How To Write A Press Release Journalists Will Actually Read

Journalists skim the first paragraph to decide whether a release is worth reading further, so the actual news needs to be there — not buried under company background or a slow lead-in.

A real quote, not a marketing tagline dressed up as a quote, adds credibility. Journalists can tell the difference between a quote that sounds like something a person would actually say and one that reads like ad copy.

Including one or two concrete numbers — funding raised, users served, percentage improved — gives a journalist something to lead with themselves, which makes the release easier to actually use, not just read.

Keep boilerplate about the company at the very end, in a short standard paragraph. Releases that spend too much space on "About Us" before the reader ever gets to the news rarely get past a journalist's first scan.

A responsive, named press contact matters more than the release's polish in many cases — journalists on deadline often care more about getting a fast, real answer to a follow-up question than about the writing quality of the initial release.