And why your brand needs it?
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A press release or media release is a document you would send out to journalists and media publications to share information about your business. The aim is for those journalists to share that information with their readers via a news story or feature, but that is absolutely not a guaranteed outcome.
The following guidelines should put you in good stead for success, but you should also know that journalists are absolutely inundated with press releases every day - especially at the age of AI slop. Journalists are humans, and they too feel the spam and have limited capacity.
So even if you do everything right, it's possible your press release won’t result in media coverage. But not all is lost– done right, a press release can help you establish relationships with key journalists in your sector, and increase your chances of being featured in the future.
Good question! In short, a press release is a quick way to get news or information about your business to a range of media publications that might be interested. It also allows you as the business to control the narrative, to a degree: you can prioritise the information that’s most important for you to share, and the insights you think are most pertinent.
To be clear, you can’t control the way individual journalists will approach the story, but you can at least share the language, tone and commentary that suits your own purposes.
Again, press releases can also strengthen your relationship with key media players.
Generally, you would send your press release to a selection of journalists who you know for sure cover the area you operate in, and cover stories like the one you have to share. But we’ll explain more on who to reach out to later.
You can also publish your press release online, if your website has a ‘news’ page, meaning anyone will be able to find it in the future. <- Though if you are a small brand, you should do that second, only after you've sent it to journalists.
There are also newswire services that distribute press releases to their own media lists. Of note, Newsary is NOT a newswire services as we do not spam but on the contrary empower you to build 1 to 1 media relations with the most relevant journalists in your field. For small businesses, newswires services don’t allow for the same relationship-building, and you likely won’t have control over who your release is being sent to, and whether it's relevant to them.
Direct and personalised communication can hugely increase the chances of your story getting picked up.
First and foremost, a good press release is one that has a good story. As a business owner, you want to share information that will boost your business’ reputation, but the journalists’ motivation is to write an article their audience will want to read.
Think about the story behind your news:
- If you’ve raised capital, can you talk about the challenges you faced along the way, or why this is a milestone moment for your industry in general?
- If you’re sharing another big business milestone, are there any other impressive growth stats you can share? What is the narrative of your business so far?
All of this can make your press release more appealing. Again, the journalist might find a different story angle to what you’ve imagined, but giving them something to work with in the first place can make a massive difference.
Secondly, a great press release is one that makes life as easy as possible for the journalists receiving it.
^ Did you know you can build a Media Kit on Newsary for that very reason?
Journalists are generally time-poor and working to tight deadlines. So if you give them everything they need from the offset – including all the information they need, any supporting documents, and images – they’re more likely to pick up your story. We’ll explain more on what to include later.
You should also be ready to respond to any follow-up questions quickly, either by email or over the phone.
Some journos will write up an article based on the press release alone, but many will want to conduct an interview to get some additional, unique quotes and information (this helps their story standout from their competitors).
Try not to send your press release on a day you have back-to-back meetings, or when you won’t have your phone on you. Just as you’ll be ready to respond to more questions, you should be ready to give additional quotes and commentary, if required.
Many journalists also have a list of contacts they can reach out to for stories, and sending a good press release is always a step towards ending up on that list.
There are several reasons you might send a press release, and while the general rules are the same, each requires a slightly different approach.
A business milestone could be something like a round of funding secured, or some impressive revenue growth or record sales figures you’re keen to shout about. The key thing to remember here is that these things will likely only be interesting if you can share the juicy details– how much you’ve raised, how much revenue growth and how much you’ve made from all those sales.
If you’ve raised capital, try to include quotes from some of the investors, but not necessarily all of them. And the more personalised and heartfelt the quotes, the better.
It’s worth noting that not every business partnership is necessarily newsworthy. But in some cases – if it’s particularly interesting or unusual, or featuring a high-profile business, it might be to the right audience. In a press release announcing a partnership, make sure you add context, as well as sharing the main news. What makes this partnership special? What will it mean for your customers and your partner’s? And what could it mean for your business?
