Press Release Format Guidelines

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Headline
Be creative and keep it to one sentence. Capitalize the first letter of all words but do not use all caps. Exclamation marks (“!”) only sell your release as advertising, not news.

Paragraph 1

City, State, Month, Day, Year – Begin with a strong introductory paragraph that captures the reader’s attention and contains the information most relevant to your message such as the five W's - who, what, when, where, and why. This paragraph should summarize the press release and include a hook to get your audience interested in reading more.

Paragraph 2, 3, 4, …

These paragraphs should contain more detailed important information, and make up the body of the release. Pick up with the information provided in your first paragraph, including quotes from key staff, customers or subject matter experts. Make sure you use correct grammar so as not to affect your credibility negatively.

As for content, make sure to keep in mind that you are writing a press release to grab the attention of the media. It is very important to maintain factual accuracy, make sure you are cleared to use quotes or information about businesses, and most importantly have an angle that will appeal to journalists (often by connecting your release to current events or issues). Effective releases usually utilize a strategy known as the inverted pyramid, which is written with the most important information and quotes first.

Try to keep the press release to fewer than 400 words total. Remember, succinct and to the point works best.

The body of your release should be more than one paragraph. The final paragraph should restate and summarize the key points of your release.

Additional 1
Provide avenues for the reader to obtain additional information, demos, samples, etc., but please DO NOT include Internet links. WebWire® provides special data submission fields for company/agency name, contact, telephone, email address, website location, etc. and other online connections (links).

Additional 2

Trademark acknowledgment, product or event timelines, availability, logistics, etc.

Additional 3

Background information about the company featured in the release, if appropriate, as well as any applicable safe harbor statement.

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A FINAL NOTE: With an effective release, it should be possible to cut off the bottom half of the release and still provide journalists with sufficient information

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