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What Is a Press Release and How Do You Write One
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MediaZen
Post Date
July 6, 2026
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"Explore the significance of digital marketing in today’s business landscape and discover effective strategies and powerful tools to enhance your online presence & engage your target audience."
- Adamson Janny
Press release, news release, PR release, these terms all point to the same thing. And despite the initials, “PR” here isn’t shorthand for Public Relations, even if press releases sit under that broader umbrella.
If your goal is to get your business noticed by a bigger audience, a press release is one of the fastest ways to make that happen. Below is a rundown of what a press release actually is, why it still earns a place in most marketing plans, and how to put one together from headline to send.
What a Press Release Actually Is
At its core, a press release is a formal announcement from a company, written in a set structure that media outlets recognize on sight. Common occasions include a product launch, a new partnership, an award, or hitting a major milestone.
The one rule that matters most: a press release is not an ad. Its job is to inform, not to sell. Releases that lean too hard into promotional language tend to get skipped over by editors and outlets before they ever reach a reader.
Why Brands Still Rely on Press Releases
Given how crowded the marketing landscape has gotten, it’s worth asking why this format has stuck around. A handful of reasons explain it.
Low cost relative to reach.
Distributing a release is one of the cheaper ways to put your news in front of a large number of people.
Wider audience.
A well-distributed release can end up on dozens or even hundreds of outlets, reaching people who’ve never come across your brand before.
Third-party trust.
Coverage on a known outlet like Business Insider or Yahoo News lends a kind of credibility that owned channels, no matter how polished, can’t fully replicate.
Control over framing.
Instead of letting your news get filtered through someone else’s interpretation, a release lets you set the terms of how it’s told.
Search benefits.
Outlets that pick up a release usually link back to your site, and those links can add up to a real boost in search visibility over time.
Putting a Press Release Together
There’s a reason releases follow a near-identical structure across the board. It lets journalists scan quickly and decide in seconds whether a story is worth their time.
A typical release includes:
- Headline – One sharp line that sums up the news.
- Summary – Two or three sentences right under the headline, hitting the main points.
- Dateline – The city and date tied to the announcement.
- Body – The full story, broken into short paragraphs, ideally backed by a quote or a stat.
- Image (optional) – A visual that supports the story.
- Boilerplate – A brief company description, generally under 100 words.
- Contact details – A name, title, email, and phone number for anyone following up.
Nail the Headline First
If the headline doesn’t land, nothing after it gets read. Aim for something short (roughly six to fifteen words), specific, and built around an active verb.
Take “Company Rolls Out New Feature” versus “Company Cuts Client Onboarding Time in Half With New AI Tool.” The second one actually tells you something. It’s concrete, it’s specific, and it doesn’t need to oversell itself to grab attention.
Make the Summary Worth Reading
Two to three sentences is plenty. Since this section frequently appears right under your headline in search results, it needs to hold up on its own and give someone a reason to click through to the rest.
Fill in the Body With Substance
Open the first paragraph by covering who, what, when, where, and why, so the core facts are impossible to miss even for a reader who only skims the top. From there, layer in background, a quote or two from someone credible, and any numbers that back up the story. A quote should say something worth reading, not just express excitement. If the release runs long, subheadings or bullets can help break it up.
End With Something Actionable
Close by circling back to the main point and giving the reader a clear next move, whether that’s checking out your site, signing up, or keeping an eye out for what’s next. A release that just trails off tends to leave nothing behind.
Keep the Boilerplate and Contact Info Current
The boilerplate is how readers and journalists figure out who’s actually behind the news, so keep it tight and reuse the same version across releases. Contact details need to stay accurate too, since a journalist who can’t reach anyone won’t follow up twice.
Getting the Release Out There
Once it’s written, you’ve got two main routes for distribution.
Pitching directly. This works best when you already have relationships with journalists and want to send something tailored rather than mass-distributed.
Using a distribution network. This gets your release in front of a large pool of outlets at once. You lose some of the personal touch, but you gain speed and much wider, more predictable coverage.
Plenty of companies use both, saving direct pitches for the announcements that really matter and leaning on distribution for everything else.
The Bottom Line
A press release only does its job if it reads like a news story, not a pitch. Keep the format tight, make the headline count, and let the facts carry the message instead of the adjectives. Once that part is dialed in, getting it distributed is the easy half.
Prefer to have it written and sent for you? Scroll Craft Media handles both.
