How to Write a Press Release from the Key Facts
Journalists read press releases like a wire service, not like fans: how the Press Release Generator structures an announcement from its key facts, and what to check before sending.
A press release has a strict, old format because its reader is a busy journalist scanning for a story in ninety seconds. The Press Release Generator builds that format from the key facts of your announcement — headline, dateline, lead paragraph, body, quote, boilerplate. Supplying complete facts and checking the professional conventions is what separates a usable release from a formatted announcement.
The key facts are the release
The input asks for the key facts of your announcement: what is happening, who is doing it, when, where, and why it matters. 'Launching a new product line next month, available in 3 countries' is a start; names, exact dates, prices or numbers and the one-sentence significance make it a release. Anything missing from the brief will be missing — or vague — in the draft, and journalists do not chase vagueness; they delete it.
The inverted pyramid, respected
Releases put the entire story in the first paragraph, then expand in descending order of importance, because editors cut from the bottom. Check the generated draft obeys this: if the news itself appears in paragraph three, restructure — move the announcement to the lead and demote the background. The headline should be the story in one factual line, not a teaser; journalists rewrite teasers, they forward facts.
Quotes must sound like a person said them
Every release needs a quote from a named person with a real title, and generated quotes tend toward corporate fog ('we are thrilled to embark on this exciting journey'). Rewrite the quote in the actual voice of the person named — one specific claim, one human sentence — and get that person's approval before distribution. A quote is attributed speech; publishing words someone never approved in their name is a genuine ethical line, not a style preference.
Boilerplate and contact: the boring parts that matter
The closing 'about' paragraph (the boilerplate) should be your standard company description, identical across releases — paste your real one over any generated version. The contact block needs a real name, email and phone that a journalist on deadline can reach today. Releases fail on these details more often than on prose: a brilliant announcement with a dead contact email is a story that never happens.
Before distribution: the facts, once more
Releases are quoted verbatim, so their fact-check standard is the highest of any generated text: dates, figures, names, titles and claims verified against sources, embargo or release timing confirmed, and links alive. Read the final draft once as a hostile editor — what would you query? — then send. Once distributed, a release cannot be unpublished, only corrected, and corrections rarely travel as far as the error.
Quick tips
- Write the brief in bullet facts; the generator formats them better than it excavates them from a paragraph of prose.
- Keep one approved boilerplate paragraph in a document and reuse it forever — consistency is what makes it boilerplate.
- Match the release with a short social version from the Social Post Generator so both channels tell the story identically.
- If there is no news (no date, no launch, no number), there is no release yet — announce when a fact exists.