The Press Release Template

Download the clas­sic press release tem­plate (zip file con­tains pdf, pages, and docx).

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The Press Release Template

So, how do you write a press release?

Release Note and Contact Information

Press releases are often marked “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” to demon­strate that this inform­a­tion is inten­ded for dis­tri­bu­tion (this is where it says “DRAFT” or “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE” while the press release is being draf­ted). It can also say, “EMBARGOED UNTIL …”. ⁵Remember that journ­al­ists can dis­reg­ard your “embar­goed” press release and pub­lish the inform­a­tion imme­di­ately. You could get a journ­al­ist to sign an NDA (non-dis­clos­ure agree­ment), but not all … Continue read­ing.

Date and Location

You should include the date. It some­times makes sense to add the city from which the press release ori­gin­ates for glob­al wire releases. Both the date and the city are often added right before the intro.

Headline and Summary

The head­line should include the brand name and be descript­ive rather than witty or intel­li­gent. Press release titles can be very long, though. The idea is to give the read­er the full scope of read­ing the title. The title is often bold and more prom­in­ent, but this won’t work for plain-text wire releases. 

Also, press releases in English often have all import­ant words cap­it­al­ised, but this is often con­fus­ing for non-English speak­ers. Writing the head­line in all caps solves both of these problems.

The intro should sum­mar­ise the news hook in 1 – 2 sen­tences. This part is usu­ally the most dif­fi­cult to write; it should include everything in the head­line and add more detail and context.

Focus the head­line and the sum­mary on the under­ly­ing con­flict. Remember the adage, “News is some­thing that someone does­n’t want to see in print.”

Content

Their con­tent con­sists of descript­ive para­graphs and quotes. A good rule of thumb is to altern­ate between them. If your first para­graph under the intro is a quote, the next one should be a descript­ive para­graph, then a quote again, and so on. 

Also, if any of your sen­tences are longer than 25 words, con­sider short­en­ing them.

A good way to start is to answer five basic questions:

Regarding format­ting, you could turn your press release into an inter­act­ive micros­ite with mouse-over effects and pop-up tool­tips. But your press release must work in plain, unformat­ted text for the most crit­ic­al use cases (news aggreg­at­ors, plain-text email send-outs, wire ser­vices like PRNewswire or PRweb, etc.). 

Quotes

Writing quotes often takes some get­ting used to. Here are a few good rules:

Boilerplate and Website Link

Your boil­er­plate should­n’t be cute or cool, just inform­at­ive. Most organ­isa­tions have stand­ard­ised boil­er­plates, but if I can, I will add one that works well with the press release content.

The Hashes

Signal the end of the news item by adding three con­sec­ut­ive hash signs, “###”. Your press release should ideally fit on one page but nev­er be longer than two pages (unformat­ted) — includ­ing all the parts described above.

Learn more: The Press Release Template

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