How to Write a Press Release That Doesn't Get Deleted Instantly
A press release is just a structured announcement meant for journalists, bloggers, and distribution platforms. It follows a convention that has existed since the typewriter era, and most people still butcher it. I have spent years reading press releases for newsrooms and vendor channels. The ones that actually get picked up share one thing: they respect the format and they don't waste the reader's time. The standard structure looks like this. At the top you have the dateline. Below that, a headline. Then the lead paragraph, body copy, a quote, boilerplate, and media contact info. That is it. Here is a concrete example using a fictional product launch so you can see how it actually reads: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Novus Health Announces Launch of Aura Sleep Tracker at CES 2025 Las Vegas, NV – January 8, 2025 – Novus Health, a consumer wellness technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas, today announced the official launch of Aura, a non-wearable sleep tracking device that uses radar-based sensing to monitor breathing rate, heart rate variability, and sleep stages without requiring a wristband or ring. Aura will be available for pre-order starting February 1, 2025, at novushealth.com and through select retail partners. The Aura device plugs directly into any standard household power outlet and covers a sleeping area up to 14 feet by 7 feet. It pairs with a companion mobile app that provides weekly sleep reports, trend analysis, and optional integrations with Apple Health and Google Fit. Early beta testers reported a 94 percent accuracy rating against polysomnography studies conducted by the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic.
"We built Aura because people who struggle with sleep tracking are often the people who find wearables uncomfortable," said Melissa Park, CEO and co-founder of Novus Health. "A device you don't have to put on your body changes the adoption curve entirely." About Novus Health: Novus Health develops contactless health monitoring solutions for consumers and clinical settings. The company was founded in 2021 by former Fitbit and Philips engineers and has raised $38 million in Series A funding led by Redwood Ventures. Media Contact:
David Chen
Director of Communications, Novus Health
david.chen@novushealth.com
512-555-0194
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That is a complete, usable format. Everything below that line exists for a reason. The dateline tells the reporter where and when the news originated. The lead paragraph answers who, what, when, where, and why in roughly two sentences. The quote adds a human element and gives the journalist something they can attribute directly. The boilerplate provides organizational context. The contact block is purely functional. The thing most people mess up is the order and density of information. I once edited a release for a client who put their company history in the lead paragraph and buried the actual announcement in paragraph four. The reporter who received it forwarded it back with a single line that read "where is the news." We restructured it and the next morning got coverage in three trade publications. It took approximately twenty minutes to fix.
The Parts You Shouldn't Skip
The byline or attention line at the top is optional but useful when you are targeting specific beats. Putting Attention: Health Tech Desk or similar can help routing at wires and large editorial offices. Don't overdo it though. One line maximum. The headline should be factual and contain the most newsworthy element. Avoid superlatives like "revolutionary" or "groundbreaking." Journalists treat those words as automatic noise. "Company X Launches Product Y" is stronger than "Company X Unveils Revolutionary New Product Y That Changes Everything." The headline is doing a job, not selling the product directly. The body copy does that. Body copy should follow inverted pyramid structure. Most important fact first. Supporting details next. Background and context last. This matters because editors truncate releases from the bottom up when space is tight. If your key information sits at the end, it will never be seen.
The quote is the part nobody emphasizes enough. A good quote does three things: it states a position, it reveals intent, and it sounds like a human being actually spoke it. If the quote reads like a press officer wrote it, the journalist will skip it or paraphrase it instead. Draft quotes with the actual speaker in mind. Record them if you can. Authentic cadence beats polished language every time. Boilerplate should be three to five sentences. It is a standing description of the company that appears on every release you send. Keep it current. I see too many releases with boilerplates that mention funding rounds from three years ago or list products that have been discontinued. Update it quarterly at minimum.
Where the Format Breaks Down in Practice
The biggest issue I encounter is length. The conventional wisdom says a press release should be between 300 and 500 words. That is generally correct. I have seen releases go up to 1,200 words and still get used, but only when the news is genuinely major, like a merger or regulatory approval. For routine product launches or announcements, anything over 600 words is asking the reader to do extra work for no return. Another breakdown point is the contact block. Some companies put multiple contacts, or list a generic inbox with no turnaround guarantee. Include one primary contact and one secondary. Add a phone number that is answered during business hours. I once received a release with a contact email that auto-responded with "we check this inbox once per month." The beat reporter moved on within an hour. Here is a specific edge case I ran into last year. A client sent a release about a software update that included a download link inside the body text. The link was a short redirect that resolved to a login-gated page. Every journalist who clicked it got a 403 error and assumed the release was outdated or suspicious. I had them swap the link for a public-facing landing page with a clear feature summary and a separate media kit section. Open rates on the link went from roughly eight percent to sixty-two percent the next day.
Distribution Changes How the Format Works
The format itself doesn't change across channels, but the way you package it does. If you are submitting to a wire service like PR Newswire or Business Wire, follow their specific formatting guidelines exactly. They strip or reject releases that include HTML formatting, excessive links, or certain keywords in the headline. Keep it plain text in your working draft, then let the wire service handle any formatting conversion. For direct outreach to journalists, the press release becomes an email body or attachment. When it is an email body, treat the first two sentences as your hook. Journalists scan the opening lines before deciding whether to read further. Lead with the news, not the company name. "After 18 months of development, we are releasing..." works better than "Our company is proud to announce..." If you are posting the release on your own website, add structured data markup. JSON-LD with the NewsArticle or PressRelease schema helps search engines understand the content. This doesn't guarantee coverage, but it does improve indexing and makes the release discoverable through search without manual submission.
Common Mistakes in a Press Release Format Example
I consistently see these errors. First, burying the lead. The announcement should be in the first paragraph, not paragraph three. Second, using jargon that a general reporter won't understand. If your product uses a proprietary term, define it in the body. Third, including too many links. One or two maximum. Links should point to publicly accessible pages, not gated content or homepage home runs. Fourth, writing the press release and then forgetting to update it on your site when details change. Stale releases damage credibility faster than anything else. A counter-intuitive point that beginners miss: including less information can sometimes be more effective. A tight 350-word release with a strong headline, clear lead, one useful quote, and a single link often outperforms a 900-word release that tries to cover every feature, partnership, and milestone. Reporters want to know what happened, why it matters, and how to verify it. Anything beyond that is context, and context gets trimmed first. Another nuance most people overlook is timing. A press release released on a Friday afternoon or during a major breaking news event will sit in inboxes until someone has bandwidth to review it, and by then it is often too late. Tuesday through Thursday, released between 8 AM and 10 AM in the target market's time zone, is the highest-yield window for most beats. This is not a hard rule, but it is a reliable pattern I have seen hold across hundreds of distributions.
When a Press Release Isn't the Right Move
This format fails when the news isn't actually news. Announcing a minor version bump, a routine executive hire that isn't at the C-suite level, or a sponsorship that doesn't affect your core product will come across as padding. Journalists can smell it. If you are unsure whether your announcement qualifies, ask yourself whether an outsider would find it worth mentioning in a story. If the answer is no, revise the angle or skip the release entirely and go straight to a blog post or social announcement. For very small businesses with minimal media footprint, a traditional press release may generate negligible returns relative to the effort. In those cases, a well-written blog post combined with targeted outreach to five or six relevant reporters often outperforms a mass wire distribution. The press release format is still useful as a reference document and for SEO purposes, but it shouldn't be treated as the primary distribution channel unless you have the budget and relationships to support it.
