Press Release Format: The Standard Structure

Why does the format matter?

Because the people who handle releases — journalists, editors, wire reviewers — process hundreds of them. A release in the standard format can be assessed in seconds: the news is in the headline, the facts are where they are expected, nothing has to be hunted for. An unusual format does not make a release look creative; it makes it look unfinished, and unfinished releases get skipped. Format is not decoration. It is the etiquette that gets your news read.

What goes at the very top of a press release?

• Company name or logo — so the release is attributable at a glance.
• Contact block — a name, email and phone for media enquiries. Some writers put this at the end instead; either is accepted, but it must be somewhere.
• Release timing — "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" if the news can be published now, or "EMBARGOED UNTIL [date, time]" if it cannot. Embargoes are an agreement, not a lock: only use one with outlets that have agreed to it.

How should the headline and dateline be written?

The headline is one line, in plain sentence style: company, verb, news, specific detail. Some writers add a subheadline — one extra line of supporting detail — but it is optional and most online releases skip it.

Under the headline comes the dateline: the city the news comes from and the date, followed by a dash — "TAMPA, Florida, Nov. 9, 2026 —". The lead paragraph then opens with the announcement itself. Keep the dateline honest: it is the place the news originates, not the place you wish it did.

What is the lead paragraph supposed to do?

Summarise the entire announcement in one or two sentences: who, what, when and where. The lead is written so the release still works if nothing after it is read. If your lead needs the word "exciting" to sound important, the fact itself needs sharpening, not the adjective.

How is the body structured?

In falling order of importance — the inverted pyramid journalists are trained in. Details first (what exactly is new), then context (why it matters, who it serves), then background (history, related facts), and practical information (dates, prices if relevant, where to go) where it supports the news. Two to four paragraphs of two to four sentences each is the norm. Facts that arrive late in a release are facts most readers never reach, so nothing essential belongs at the bottom.

A quote usually sits in the middle of the body, after the core facts: one named person, with a title, saying something with actual content. The step-by-step writing process is covered in how to write a press release.

What ends a press release?

• The boilerplate — an "About [company]" paragraph of roughly 40–80 words, reused on every release. See the boilerplate guide for how to write one.
• The contact line — "Media contact: [name], [email]" for follow-up questions.
• End marks — traditionally "###" centred under the last paragraph (or the older "-30-"). In online publishing they are optional, but they still signal "the release ends here" on multi-page documents.

What does a complete press release look like?

Here is the full structure with fictional content, labelled part by part. This is an illustration of format only — the company is invented:

That is the entire skeleton. Real releases published on this wire follow it — compare the labelled structure above with any release in the wire listing, and with the annotated breakdowns in press release examples.

How long is each part of a press release?

• Headline: one line, roughly 10–16 words.
• Lead paragraph: 25–45 words — the whole announcement in miniature.
• Body: 2–4 paragraphs, 250–600 words in total for most announcements.
• Quote: 20–40 words, one or two sentences.
• Boilerplate: 40–80 words (see the boilerplate guide).
• Whole release: typically 300–800 words. Under 300 usually means missing facts; over 800 usually means background that belongs on your website.

These are working norms, not laws — a results announcement with figures to report will run longer than an opening notice. But if a part is far outside its range, that is a signal: a 200-word lead means the release has two leads, and one of them is the body wearing the wrong label.

What format mistakes get releases rejected or ignored?

• Writing it as an advertisement. Prices, offers and calls to action throughout the body. Releases announce; they do not sell. One link and one factual mention of availability is the limit.
• Burying the news. Three paragraphs of company history before the announcement appears. Editors stop reading long before it does.
• Missing basics. No date, no city, no contact — a release that cannot be attributed or followed up cannot be used.
• Unverifiable claims. "Leading", "award-winning", "thousands of customers" with nothing behind them. Reviewers, including ours, ask for the basis or remove the claim.
• Formatting as decoration. Coloured text, multiple fonts, logos inside the body, text locked in images. Plain structure is what gets a release processed quickly.

The submission guidelines on this wire list the acceptance rules in full — they are a practical checklist of what the format is for.

How does the format change when a release is published online?

Three practical adjustments, none of which change the skeleton. First, the headline doubles as the page title, so it should be complete and searchable on its own — the name-plus-news pattern does this naturally. Second, links: an online release can link the company name or the announcement's key term to the relevant page on the company's site — one or two links, to pages that support the news, never a spray of keyword links through the body. Third, the release may carry an image; on this wire every published release has one, chosen to match the announcement. Everything else — dateline, lead, pyramid body, quote, boilerplate — is identical, because the reader it was designed for, a busy stranger deciding whether the news is real, has not changed.

Does format differ by country or style guide?

The skeleton is the same everywhere. Details vary: AP style (used by most US newsrooms) puts datelines in a specific city format and capitalises headlines sentence-style; UK releases usually write the date out in full; some markets put the contact block at the end rather than the top. None of these variations change the order of the parts. If you are sending to a specific newsroom, match its style guide; if you are publishing through a wire like this one, the standard format above is what reviewers expect.