Most press releases never get covered, and it's rarely because the writing was bad. It's because there was no real story, the key facts were buried under three paragraphs of company background, or the release read like an ad. AI is genuinely useful for the parts that slow you down — the rigid format, the boilerplate, the tone pass — but it can't decide whether your announcement is newsworthy. This guide covers where AI helps, where it doesn't, and gives you a template and a full worked example you can adapt.
What a press release is actually for
A press release is a short, factual document sent to journalists and editors announcing something you want covered: a product launch, a funding round, a hire, an event, a partnership, a milestone, or a research finding. Its job is not to persuade the public directly — it's to give a busy reporter everything they need to write a story quickly, in a format they recognize.
That framing changes how you write it. A reporter skims the headline and first paragraph, decides in seconds whether there's a story, and either keeps reading or moves on. Everything about the standard press release format exists to serve that skim: the most important facts first, quotes for color, background at the bottom, contact details easy to find. AI can reproduce that structure perfectly once you understand what goes where.
Before you open an AI tool: is this actually news?
This is the step no AI can do for you, and it's the one that decides everything. Ask honestly: would someone with no connection to your company care about this? A genuinely new product, a first-of-its-kind partnership, a surprising data point, a local business hitting a notable milestone, or a response to a current news event — those are stories. A minor feature update, a routine hire, a rebrand nobody asked about, or an award you paid to enter usually are not.
If the answer is "not really news, but we still want it on the record," that's fine — publish it on your own newsroom page and share it on social. Just don't expect pitching it to journalists to work, and don't let AI's confident, polished draft convince you that a non-story is a story. A well-written release about nothing is still about nothing.
The standard press release structure
Nearly every effective press release follows this structure, and this is exactly what you should tell an AI tool to produce:
- Headline — one line, factual, states the news. Not a slogan.
- Subheadline (optional) — one sentence adding a key detail or angle.
- Dateline — city, state, and date, then the opening.
- Lead paragraph — the who, what, when, where, and why in 2-3 sentences. If a reader stops here, they should still have the whole story.
- Body paragraphs — supporting detail, context, and the significance of the news, in descending order of importance.
- Quotes — one or two, from a named person with a title. Quotes add perspective; they shouldn't carry facts the body didn't already state.
- Boilerplate — a short, fixed "About [Company]" paragraph that stays the same across releases.
- Contact information — name, email, phone for media inquiries.
- Ending notation — traditionally "###" or "-30-" centered at the end to signal the release is over.
The single most common structural mistake is starting with company history or a mission statement instead of the news. The news goes first, every time.
Step 1: Give AI the facts, not a blank prompt
A prompt like "write a press release for my company" produces something generic and hollow. Instead, gather the raw facts first and hand them over: what's being announced, the exact date, names and titles of anyone quoted, specific numbers (dollar amounts, percentages, dates, user counts), what makes it notable, and any links or supporting detail. Then prompt with something like:
"Write a press release in standard AP format using only these facts: [paste facts]. Put the news in the headline and first paragraph. Keep it under 450 words. Include one quote from [name, title]. Do not invent any statistics, dates, or details I haven't given you."
That last sentence matters. Left unconstrained, AI will happily fill gaps with plausible-sounding numbers and claims. Tools like our AI Paragraph Writer are good for turning your bullet-point facts into clean body paragraphs one section at a time, which keeps you in control of what each paragraph actually says.
Step 2: Fix the headline and lead by hand
AI headlines tend to drift toward marketing language — "revolutionary," "game-changing," "thrilled to announce." Journalists filter those out instantly. A strong press release headline reads like a news headline: subject, verb, object. "Portland Bakery Opens Second Location After Doubling Revenue in 2025" works. "Sweetleaf Bakery Is Thrilled to Share Exciting News with the Community" does not.
Do the same check on the lead paragraph. Read only the first two sentences and ask whether a stranger would understand the complete story. If they'd have questions about who, what, or why, the lead is burying something. Ask AI to "rewrite the first paragraph so it answers who, what, when, where, and why in two sentences, with no adjectives that aren't strictly factual."
Step 3: Tighten length and readability
A press release should be roughly 300 to 500 words — one page. Anything longer and you're asking a reporter to do archaeology. Paste your draft into a word counter and if you're over 500, cut. The easiest cuts are usually a second quote that repeats the first, a background paragraph that isn't essential, and any sentence containing the phrase "is committed to."
Then run the draft through a readability checker. Press releases should be easy to skim: short paragraphs (2-4 sentences), short sentences, minimal jargon. If the reading level comes back high, ask AI to "simplify this to shorter sentences and plainer words without removing any facts."
Step 4: Get the tone neutral, not promotional
The tone of a press release should be closer to a news article than an advertisement. Once your draft is structurally sound, an AI Rewriter can strip out promotional language — prompt it to "rewrite this in a neutral, journalistic tone; remove hype words and any first-person enthusiasm; keep all facts and quotes intact." Read the result carefully afterward, because tone passes occasionally weaken a specific claim into a vague one, and you want to catch that before it goes out.
