How do you write a press release?
To write a press release, put the news in a plain headline, answer who, what, when, where and why in the first paragraph, add the detail in order of importance, include one or two quotes that give opinion rather than facts, and finish with notes to editors, a short description of your business and a named contact. Keep it to one page.
The rest of this guide explains how to write a press release a busy journalist will actually use: what each part is for, what editors say they want, a worked example for a fictional Cotswold farm shop, and a free template to copy.
What is a press release, and when should you use one?
A press release is a short news story about your organisation, written like a news report, so a journalist can grasp it in half a minute and use the facts with little rewriting. It is a reference document. What actually wins coverage is usually the short, personal email you send with it.
A release earns its place when you have genuine news with facts that must be stated accurately: an opening or relaunch, an appointment or change of ownership, original research or a survey, a restoration or milestone with verifiable detail, or an event journalists might attend.
When not to write a press release
- Feature ideas. To get a travel writer to stay at your hotel or a food editor to include your farm shop in a round-up, write a personal pitch. A formal release reads like a circular.
- Reactive comment. When a story is already running, journalists want a sharp quote within hours, not a release.
- Non-news. A new website or “another busy summer” is not news to anyone outside the business. If you would not mention it to a stranger at a dinner party, do not send it to a newsdesk.
- Anything sensitive. A complaint, closure or dispute needs a holding statement and a plan. That is reputation work, and it follows different rules.
The anatomy of a press release
Every release follows the same shape, because journalists read at speed and know exactly where to look for each piece of information.
| Part | What it does | The common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Embargo line (optional) | Says when the story may be published | Embargoing news that is not worth waiting for |
| Headline | States the news in one plain line | Announcing that you are “delighted” |
| Subheading | Adds the next most important fact | Repeating the headline in different words |
| Dateline | Says where and when the news comes from | Leaving it out, so regional desks cannot place it |
| First paragraph | Answers who, what, when, where and why | Opening with the history of the business |
| Body | Supporting detail, most important first | Burying the key fact in paragraph four |
| Quotes | Opinion, emotion and personality | Quotes that repeat the facts |
| Notes to editors | Background, images, interview availability | Missing image links and method notes |
| Boilerplate | A standard paragraph about the business | A page of marketing copy |
| Media contact | A named person who will answer the phone | A generic inbox nobody checks |
The headline and subheading
Say what happened, in plain words, as a newspaper would. “Cotswold farm shop opens cookery school where every class starts in the field” works. “Wychbourne is delighted to announce an exciting new chapter” does not, because it makes the journalist hunt for the story. Leave puns to the subeditors, and use the most specific nouns you can: “country-house hotel” beats “hospitality venue”. A one-line subheading can add the next most important fact.
The dateline
The town and date that open the first paragraph: “STOW-ON-THE-WOLD, Gloucestershire, 1 October 2026”. It tells a regional desk instantly whether the story is on their patch.
The first paragraph
This is the release. Many journalists decide on the first paragraph alone, and a busy local desk may use it almost word for word. In one or two sentences, answer:
- Who: the business, named and described in a few words
- What: the news itself
- When: the date, or “today”
- Where: the place
- Why: why it matters, or what makes it different
Test it: cover the rest of the page and ask whether someone could write a three-line news brief from this paragraph alone.
The body and quotes
Two to four short paragraphs of supporting detail follow, most important first, because journalists cut from the bottom. State facts rather than feelings: “twelve cooking stations and a wood-fired oven” tells an editor something, while “state-of-the-art facilities” does not.
Quotes are for opinion, emotion and personality, the one thing a journalist cannot write for you. A good quote says why you did it or what you believe. A poor one repeats the facts (“We are delighted to announce the opening of our new cookery school”) and will be cut. One or two is plenty, each from a named person with a job title. Read them aloud: if no human would say it, rewrite it.
Notes to editors, boilerplate and contact
After the story, type ENDS so it is clear where the publishable copy stops. Beneath it:
- Notes to editors: supporting facts that would clutter the story, such as opening times, prices, history, how any survey was conducted (who ran it, the sample size and the dates) and a link to images.
