Write a press release in third person. Refer to your company by name, to people by name and title, and keep “we,” “our,” and “I” out of every line except direct quotes. Inside quotation marks, attributed to a named spokesperson, first person is allowed and usually reads better. That is the whole rule: third person everywhere, first person only inside quotes.
The rest of this piece explains why the rule exists, maps which parts of a release take which voice, walks through a real release from Apple that follows the pattern, and shows how to convert a draft full of “we” into clean newsroom copy.
Why Press Releases Use Third Person
A press release is a draft of a news story. You write it so a reporter can lift sentences, check facts, and build coverage without starting from zero. News stories are written in third person. Reporters do not say “we launched a product” about a company they cover. They say the company launched it. When your release already speaks that way, an editor can paste a paragraph into a story and move on.
First person breaks that workflow. A sentence like “We are thrilled to announce our new platform” cannot go into a news article as written. The editor has to rewrite the pronoun, strip the adjective, and figure out who “we” means. Every rewrite is a small reason to skip your release for the next one in the inbox.
Third person also changes how a claim reads. “We are the leading provider” sounds like an ad. “Acme is the leading provider” sounds like a statement someone will need to back up, which pushes the writer toward evidence. That pressure is healthy. It forces you to cite the customer count, the revenue figure, or the analyst ranking instead of leaning on adjectives.
Newsrooms codify the same habit. Patch, the hyperlocal news network, publishes a staff style guide that says it generally follows AP style, and it tells writers to format attribution as “person said” rather than “said person.” Releases that already use that structure match the copy an editor would write.
The Six-Zone Voice Map
The cleanest way to apply the press release third person rule is to stop thinking about the release as one block of text. A standard release has six zones, and each one has a voice. I call this the Six-Zone Voice Map. Check every zone against it before you send.
| Zone | Voice | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Headline and subhead | Third person, no pronouns | Company name plus a strong verb |
| Dateline and lede | Third person | City, date, then who did what |
| Body | Third person | Facts, figures, context, named sources |
| Quotes | First person allowed | Named spokesperson, attributed with said |
| Boilerplate | Third person | The About paragraph, company by name |
| Media contact | Neutral | Name, title, email, phone |
Headline and subhead
The headline names the company and states the news with an active verb. “Acme Opens Second Plant in Ohio, Adding 120 Jobs” works. “We’re Growing! Our New Ohio Plant Is Here” does not. Pronouns in a headline leave the reader guessing who is speaking, and most wire services and news sites will display the headline out of context.
Dateline and lede
The lede follows the dateline and carries the news in one sentence: who, what, when, where. AP-style datelines put the city in capital letters, followed by the date, and the lede picks up in third person from there. If you want the formatting rules in detail, our guide to the dateline in a press release covers it.
Body
The body adds detail, data, and context, all in third person. On first reference, use the full company name. After that, use the short name or “the company.” Refer to executives by full name and title on first reference and by last name after that.
Boilerplate and media contact
The boilerplate is a standing paragraph about the company that reporters often copy whole, so it stays in third person. The media contact block is just facts: a person’s name, title, email, and phone number. It needs no pronouns at all.
Quotes: The Only First-Person Zone
Quotes are the one zone where a human voice belongs. A quote is what a named person said, so it can use “I,” “we,” and “our” the way people talk. This is where a release gets its opinion, its emotion, and its point of view, because those things are attributed to a person instead of asserted by the document.
That split is the reason the rule works. The body states facts in a neutral voice that a reporter can reuse. The quote gives the reporter something they cannot write themselves: a named person’s view on why the news matters. A reporter may use one quote from your release, or none, so make each one carry weight.
A good quote does three things. It adds a view the body cannot state as fact. It sounds like a person speaking, not a brochure. And it is attributed clearly, with the speaker’s full name and title on first reference. Use “said” as the attribution verb and put the name before the verb, as in “said Jane Ortiz, CEO of Acme,” or “Ortiz said” on second reference. Skip “exclaimed,” “shared,” and “noted.” They add color the reader does not need.
Weak quotes repeat the body in first person. “We are excited to announce our new plant in Ohio” tells the reporter nothing the lede did not. A stronger version gives a reason or a stake: “Half our new hires will come from the county’s two technical colleges, and that is why we chose Dayton.” The second line is quotable because only a person could say it.
Keep quotes short. Two or three sentences is plenty. If a quote runs longer, split it and add attribution between the parts so readers never lose track of who is speaking.
A Real Example: Apple’s Quarterly Release
Apple’s newsroom shows the pattern clearly. Take the release Apple published on October 30, 2025, reporting results for its fiscal fourth quarter. The dateline reads “CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA,” in capitals. The first sentence of the body is plain third person: “Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter ended September 27, 2025.”
The quotes come next, and this is where the voice shifts. CFO Kevan Parekh is quoted in first person: “Our September quarter results capped off a record fiscal year, with revenue reaching $416 billion,” said Kevan Parekh, Apple’s CFO. The word “Our” would be out of place in the body, but inside quotes and tied to a named executive it reads naturally.
The CEO quote shows a useful nuance. Tim Cook is quoted as saying, “Today, Apple is very proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $102.5 billion.” Even inside quotation marks, Cook refers to Apple by name. First person is allowed in quotes, not required. What matters is that the line is attributed and sounds like something a person would say on an earnings call.
The release closes with an About Apple boilerplate that opens, “Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984.” Third person again. Then comes a section headed “Press Contact” with names and contact details. Every zone of the Six-Zone Voice Map shows up, each in the voice the map predicts.
You do not need Apple’s budget to copy the structure. You need the discipline to keep the company’s own voice inside quotes and let the rest of the document read like a reporter wrote it.
Common Voice Mistakes and How to Fix Them
The most frequent mistake is the drifting pronoun. A release starts in third person, then slips into “we” in paragraph four when the writer gets to the part they care about. Search the draft for “we,” “our,” “us,” “I,” and “my.” Every hit outside quotation marks gets rewritten.
The second mistake is the fake quote. Writers notice that first person is allowed in quotes, so they move whole paragraphs of marketing copy into quotation marks and attach an executive’s name. Editors can tell. A quote that lists product features reads like a brochure and will be cut. Keep features in the body, in third person, and keep quotes for views.
The third mistake is second person. “You can now order online” turns the release into an ad aimed at customers. Reporters are the first audience. Rewrite as “Customers can now order online” or “Acme now offers online ordering.”
The fourth is the inconsistent name. A release calls the company “Acme Industries” in the lede, “ACME” in the body, and “the Acme team” in the boilerplate. Pick a full name for first reference and one short name for the rest, and use them the same way throughout.
The last is the vague “the company.” It works as a second reference, but not when two companies appear in the same release. In partnership or acquisition news, name each company every time it could be confused.
When First Person Is Acceptable
The rule covers press releases written for media and wire distribution. Other formats follow different conventions, and it helps to know where the line sits.
A blog post on your own site announcing the same news can use first person. So can a letter from the founder, an email to customers, or a post on LinkedIn. Those are direct communications from the company to its audience, and “we” is natural there. Many companies publish a third-person release for the wire and a first-person post for their own channels on the same day.
Statements are another gray area. A short statement responding to a news event is often a single quote attributed to a spokesperson, which means it can be in first person because the whole thing is a quote. The attribution line itself stays in third person.
What does not change is the newsroom release. If it goes to reporters or out on a wire, the press release third person rule applies. When length becomes the issue, our guide on how long a press release should be covers how much room each zone needs.
How to Convert a First-Person Draft
Most first drafts are written in first person because that is how people talk about their own work. Converting one takes about ten minutes if you work zone by zone.
Start with the headline. Replace any pronoun with the company name and make sure the verb is active. Then fix the lede so it opens with the dateline and names the company as the subject of the first sentence.
Move through the body next. Run a search for “we,” “our,” and “us.” Replace the first instance with the full company name and later instances with the short name or “the company.” Watch for verbs that need to change with the subject, since “we are” becomes “Acme is.” Cut any adjective that only made sense as a boast, such as “thrilled” or “proud,” unless it sits inside a quote.
Then look at the quotes. Pull out any feature lists and move them into the body. Make sure each quote has a full name and title on first reference and uses “said.” Read each one out loud. If it sounds like a slogan, rewrite it as something a person would say to a reporter on the phone.
Finish with the boilerplate and contact block. Confirm the About paragraph uses the company name and no pronouns, and that the media contact lists a real person who will answer. Run the pronoun search one more time across the whole document. If every “we” left is inside quotation marks, the release passes the press release third person check.
The next release you send will be read by an editor deciding in seconds whether your copy saves them work, so write every zone as if they will paste it straight into a story.