Press Release Template (and How to Fill It In)

A press release is a one-page news announcement written for journalists, not customers. Its job is to hand a reporter everything they need to cover your story: what happened, who it happened to, when and where, and why anyone should care. It reads like a short news article - factual, third person, no sales language - because the easier it is to turn into a story, the more likely it gets covered.

You send one when something genuinely changed: a launch, a new location, a partnership, an award, a milestone, a notable hire. You do not send one for routine marketing - journalists ignore releases that are advertisements in disguise, and the sender's address gets remembered.

Every press release editors expect follows the same order:

• Headline - one line that states the news plainly. Under about 100 characters, no exclamation marks.
• Dateline - the city and date the news comes from, at the start of the first paragraph: "AUSTIN, Texas - March 4, 2027 - ".
• Lead paragraph - the whole story in two or three sentences: who, what, when, where, why. A journalist should be able to write their first line from your first line.
• Body - one to three short paragraphs of supporting detail, arranged most-important-first. Editors call this the inverted pyramid: the essentials at the top, background at the bottom, so the release still works if a reader stops early.
• Quote - one or two sentences from a named person, written the way people actually speak.
• Boilerplate - a short standing paragraph about your company (more on this below).
• Contact - a name, email address, and phone number a journalist can reach quickly.

Copy the block below and replace every bracketed line. It works for a launch, an opening, a hire, an award, or a partnership.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Headline: state the news in one plain sentence]

[CITY, State] - [Month Day, Year] - [Company name], [one-line description of what the company does], today announced [the news in one sentence, including the single most important detail].

[Paragraph 2: the two or three facts a reporter would need to write the story - what it costs, when it starts, where it is, how many, who it serves.]

"[One or two sentences from a named person, said the way a person would actually say it,]" said [Full Name], [title] of [Company]. "[Optional second sentence - why this matters to the people it serves.]"

[Paragraph 3: background or context - how this fits what the company has done before, or what happens next.]

About [Company name]

[Boilerplate: two or three sentences about the company - what it does, who it serves, where it operates, since when.]

Media contact

[Name] [Email] [Phone]

Example 1 - a local business opening a second location:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Greenleaf Bakery to Open Second Location in Cedar Park This June

CEDAR PARK, Texas - June 2, 2027 - Greenleaf Bakery, a family-owned bakery serving the Austin area since 2019, today announced it will open its second location at 410 Main Street, Cedar Park, on June 21. The new bakery adds 12 jobs and doubles the company's daily baking capacity.

The Cedar Park location will offer the same daily menu as the original store, plus a training kitchen where the bakery will run weekend classes for home bakers. Opening-week customers receive a free coffee with any purchase.

"We've had Cedar Park customers driving twenty minutes to us for years, and it was time we drove to them," said Maria Torres, owner of Greenleaf Bakery. "The training kitchen is something I've wanted to build since we started."

About Greenleaf Bakery: Greenleaf Bakery is a family-owned bakery founded in Austin in 2019, known for sourdough breads and seasonal pastries made from Texas-grown grain. It employs 31 people across two locations.

Media contact: Maria Torres - maria@greenleafbakery.com - (512) 555-0184

Example 2 - a nonprofit announcing a fundraiser result:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Riverside Youth Alliance Raises $84,000 to Fund Free Summer Coding Camps

DAYTON, Ohio - May 9, 2027 - Riverside Youth Alliance, a nonprofit providing after-school programs to Dayton students, today announced its spring campaign raised $84,000 - enough to run free summer coding camps for 240 middle-school students across four neighborhood sites this July.

The camps run four weeks, require no prior experience, and lend each student a laptop for the duration. Registration opens May 15 on the organization's website, with places reserved first for students from the four partner schools.

"Every one of these places is free because 900 local donors decided it should be," said DeShawn Carter, executive director of Riverside Youth Alliance. "Two hundred and forty kids are going to spend July building things."

About Riverside Youth Alliance: Riverside Youth Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2015 that provides free after-school and summer programs to more than 1,100 Dayton students each year.

Media contact: Anna Weiss - press@riversideyouth.org - (937) 555-0121

300 to 500 words - about one page. That is long enough to carry the who, what, when, where and why, one quote, and your boilerplate, and short enough that a journalist can scan it in under a minute. If yours runs long, the cut almost always comes from the body paragraphs, never the lead. Anything essential that will not fit belongs in a linked press kit, not in the release.

The boilerplate is the short standing paragraph about your company at the bottom of every release - the same two or three sentences each time, so journalists can lift it directly into their story.

A good boilerplate answers four things:

• What the company does, in plain words
• Who it serves and where
• One credibility marker - founding year, size, a number that is true and checkable
• Where to learn more (your website)

Write it once, reuse it on every release, and update it when the facts change. Keep opinions and superlatives out of it - "the leading provider of" is the phrase editors delete first.

• Send it to the specific reporter who covers your topic - the person who wrote the last three stories like yours - not a generic newsroom address.
• Put the news in the subject line, plainly: "Local bakery opening second Cedar Park location June 21".
• Paste the release into the body of the email. Attachments go unopened.
• Send mid-morning, Tuesday to Thursday. Mondays are triage, Fridays are dead.
• Follow up once, after two or three days, with one short sentence. Then stop.
• Local outlets and trade publications reply far more often than national desks - start there.

• Burying the news - the announcement appears in paragraph three instead of sentence one.
• Writing an ad - superlatives and exclamation marks tell an editor this is marketing, not news.
• A quote nobody would say aloud - if you cannot imagine the person speaking the sentence, rewrite it.
• No contact details, or a generic inbox nobody checks.
• Sending everything to everyone - one irrelevant release and your address is remembered for the wrong reason.
• No actual news - a release with nothing new in it costs you the journalist's attention next time, when it matters.

Every free template page - including this one - hands you the same thing: a blank structure you still have to write. That is the part that takes the hour.

This service does the writing. Answer a few questions about your announcement - what happened, who it affects, a detail or two - and you get back a finished, correctly formatted release: headline, dateline, lead, body, a quote that sounds like a person, your boilerplate, and contact block, delivered on screen in under 30 seconds for a one-time $15. No subscription, and the release is yours to edit and send.