---
name: press-release
description: Use when asked to write a press release — a formal announcement of company news (a launch, funding round, partnership, or milestone) written for media pickup — distinct from [[release-notes]] or a [[changelog]], which announce product changes to existing users rather than pitch a story to journalists.
---

# Press Release

A press release is a formal, factual announcement written for
journalists and media outlets to pick up as a news story. It's not a
marketing blast to customers — it's a pitch that a reporter, editor,
or outlet has to judge as actually newsworthy before they'll write
about it, quote it, or forward it to their audience.

## Key components

- **Headline** — states the actual news in one line ("Acme raises $20M
  Series A led by X"), not a vague or clever line that requires reading
  the body to understand what happened.
- **Inverted pyramid structure** — the most important facts (what
  happened, who's involved, why it matters) go in the headline and
  first paragraph; supporting detail, background, and context follow
  in decreasing order of importance, since editors cut from the bottom.
- **A quote from a named person** — an actual executive, founder, or
  partner, attributed by name and title, saying something with real
  content rather than a generic sentiment ("We're thrilled to
  announce...").
- **Boilerplate** — a short, standard paragraph describing the company,
  placed near the end, reused consistently across releases so a
  reporter unfamiliar with the company gets the same baseline context
  every time.
- **Media contact info** — a real name, email, and phone number a
  journalist can actually reach for follow-up questions or an
  interview request.

## Newsworthy to a journalist, not just significant to the company

The bar for a press release isn't "this matters to us" — it's "would
an editor who doesn't work here run this." A journalist is judging
whether their audience cares, whether it's timely, and whether it's
genuinely new. An internal milestone, a minor feature update, or a
routine hire rarely clears that bar on its own; a funding round, a
notable partnership, a significant product launch, or a real
first ("first company to...") more reliably does. When the news is
thin, a direct pitch to specific reporters or a blog post usually
serves better than a press release that goes nowhere.

## Common pitfalls

- **Buried lede** — the actual news sitting several paragraphs in,
  behind company background or context, instead of in the headline and
  first sentence; a reporter skimming the first few lines and finding
  no news moves on.
- **Marketing language instead of news language** — copy full of
  adjectives like "revolutionary," "cutting-edge," or "game-changing"
  reads as an ad, not a story, and a journalist has to strip it all out
  before they can use any of it — making the release less likely to be
  used as written, if at all.
- **A product update dressed up as an announcement** — sending a press
  release for something with no real news hook trains editors and
  reporters to ignore the next one, even when it's genuinely
  newsworthy.
- **No usable quote** — a quote that just restates the headline in
  different words gives a reporter nothing to actually pull into their
  piece.
- **Missing or generic contact info** — a journalist with a follow-up
  question and no way to reach a real person at the company either
  drops the story or runs it without the detail they wanted to check.

## Learn more

- [[changelog]] and [[release-notes]] for announcing product changes to
  existing users rather than pitching a story to press.
- [[content-calendar]] for scheduling a release around a launch date
  and coordinating it with other announcements.
- [[branding]] for the voice a quote and boilerplate should stay
  consistent with even in a more restrained, news-style format.
- [[marketing-manager]] for the role that typically owns press strategy
  and reporter relationships.