- Boilerplate: three or four sentences describing your business, the same on every release, with your website.
- Media contact: a named person, a mobile number, an email address and when they are available. If a journalist on deadline calls and nobody answers, the story may run without you, or not at all.
Embargoes
An embargo asks journalists not to publish before a set time, such as “EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 BST, THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER 2026”. It gives reporters time to prepare while keeping the news fresh for one publication day, which suits survey results and openings. Use one only when the news is worth waiting for, agree it with the journalist first, and remember it is a courtesy, not a contract.
Images
Photographs decide whether a story becomes a paragraph or a page, especially in lifestyle titles. Share a link to a small set of high-resolution images: landscape and portrait versions, people doing something rather than posing, each with a caption and photographer credit, and say journalists may use them with the story.
What journalists say they want from a press release
Journalists still depend on PR, but most of what reaches them is irrelevant. In Muck Rack’s 2026 survey of 897 journalists, 86% said at least some of their stories come from PR pitches, and 88% immediately discard pitches that miss their beat. The elements they value most are clear relevance to their beat, access to sources, original research or data, and high-resolution images.
Cision’s 2026 survey of 1,899 journalists found that 66% rely on PR-provided content for story ideas, more than any other source, while 72% say fewer than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant. The same report found 53% oppose AI-generated pitches.
So relevance beats polish: a release for the Cotswold Journal and one for a national property desk are different releases, even when the news is the same. Genuine data gives a journalist a reason to write today. And write it yourself, because a release drafted by a chatbot has none of the detail only you know.
How to write a press release journalists will read: six tips
- Write the headline and first paragraph first. If you cannot, you do not yet have a story.
- Cut the adjectives. “Luxurious”, “stunning” and “world-class” are claims, and journalists ignore claims. Use numbers, names and detail instead: the restored threshing barn, the vegetables grown within sight of the kitchen.
- Write for one desk at a time, adjusting the angle for local news, trade titles and national consumer pages.
- Use the third person, short sentences and plain words, except inside quotes.
- Be accurate. A journalist who catches one wrong fact will not trust the rest.
- Keep it to one page, and ask someone outside the business to read it. If they cannot tell you the news in one sentence, neither will a journalist.
A worked press release example
This example is entirely fictional. Wychbourne Farm Shop, its people, its cookery school and every figure below are invented to show the structure in use. Any resemblance to a real business is unintended.
EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 BST, THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER 2026
Cotswold farm shop opens cookery school where every class starts in the field
Wychbourne Farm Shop’s kitchen classroom will teach seasonal and whole-animal cooking, with one in four places free for local sixth-formers
WYCHBOURNE, near Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, 1 October 2026: Wychbourne Farm Shop, a family-run farm shop and butchery in the north Cotswolds, will open a cookery school on its working farm on Saturday 17 October. Every class begins with a walk to see where the day’s ingredients are grown or reared, and one in four places will be given free to sixth-form students from local state schools.
The school occupies a restored 18th-century threshing barn beside the shop, with twelve cooking stations and a wood-fired oven. The autumn programme covers game, bread and preserving, plus a one-day course in which students butcher and cook a whole lamb raised on the farm. Day classes cost £145, including lunch. The free places are funded from course fees and offered through sixth-form colleges within 15 miles of the farm.
Harriet Cole, who runs Wychbourne with her husband, Sam, said: “People come to a farm shop knowing exactly what they want to cook and very little about where it came from. We wanted to put those two things back together. And if we only taught people who could afford a day off and a cookery course, we would be missing the point.”
Head tutor Tom Aske said: “The butchery class is the one people are nervous about and the one they talk about afterwards. Once you have seen the whole animal, you stop wasting any of it.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- High-resolution images of the barn and a class in progress: [link]. Free to use with this story. Credit: Wychbourne Farm Shop.
- Harriet Cole and Tom Aske are available for interview, and journalists are welcome to join a class by arrangement.
