quote, maybe two. A quote should add opinion, stakes, or color, and it should never repeat a fact the release already stated. Most release quotes are unusable filler, so here's how to write quotes journalists actually use.
- Cut adjectives, keep verbs. "Leading provider of best-in-class solutions" says nothing. "Processes 2 million shipments a month" says everything.
Step 5: Close it out
Three standard elements end every release:
- Boilerplate: a 3–4 sentence "about us" paragraph that stays identical across releases.
- Media contact: a real person's name, email, and phone. Not info@.
- Three hash marks (###): centered on their own line, the traditional end-of-release marker. Editors still expect it.
A worked mini-example
Here's the skeleton applied to a fictional company, condensed:
Harbor Dental Opens Third Portland Clinic, Adds City's First Saturday Walk-In Hours PORTLAND, Ore., August 10, 2026 — Harbor Dental today opened its third Portland-area clinic, a 4,200-square-foot location in the Pearl District that will offer the city's first walk-in Saturday dental hours starting August 15. The clinic adds capacity to a metro area where the average wait for a new-patient appointment reached 16 days in 2025, according to the Oregon Dental Association. Harbor expects the location to serve 6,000 patients in its first year. "Half our new patients tell us they put off care for months because they couldn't miss work," said Dr. Maya Chen, Harbor Dental's founder. "Saturday hours shouldn't be a luxury feature in a city this size."
Notice the pattern: headline states the news, lede expands it with when and where, paragraph two adds the number and the stakes, the quote adds a human reason without repeating a single fact. That's the whole machine.
How long should it be?
300–500 words. Under 300 usually means missing context, and over 600 means you're padding. Legacy wire services literally charge per 100 words over a base, so tight writing saves money as well as attention. The full breakdown is in our press release cost guide.
The five mistakes that get releases deleted
- Burying the news in paragraph three behind company history.
- Writing an ad, with superlatives, exclamation points, and "solutions."
- No numbers anywhere in the release.
- Quote as filler, meaning "We are thrilled to announce this milestone," which adds nothing.
- No contact person, which tells editors nobody will answer follow-up questions.
Or skip the blank page
Every announcement type follows a known skeleton (funding, launch, hire, award), and you don't have to reconstruct it from scratch. Our free template library has the structure pre-built for each one, and you supply the facts.
Want the whole thing guided, from draft to distribution? [See how RepuPR works](/how-it-works).