Think about the readers of the publications you’re pitching, and why they might want to know about this, then tailor the information to them.
If your business has conducted some research or released a report, sending a press release can be a great way to share the most important or interesting findings, and also to distribute the full report to the media.
Make sure your research is good research:
At the same time, if there’s anything shocking that has emerged that reporters will definitely pick up on, it’s worth mentioning that in your release too, even if it doesn’t serve your business. If you highlight that finding, and ideally have an in-house expert comment on it, you can try to control that narrative from the outset.
Your quotes should build on the information given, adding depth and context. And it can help to include some graphs orother graphics that journalists can use in their reporting.
Finally, be sure to include information around methodology. For example, include how many people were surveyed and any other relevant information about them.
This is the press release you never want to write, but often when things aren’t going so well, it’s important to take some control of the narrative. You might want to share news of layoffs, address a data breach, or an epic PR fail, for example. Either way, the key here is to be honest, genuine and humble, without making excuses for what has happened.
Keep the release short and sweet, and be sure not to add any promotional content – literally nothing at all that could be construed as ‘trying to make yourself look good’.
Things go wrong in business, and if you own it with honesty and humility people (including journalists) will ultimately be forgiving.
We know your business is your world, and that you want to shout about every little success. However, unfortunately, not every success is newsworthy, and if you fill up journalists’ inboxes with a release for every little thing, they’re going to get sick of you pretty quickly, and might be less inclined to cover the big stories when they do come along.
The thing with PR is that there is as many exceptions as they are rules and that's why Newsary's virtual comms assistant can assist you based on your exact needs. But as a rule of thumb:
Adobe’s latest software rollout is newsworthy in some circles. But if you’re an SME, it’s likely that your latest update won’t be. You might be able to roll the news of your latest product into a story about something else, but it’s probably not worth a press release in itself.
Again, C-suite hires at global companies can sometimes be newsworthy. And if your SME or startup has bagged a high-profile, well known business personality as CEO, then yes perhaps that’s worth a story. However, generally your new hires are something you’ll be excited about, but others won’t. Consider singing their praises in a blog or LinkedIn post instead.
If there’s movement or controversy in your industry or area of expertise and you’ve got something to say about it – great! However a press release might not be the best way to get your thoughts across. Have a look at our guide to pitching commentary to the media here, and save press releases for news and announcements.
If you’ve received a business award, congratulations! That’s amazing news, but probably not newsworthy. Sometimes publications will do round-up articles of awards nights, featuring all the winners. If that’s the case, again consider sending some commentary, including a few quotes on why you’re so pleased and what this means for your business.
Your business should live its values, and if there’s something going on in the world that’s got you riled up, you should 100% speak up. But a press release is not he right way to go about it. So, again, think about the publications that might be covering whatever it is, and consider sending some commentary or an opinon article, depending on how much you have to say on the issue.
The first thing to think about is who you’re sending your press release to. Make sure you’re approaching publications and journalists that you know write about your industry, and run stories like the one you’re pitching.
Before you send anything to a journalist, make sure you read some of their work (not just their headlines) and that your news will be relevant to them.
At Newsary, we use and recommend the rule of three:
The best way to reach out is via email, although very rarely some journalists will accept pitches via LinkedIn or Twitter – it will be clear from their profiles if they do.
Try to find the email address of the most relevant journalist, and pitch them directly. The journalist's byline page (often not behind a paywall) on publication website is a good place to find their email address. Otherwise, most would have them on their socials media (LinkedIn or Twitter).
Address the journalist by their correct first name, and include some detail to show that you know who they are, for example: “I have read your recent article on [this subject] and…”
On that note, in your pitch, your email itself shouldn’t be long – just a brief description of what’s in the press release. Don’t feel you have to repeat all of the information from the release especially as you can paste the contents of the press release into the body of the email, as long as it’s clear where the email ends and the official media release starts. Often paste it under your signature.