About Wychbourne Farm Shop
Wychbourne Farm Shop is a family-run farm shop, butchery and café on a 300-acre mixed farm near Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, selling meat reared on the farm alongside produce from more than 60 Cotswold growers and makers. wychbournefarm.example
Media contact
Harriet Cole, 07700 900418, press@wychbournefarm.example (available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday)
Why this example works
- The headline is the story, and the first paragraph answers all five questions, so a local paper could run it as a news brief unchanged.
- It carries two angles. The field-to-kitchen classes suit food and lifestyle pages, and the free places give a news desk a community story beyond the opening.
- The quotes give opinion and sound like people talking, while every number is specific and checkable.
- The notes offer images, interviews and an invitation, which is what turns a news brief into a feature.
Free press release template
Copy the template below into your own document and replace everything in square brackets. Delete any line you do not need.
[EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01, DAY DATE MONTH YEAR] or [FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]
[HEADLINE: WHAT HAPPENED, IN PLAIN WORDS, IN ONE LINE]
[Subheading: the next most important fact, or what makes this unusual]
[TOWN], [County], [Date]: [Business name], [a description in a few
words], [has opened / will launch / has published] [the news].
[One sentence on why it matters or what makes it different.]
[Paragraph 2: the key supporting facts. Numbers, prices, dates,
places and who it is for.]
[Paragraph 3: the background. How it came about, the history,
the wider context.]
"[A quote giving opinion or motivation, not repeating the facts],"
said [Full name], [job title] at [Business name]. "[Optional
second sentence.]"
[Paragraph 4, optional: what happens next, and how readers can
visit, book or take part.]
"[Optional second quote from a partner, customer or expert],"
said [Full name], [job title], [organisation].
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Images: [link to high-resolution images], free to use with
this story. Credit: [photographer or business].
- Interviews: [names] are available for interview [days and times].
- Key facts: [opening times, prices, dates, address].
- Method: [if the release includes data, who carried out the
research, the sample size, the dates and where to find the
full results].
ABOUT [BUSINESS NAME]
[Three or four sentences: what you do, where, since when, and one
fact that sets you apart.] [Website]
MEDIA CONTACT
[Name], [job title]
[Mobile number] | [Email address]
[When you are available]How to send a press release
Personal pitches beat distribution lists. Sending the same release to hundreds of addresses is the quickest way to be ignored, when 88% of journalists discard pitches that miss their beat. Instead:
- Build a short list by hand. Ten well-chosen journalists beat five hundred bought addresses. Our guide on how to get press coverage explains how to build one.
- Write a short, personal email. Muck Rack’s 2026 findings, as reported by The PR Net, are that journalists prefer one-to-one email pitches under 200 words, sent before noon, with one timely follow-up. Say why the story suits that journalist, then paste the release below your signature.
- Do not attach the release or the images. Put the text in the email and link to the pictures.
- Make the subject line the story. “Cotswold farm shop opens cookery school with free places for state-school students” gets opened. “Press release” does not.
- Offer exclusives honestly. If one title matters most, offer it first, for a limited time, and send it to nobody else until they have answered.
- Follow up once, ideally with something new, then leave it. And publish the release on your own website, so journalists have something to link to.
What about paid distribution services?
Newswire services suit listed companies with disclosure obligations. For a Cotswold hotel, farm shop or interiors studio they rarely produce coverage in the titles that matter, and they do nothing for search: Google’s spam policies list links with optimised anchor text in press releases distributed on other sites as an example of link spam. The links that help are the ones a journalist chooses to include.
Press release checklist
Before you press send, check that:
- the news would interest someone outside the business
- the headline states it in plain words, and the first paragraph answers who, what, when, where and why
- the most important facts sit in the top half of the page
- most of the adjectives have gone
- the quotes give opinion, from named people with job titles
- every name, date, price and statistic has been checked and sourced
- images are high resolution, captioned, credited and shared by link
- any embargo is clear and agreed
- a named contact will answer the phone for the next few days
- it fits on one page, and the covering email is under 200 words
Getting help with your press releases
A good release will not rescue a weak story. The real skill is finding the story and putting it in front of the right journalist at the right moment. If you would like senior help with that, our PR and press office service covers releases, pitching and media relations, or you can tell us about your news and we will say honestly whether we think it has legs.