How to use this
Copy the block below into a document. Replace everything in [square brackets]. Delete the
italic guidance lines as you go. What remains is a correctly structured press release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[HEADLINE: what happened, plain words, under 15 words]
// Not a slogan. A reader should know what occurred from this line alone.
[Subheadline: one sentence adding the detail the headline could not carry]
[CITY], [State] — [Month Day, Year]
[LEAD PARAGRAPH: who, what, where, when — in one or two sentences.]
// This must be true and complete with nothing around it. It is
// frequently the only part extracted. Start with the news.
[SECOND PARAGRAPH: the next most important detail. Why this
happened, what changes, who it affects.]
[THIRD PARAGRAPH: supporting specifics. Numbers, dates, places,
names — anything checkable.]
// If a claim cannot be made specific, remove it.
"[QUOTATION: something the prose cannot say in its own voice —
a judgment, a reason, a tradeoff,]" said [Full Name],
[Title] at [Organization].
// Read it aloud. If no human would say it, rewrite it.
[FOURTH PARAGRAPH: remaining detail, availability, next steps,
where to find more.]
###
About [Organization]
[Two or three factual sentences. What it does, since when,
where it operates. Not a sales pitch.]
Media Contact
[Full Name]
[Title]
[Organization]
[Phone]
[Email]
[Website]
Notes on the parts people get wrong
The dateline
City and state in caps, an em dash, then the date. It looks like a formality and it is
doing real work — it establishes where and when, which is the first thing anyone
assessing the news needs to know.
The hash marks
Three hash marks centered after the body mark the end of the release. Everything below them
is reference material rather than the announcement itself. It is a convention from the wire
era that survives because it is genuinely useful.
The boilerplate
Two or three sentences. This is where people put the marketing copy they were told to keep
out of the body, and it is equally wrong there. Facts: what the organization does, since
when, from where.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Writing the headline first and the lead paragraph to match it. Write the lead paragraph
first — get the facts right in one or two sentences — then write the headline
from it. Doing it the other way round produces a headline the release cannot support.