Finally, think carefully about your subject line. This is one of the most important parts of your pitch, and one of the hardest to get right. Your subject line should briefly share what’s in the press release, and what the story is – it should be concise yet engaging, and true to what’s in the email.
In your actual press release, the first thing to include is a very brief explanation of what the business is. This can literally be a few words, just something to add context to everything that follows. At the end of your press release, you should add an ‘about us’ section that will go into much more detail, but the initial few lines just need to make it clear who or what we’re talking about.
Once you’ve got your headline information out of the way, it’s time to talk about everything else. This is where you can talk about why this news is important to your industry and how it relates to it, what it means for your customers, and your business, and any other background or additional information.
Many journalists will want to arrange an interview to get unique quotes, however some won’t, so make sure you give them something juicy they can use in their story if they choose. Generally, you should include quotes from the people most relevant to the story. Often that’s the business owner, CEO , or founder, but in certain circumstances it could also be a high-level employee like the head of HR, or someone external like an advisor or investor or even high-profile clients/users.
Your quotes should also provide something that adds to your existing content:
Other information to include can be pretty varied. If your news or product is pretty technical, this might be where you go into the nitty-gritty details.Or if you’ve had a string of other wins in the past 12 months, this could be the place to list them, just to remind everyone how awesome you are. It could also address previous negative press, or draw attention to related research or commentary that could add colour.
You can also add an ‘About Us’ section, where you can go into more detail about the business, what it does and its history.
Try not to make this section too long, but it’s where any non-essential but still relevant information comes into play.
Now to the most difficult and important part of your press release (just like your subject line). While you won’t be able to write journalists’ headlines for them, but you can think about what you would like them to be, and include the information pertaining to that as early as possible in your press release.For example, if your business has raised capital, and you could want the investors to be the focus of the story. Or you could prefer the journalists to focus on the amount you've raised or the problem you are trying to solve. Make sure that is the focus of the release, and the thing you mention first.
We have a guide to headline here. - though Newsary takes the pain off writing a headline by combining your objectives with real-time media analysis the preferred headlines format of the most relevant journalists in your field.
Make sure it’s clear that there are interviews up for grabs (ideally with the people you’ve quoted), and that those interviews can be secured quickly.
If you feel comfortable, it can help to share the phone numbers and availability of the spokespeople, so the journalists can call them right away if need be. Just make sure you warn them all first. If you can also offer access to a report, a product demo, a sample or anything else, make sure that’s very clearly stated as well.
Make sure you provide a contact for any additional information. As the business owner, this may or may not be you, but make sure that person is ready to answer their phone and help out with anything from follow-up questions and fact-checks to sourcing new images.
First and foremost, your press release should lay out the facts of your story. But that doesn’t mean it has to be dry or overly formal. Try to use a tone of voice that represents your business, and tell your story in a way that makes sense to you.
Don't use jargon for jargon’s sake. Actually, try not to use jargon at all.
If you absolutely can't avoid it, try to explain things as simply as possible – even if it means spelling out acronyms that seem obvious to you.
Once your press release is all written up, there are a few things it can help to include. Most importantly: supporting images. Try to include a selection of images, including some of the founders or owners of the business, and some of the product, if relevant. Different websites will have different preferred specs for pictures. Some will tend to use traditional profile pictures, while others will se landscape header images. Having a few options handy in a media kit makes things much easier for journalists and editors to get your story looking its best on their site.
The same goes for product images, if you have them. Try to include a few, so they can pick and choose the ones they want (they might even use more than one).
Think about what other images could make your business really shine if they were included in the final piece. If it’s a physical premise, like a shop or restaurant, it can’t hurt to include some gorgeous shots of the interiors, for example.
It should go without saying, make sure all your images are high-res.
You could also include any relevant reports, graphics, video content, or generally anything else you think might add more context, or make the journalists’ life a little easier.
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