How to Write a Press Release: 2026 Guide With Data

To write a press release, state the news in an 8 to 12 word headline, put the who, what, when and one hard number in a first paragraph under 40 words, add a quote from a named executive, and close with a 50 to 100 word boilerplate. EPR's Press Release Retrieval Study 2026 found releases with a number in the first 100 words were cited by AI engines 28% of the time, against 9% without one.

Does your announcement pass the news test?

An announcement passes the news test when it contains a verifiable change, a named source willing to be quoted, and a reason a reader outside the company should care. A partnership with no number, a hire with no strategic consequence, and a product update that changes no behavior all fail.

The retrieval study shows what failing costs. Of 250 wire releases tracked in Q1 2026, the 50 partnership, award and other minor announcements produced zero AI citations within 90 days. Run the test before you open a draft, because no headline craft rescues a release that has no news in it.

What does a press release contain and how long should it be?

A press release runs 300 to 500 words and has six parts: dateline, headline, first paragraph, body, boilerplate and media contact. EPR's editorial standard for each part comes from the anatomy section of the retrieval study.

How do you write a press release headline?

Write the headline as a statement of news with a verb and a specific subject, in 8 to 12 words. The body expands the headline and never introduces a different argument.

Compare two headlines for a fictional company. "Acme Logistics Closes $40 Million Series B and Opens Eight Markets" states the news and carries a number. "Acme Logistics Announces Exciting Funding Milestone" states nothing a journalist or an AI engine can extract. Write the headline as the answer to the question a buyer or reporter would type.

What goes in the first paragraph of a press release?

The first paragraph of a press release answers who, what, when, where and why in two to three sentences and carries the single number that matters. An editor reading on deadline should have every fact needed to publish after this paragraph alone.

Lead with the number. The retrieval study found a citable number in the first 100 words lifted citation rates from 9% to 28%, roughly a 3x multiplier. Name at least five entities (companies, people, products, places, regulators) in the body, because the study measured releases with five or more named entities at 27% cited against 11% without. Read the paragraph out of context before you send it: it must make sense quoted on its own.

How do you write a quote a journalist will keep?

A quote survives editing when a named executive states a real position that adds something the headline does not. Three properties separate quotes that get used from quotes that get cut:

• It says something a person would say aloud.
• It advances the story instead of repeating the headline.
• It comes from a named executive with a verifiable title.

"We are thrilled to announce" fails all three. Place the quote in the second or third paragraph, after the facts.

What belongs in the boilerplate and contact block?

The boilerplate is a 50 to 100 word company description that stays identical from one release to the next. Include the company name, founding year, headquarters, sector and chief executive, and update it once a year.

The retrieval study measured the payoff: releases with a schema-marked boilerplate were cited 24% of the time against 13% for releases without one. Publish each release on your newsroom with NewsArticle and Organization structured data so the boilerplate is machine-readable. End the release with a media contact who answers within the hour.

What does the data say raises a release's chances of being cited?

Five factors separated the 19% of releases that AI engines cited from the 81% they did not, according to the EPR Press Release Retrieval Study 2026 (250 releases from PR Newswire and Business Wire, Q1 2026, tested against five engines at 30, 60 and 90 days).

Editorial pickup is the dominant variable. Per the study, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews cited zero wire URLs. They cited the journalist who covered the release. Perplexity was the only engine that cited wire syndication URLs in meaningful numbers (7 of its 40 citations), so write the release for the reporter first.

Which press releases need a wire service?

A press release needs a wire service when it is a material disclosure, an acquisition, a regulatory filing or a C-suite change. Public companies use the wire to meet the broad-disclosure standard of SEC Regulation FD. Retrieval rates in the study track that short list.

National distribution on PR Newswire or Business Wire costs $3,000 to $5,000 per release, according to the same study. Spend it on the top three rows. Publish awards, certifications and minor partnerships on your own newsroom and pitch them directly. 5W reaches a similar short list in its guide to wire distribution costs: M&A, C-suite changes, disclosures and filings.

For the vendor comparison, read the Wire Service Citation Audit, the PR Newswire profile and the Business Wire profile. For Japan, see the PR TIMES wire analysis.

How do you distribute and pitch a press release?

Distribute a press release in layers on the day the news breaks, starting with your own newsroom and ending with social channels. The sequence below follows the layered model in the retrieval study.

1. Publish the release on your newsroom as the canonical URL, with NewsArticle and Organization schema.
2. Send a tailored pitch to five to ten reporters who cover the beat, with a one-line reason above the release. Send under embargo only if the reporter agreed in advance.
3. Release on the wire only if the announcement matches one of the high-retrieval types above.
4. Post a short version on LinkedIn in the executive's voice within 24 hours, linking back to the newsroom URL.

The pitch and the release are two documents. The release is the citable record, and the pitch makes the case for one reporter. Learn the pitch format in how to send a pitch email, test your subject lines in PR pitches, and use the full media pitching playbook. 5W covers the reporter's side in writing a press release that isn't ignored. A media advisory is a different document: it invites journalists to a future event, while a release announces news now. For crises, use the crisis statement playbook instead of a release.

How do you know whether a press release worked?

A press release worked if it earned editorial pickup, ranks in search, appears in AI answers by day 60, and moves referral traffic. Check four measures in order:

1. Editorial pickup: which named outlets ran the story, and whether any are top-50 publications.
2. Search ranking: two weeks after release, whether the release or its coverage ranks on page one for its core terms.
3. AI citation at 60 days: ask ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the question a buyer would ask, and note whether the release or its coverage is cited. The study found 20 of 250 releases cited at 30 days, 35 at 60 days and 47 at 90 days, so a release not cited by day 60 is unlikely to be cited later.
4. Referral traffic and branded search: clicks from the release and its coverage, and the change in branded search volume over the following two weeks.

What mistakes get a press release ignored?

Press releases get ignored when the news is weak, the sourcing is thin or the targeting is wrong. Six repeat offenses account for most of the failures:

• An embargo the reporter never agreed to
• An "immediate release" line attached to news that is days old
• A quote that contradicts the company's last public statement
• A claim with no named source
• Adjectives where numbers belong
• A release sent to a full media list with no pitch

Related reading: Wikipedia entries AI trusts covers the source that has overtaken the wire for some entity facts.