Most press releases are bad. They’re bad because they’re written by people trying to sound like what they think a press release should sound like, rather than people trying to give a reporter something useful. This post is a walkthrough of what a good press release actually looks like in 2026, with the structure, the reasoning, and the parts that can be cut.
The one-sentence version
A good press release is an email a reporter will read in under sixty seconds and either use or delete. Everything in the release should be oriented around that decision. If a sentence doesn’t help the reporter make the yes-or-no decision faster, cut it.
That’s the whole framework. Everything below is applying it.
The structure
Every effective release follows roughly the same structure. Headline, subhead, dateline, lead paragraph, one quote, one supporting paragraph, boilerplate, contact. The order doesn’t vary and the sections don’t bloat.
Headline. 8 to 12 words. States the news. Not a tagline. Not a marketing slogan. Not a question. A declarative sentence a news editor could reuse as-is.
Good: “Acme Payroll Crosses $500M in Q1 Transactions, Adds 2,000 Small Business Customers” Bad: “Acme Payroll Continues Its Journey of Innovation and Excellence in the Payroll Space”
The test: can a reporter copy your headline, paste it into their story draft, and start writing from there? If yes, the headline is doing work. If not, rewrite it.
Subhead. 15 to 20 words. Optional but usually helpful. Adds one layer of context to the headline — the why behind the what. If the headline says what happened, the subhead says why it matters.
Dateline. City, state (or country), date. “NEW YORK, April 12, 2026 —”. Standard format, non-negotiable. Use the city where the news actually happens, not just where your company is headquartered.
Lead paragraph. 40 to 60 words. The only paragraph that has to work. States the news in the first sentence and adds the why-it-matters in the second. This is where reporters decide whether to keep reading.
The lead should answer: who did what, when, and why it matters to readers of the publication you’re pitching. If the lead is three sentences of setup before the news, the release is already failing.
Paragraph two: context or data. 50 to 70 words. The piece of supporting information that makes the news more credible or more interesting. Usually a specific data point, a comparison to prior performance, or a citation of an external trend the news connects to.
Paragraph three: the quote. 40 to 60 words. One quote from one person, usually the CEO or the person most directly connected to the news. The quote should be a sentence the reporter would actually want to put in a story. Not “we’re excited” and not “this represents a major milestone.” Something with substance.
Paragraph four: supporting detail. 60 to 90 words. The other thing the reporter needs to know to write the story. Customer example, technical detail, market context. Only one, not three.
Paragraph five: call to action or next steps. 20 to 40 words. What readers should do if they want to learn more. A link to a product page, a report, or a signup form.
Boilerplate. 50 to 80 words. The “About Company” paragraph. Same every release. Founded, what it does, notable customers or traction, link. Not counted in the 500-word body budget.
Contact. Name, email, phone. Standard.
The lead paragraph deserves its own section
If you only get one thing right in a press release, it’s the lead. Reporters read the lead and make a yes-or-no decision in under five seconds. Everything that comes before the lead in the email (the headline, the subject line) is about getting the reporter to the lead. Everything after the lead is about confirming the decision the lead already made.
A good lead has four elements packed into two sentences. The actor (you). The action (what you did). The evidence (the specific detail that makes it real). The implication (why it matters).
“Acme Payroll, a payroll platform for small businesses, today announced it crossed $500 million in Q1 transaction volume, a 340 percent increase from the same period last year. The milestone reflects growing adoption of automated payroll tools among small businesses that previously relied on manual processes or outsourced bookkeeping.”
That’s 50 words. It contains the actor, the action, the evidence (the dollar figure and the percent increase), and the implication (the small business automation trend). A reporter reading it knows immediately whether the story is worth pursuing and, if so, what the angle is.
Compare: “Acme Payroll, a leading innovator in the payroll technology space, is thrilled to announce significant growth during the first quarter of 2026, marking an exciting new chapter in its journey to transform how small businesses approach payroll.”
That’s 40 words with zero information. No number. No timeframe. No comparison. No angle. A reporter reading that deletes the email.
The quote problem
Press release quotes are where most founders go wrong. They quote themselves saying something they’d never actually say in real life — a sentence constructed entirely of marketing vocabulary, designed to sound official, with no real content.
“We’re excited to reach this milestone as it represents our continued commitment to delivering best-in-class solutions that empower our customers to achieve their goals.”
Nobody talks like that. Nobody quotes that. It’s filler.
A good quote sounds like the founder talking to a reporter. It has a point of view. It says something the company is willing to stand behind. It’s quotable precisely because it’s specific enough that a reporter could use it as-is in a story.
“The growth is real but it came from one specific shift. Small businesses that used to do payroll manually are now automating because the accountants they used to rely on are either raising rates or retiring. We’re catching the transition.”
That quote has content. It makes a claim about the cause of the growth. It’s specific. A reporter reading it gets both a quote they can use and the lead for a sidebar story about the accounting industry. That’s what quotes are supposed to do.
One quote per release. Not two. Not a quote from the CEO, a quote from the investor, and a quote from the customer. One.
The phrases to kill
Certain phrases show up in 90 percent of bad press releases and almost never appear in good ones. Cut them on sight.
“Is pleased to announce” / “is thrilled to announce” / “is excited to announce” — announce means announce, the feeling doesn’t matter.
“Leading provider of” — every company claims this, so it signals nothing.
“Solutions” — use the actual product name, not the word solutions.
“Best-in-class” / “industry-leading” / “world-class” — marketing vocabulary that reporters never quote.
“Innovative” / “revolutionary” / “groundbreaking” — if true, show it; if not, don’t claim it.
“Committed to” — nobody is committed to the opposite, so the phrase adds nothing.
“Unlock” / “empower” / “leverage” — business-speak that dilutes real verbs.
Cut these and your release drops 80 to 150 words without losing any information. The version that remains is the version that actually reads like news.
The length test
After writing the release, check the word count. If the body is over 500 words, it’s too long. Go back and cut until it’s under 500. Usually the fastest way to get there is cutting the third paragraph entirely — most press releases have a third paragraph that exists to repeat things already said in paragraphs one and two.
If the body is under 250 words, it’s probably too short. Either you don’t have enough news for a release (consider whether it should be an email pitch instead), or you cut too much context. Add back one data point or one line of context.
The sweet spot is 350 to 450 words in the body. That’s what fits on one screen, what reporters will read without scrolling twice, and what wire services will accept without flagging you for under-length.
The delivery
How you send the release matters almost as much as what’s in it.
Plain text email, not an attached PDF. Reporters don’t open attachments from unknown senders. Put the entire release in the email body.
Subject line that previews the news, not the company. “Acme Payroll crosses $500M Q1 transaction volume” beats “Press Release from Acme Payroll.”
One recipient at a time if you care about coverage, one BCC list if you don’t. Personalizing the send to each reporter makes a measurable difference in response rate.
Send in the morning, 7 to 9 AM in the reporter’s time zone. Tuesday through Thursday. Not Friday afternoon. Not Monday morning before the editor has their coffee.
The truth about press release writing
Press release writing is a craft, not a formula. The template above works because it embeds the right instincts — lead with the news, give one real quote, cut the filler. But the templates that get posted on marketing blogs are usually templates that produce the kind of release I’ve been describing as bad.
The best thing you can do is read fifty press releases from companies in your category, notice which ones would make you pay attention if you were a reporter, and reverse-engineer what they’re doing right. Then write yours the same way.
And if you can’t describe your news in a single sentence that would make a stranger interested, the problem isn’t the press release. The problem is that you don’t have enough news yet. Fix that before writing anything.