Press Release

A press release — also called a news release — is an official written announcement that an organization sends to journalists, editors, and media outlets to publicize a piece of news. It is issued in the organization's own institutional voice, typically opening with a headline and a dateline and following a familiar structure: the most important facts first, then supporting detail, a quote or two from a spokesperson, and boilerplate describing the company. Its subject is news the company wants known — a product launch, a partnership, an executive hire, a funding round, a milestone, an event. The press release is a staple of public relations, the standard vehicle for putting a company's news on the record and into the hands of the media in a clear, quotable, ready-to-use form. It is announcement, not argument.

Press releases matter because they are the conventional, efficient way to get news to many media contacts at once, in a format journalists recognize and can act on quickly. A well-made release hands reporters the facts, the quotes, and the context they need, which makes coverage easier to earn and helps ensure the story is told accurately. It also creates an official, on-the-record account of the news that lives on the company's newsroom and can be cited later. That said, a press release is not itself coverage — it is an input to the media, not a guaranteed story — and its usefulness has narrowed as inboxes overflow with them. A release about a genuinely newsworthy event, written for a real audience, still earns attention; a stream of releases about trivial non-news is ignored, and can make a company's PR easy to tune out.

A press release should be distinguished from two things it is often confused with: the bylined article and the news coverage it hopes to generate. A bylined article carries an individual author's name and shares a perspective or argument to build that person's authority — thought leadership. A press release carries no personal byline; it speaks in the company's institutional voice and announces news rather than arguing a point. The two serve different PR jobs: the release informs the media of what happened, while the bylined article develops ideas around why it matters. Meanwhile, the coverage — the article a journalist writes after receiving the release — is a separate, editorial thing the company does not control. The release is the company's input; the coverage is the outlet's independent output, and confusing the two overstates what a release can achieve.

Keeping these apart clarifies what each can do. A press release earns its keep when there is real news to announce and the goal is broad, accurate, on-the-record distribution to the press. A bylined article earns its keep when the goal is to build an expert's authority through a genuine point of view. And earned coverage — the reporter's own story — is the outcome a release aims at but cannot command, because the journalist decides whether and how to write it. The common error is expecting a press release to behave like guaranteed publicity, or writing every announcement as a release when a direct pitch, a bylined piece, or simply no announcement would serve better. Matching the format to the intent — news to a release, ideas to a byline — is what keeps a communications program credible rather than noisy.

Using press releases well begins with a hard test of newsworthiness: is this genuinely news a journalist and their readers would care about, or merely something the company is excited about internally. Reserve the release for the former. Then write it for the reader, not just the boss — a clear, honest headline, the essential facts up front, a quote that actually says something, and enough context to make the story easy to write, all free of empty superlatives and jargon. Target it to the reporters and outlets who cover that beat, rather than blasting every contact indiscriminately. And treat it as one tool among several — sometimes a direct pitch or an exclusive serves better than a wide release. Handled this way, a press release makes real news easy to cover and worth covering.

The failures are issuing releases about non-news — trivial updates dressed up as announcements — until the company's PR is reflexively ignored, and stuffing releases with hype and superlatives that bury whatever facts a journalist actually needs. Others are spraying every release to every contact regardless of beat, expecting a release to guarantee coverage it cannot command, and confusing the release with a bylined article so an announcement tries to argue a case it is not built for. The discipline is to reserve press releases for genuine news, write them clearly and honestly for the reader, target them to the right journalists, and treat them as one input to earned media rather than a substitute for a real story — so the releases that matter are still read.

The term dates to the early twentieth century, when companies released statements to the press; it names an official announcement issued to the media.

Etymology: source.

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

View interest-over-time on Google Trends →

Areas of marketing where press release is a core concern: