How to write an effective press release

Before you start to write a single word, you need to answer this crucial question:

Why should anyone care?

A good press release isn’t about your company, its products, or its achievements: it’s about a good news story.

And if there isn’t a good news story, you shouldn’t be writing a press release.

So just like any good journalist, you’ve got to find a way to spin a set of dry facts and events into a narrative that can grab the interest of a particular community of readers.

In most cases, that means you need something with a human-interest angle.

Here’s a good example from a press release issued by the local government in Leeds:

If you take the headline on its own, it looks like this press release is another self-congratulatory promotional boast.

And if your business had just successfully finished a massive job with a huge budget, you’d probably want to boast about it, too.

But a business hitting its deadlines and raking in a profit isn’t a news story – and nor is the fact that the government has completed a multi-million-pound project.

The newsworthy angle here (and it’s one this press release focuses on well) is how this refurbishment work will improve the local area, protecting it from flood-related damage and enhancing it for residents and wildlife.

It’s a piece of news that affects the wellbeing of people who live nearby – and that means it’s a genuinely interesting spin when compared to a simple announcement about a completed project.

So if you want to give your press release the best chance of getting picked up by a news outlet, you need to shift the focus away from your company, towards something that readers might actually care about.

For the most part, you’ll want your press release to look as close to a finished news article as possible.

Editors and reporters are busy people who get a flood of press releases each week – so you need to give them something that’s just about ready to publish.

But that doesn’t mean you should be adding your own journalistic flair.

A news editor won’t appreciate you putting words in their mouth. And they won’t appreciate having to unravel your ‘clever’ headline to understand the story.

So stick to the facts, and present only the information that the editor will need to understand and publish the story.

Remember: you’re just giving them the ingredients for a good story – you’re not trying to commandeer their publication.

Here’s an example from the charity Age UK:

As a finished article you might see in a newspaper, it’s a good story.

There’s a captivating headline, and the narrative paints a bold picture of a concerning situation.

But if this arrived in a news editor’s inbox as a press release, phrases like ‘bearing the brunt’ and ‘must change more quickly’ might seem like they’re assuming too much on behalf of the publisher. If the news team doesn’t agree with these views, they’ll have to untangle and re-write the story to fit their own tone of voice.

So, if this was being send to editors, the headline could be more neutral and informative, such as:

‘Age UK’s 10th anniversary report reveals inequalities in older people’s health care and access to services’

It’s not a juicy headline to attract readers like the original.

But it gives the editor an immediate understanding of the story at first glance – and it leaves room for the professionals to add their own spin if they want to.

There’s a particular way of writing a press release – and there’s a reason why everyone follows it.

Editors get dozens of press releases from businesses every week. And if you want your story to look like a genuine press release, you need to follow a few basic rules.

In particular, you need to:

• Write in the third person. It’s going to appear in a news outlet, not your own blog or site.
• Craft a clear, neutral, and specific headline. Don’t try to be clever or sensational – give the most relevant facts in the fewest words possible.
• Make it clear when the story ends. In most cases, you can include a capitalised or bold ‘ENDS’ on a final line by itself.

But beyond these basic tips, there are two important journalistic techniques you need to be aware of – and they both concern the structure of the press release.

The opening paragraph of any news story is the most important part.

It needs to summarise the entire story so well that anyone reading could get the gist of the whole article without reading any further.

And one of the easiest ways to make sure you’re giving a complete picture is to follow the five Ws (who, what, where, why, and when).

Here’s an example from BOSH!:

When we break the first paragraph down, we can see exactly how well they’ve covered the five Ws in such a short space:

• Who – BOSH!, one of the UK’s most influential plant-based food brands
• What – Launching eight new meals and pizzas
• Where – Tesco’s stores nationwide
• Why – To launch their ambitious range of plant-based food
• When – Monday 6th October 2025

In just 35 words, BOSH! has painted a complete picture of the entire story.

They’ve given their readers everything they need to know – and if they stop reading after 35 words, they can still go away feeling generally up to date with the news.

The second technique follows on directly from the five Ws – and it’s a format that’s important to both editors and the final readers.

The opening paragraph summarises the entire story. And as you move further down the press release, the story gradually opens up with more details, and less crucial aspects of the narrative.

That’s why it’s called ‘The Inverted Pyramid’. The biggest, broadest, and most important information is at the top – and the smaller, specific, and less important details are left to the bottom.

In any good press release, you’ll always find the key details towards the start of the article, with any surrounding context, explanations, or quotations further down.

That’s great for readers who don’t want to read the whole story.

But it’s also important for editors:

If they like the story in your press release, but they don’t have space for the whole thing, they can start cutting from the bottom and work their way up.

And ideally (if you’ve built your press release as an inverted pyramid), it doesn’t matter where they cut it.

If they remove everything but the first paragraph, they’ll still have a complete mini-summary as a story.

And if they remove the last few paragraphs (which were full of quotations and fine details), they’ll still get a summary that’s followed by some surrounding context and fleshed-out details.

You’ve made the editor’s job easier, and you’ve shown that you understand how a news story works – and that means you’ve massively improved your chances of getting your press release picked up.

Let’s use the same example from BOSH! to see exactly how they’ve done it:

Paragraph 1 is the self-contained summary that covers the five Ws. The blue line underneath shows a convenient place where an editor might choose to end the story if space is severely limited.

Paragraph 2 expands on the ‘Who’ with some key statistics about the company and its achievements to date.

Paragraph 3 goes deeper into the ‘What’ (the specific list of dishes that are being launched).

Paragraph 4 includes a quotation to add flavour and emotion to the story, as well as bolstering the ‘Why’ (to help more people put more plants on their plates).

And finally, paragraph 5 is a further endorsement of the BOSH! brand by a famous and well-regarded chef.

Any editor looking to cut down this press release to fit their publication is going to have an easy time starting from the bottom and working their way up.