Quotes are the one place a little personality is allowed. A quote can be warm or opinionated in a way the body copy can't — "We built this because our customers kept asking for it" is a fine quote. Just make sure the quote adds a perspective and isn't just restating a fact from the paragraph above it.
Step 5: Write the boilerplate once and reuse it
The boilerplate is the "About [Company]" paragraph at the bottom. It's 2-4 sentences: what the company does, who it serves, when or where it was founded, and a link. Write it once with AI's help — "draft a neutral 3-sentence company boilerplate from these facts" — then save it and paste the same block into every future release. Consistency here is a feature, not laziness; reporters and databases expect the boilerplate to be stable. A text summarizer is handy if your existing About page is long and you need to compress it into boilerplate length.
Worked example: a small business location announcement
Here's the full process end to end, based on a bakery opening a second location.
Raw facts handed to AI: "Sweetleaf Bakery, Portland OR. Opening second location at 1400 SE Division St on March 3, 2026. First location opened 2019. Revenue roughly doubled in 2025. New location adds 12 jobs. Owner: Maria Alvarez. Quote from her. Contact: press@sweetleafbakery.com, 503-555-0148."
Prompt: "Write a press release in standard AP format using only these facts. News in the headline and first paragraph. Under 450 words. One quote from Maria Alvarez, owner. Neutral tone. Invent nothing."
Edited result:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sweetleaf Bakery to Open Second Portland Location, Adding 12 Jobs
PORTLAND, Ore. — February 10, 2026 — Sweetleaf Bakery will open its second location at 1400 SE Division St. on March 3, 2026, six years after the company's first shop opened in 2019. The new location will create 12 jobs and follows a year in which the bakery's revenue roughly doubled.
The Division Street shop will offer the same menu as the original location, with expanded seating and a dedicated pickup counter for online orders.
"We spent 2025 turning away catering orders because we didn't have the kitchen space," said Maria Alvarez, owner of Sweetleaf Bakery. "This second location is really about being able to say yes."
The bakery will hold a community open house on March 1, two days before the official opening.
About Sweetleaf Bakery
Sweetleaf Bakery is a family-owned bakery in Portland, Oregon, founded in 2019, specializing in sourdough breads and seasonal pastries. Learn more at sweetleafbakery.com.
Media contact: press@sweetleafbakery.com | 503-555-0148
###
Notice what the release does not do: it doesn't call the bakery "beloved," doesn't describe the pastries as "mouthwatering," and doesn't open with the company's founding story. The news — second location, date, jobs — is in the headline and first sentence. Everything else supports it.
A reusable press release template
| Element | Length | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | 1 line | Standard opening notation |
| Headline | 1 line, ~10-15 words | States the news factually, no slogans |
| Subheadline | 1 sentence (optional) | Adds the key angle or detail |
| Dateline + lead | 2-3 sentences | Who, what, when, where, why — the whole story in brief |
| Body | 2-3 short paragraphs | Supporting detail and significance, most important first |
| Quote | 1-2 sentences | Named person, adds perspective not facts |
| Boilerplate | 2-4 sentences | Fixed "About" paragraph, reused every time |
| Contact | 1-2 lines | Name, email, phone for media |
| ### | 1 line | Signals the end of the release |
Reusable prompts for each stage
- First draft: "Write a press release in standard AP format using only these facts: [facts]. News in the headline and first paragraph. Under 450 words. One quote from [name, title]. Neutral tone. Do not invent statistics, dates, or details."
- Headline fix: "Give me five alternative headlines for this release. Each should read like a news headline — subject, verb, object — with no marketing adjectives."
- Lead check: "Rewrite the first paragraph so a reader who stops there still has the complete story: who, what, when, where, why, in two sentences."
- Tone pass: "Rewrite in a neutral journalistic tone. Remove hype words and first-person enthusiasm. Keep every fact and quote intact."
- Trim: "Cut this to under 400 words. Remove repetition and any sentence that doesn't add a new fact. Keep the quote."
- Boilerplate: "Write a neutral 3-sentence company boilerplate from these facts: [facts]."
Common mistakes when using AI for press releases
- Letting AI invent facts. Unconstrained, AI fills gaps with fake numbers, made-up quotes, and plausible dates. Always tell it to invent nothing, then fact-check every figure against your own notes.
- Publishing the marketing tone. AI defaults to enthusiastic. "Thrilled to announce," "revolutionary," "industry-leading" — reporters read these as noise. Do a deliberate tone pass.
- Burying the news. If the draft opens with company background, move the actual announcement to the first sentence.
- Fabricated quotes. Never send a quote the named person hasn't seen and approved. AI-generated quotes attributed to a real person without their sign-off are a real problem, not a shortcut.
- One release, zero targeting. AI makes it easy to generate a release fast, which tempts people to blast it everywhere. A release sent to reporters who actually cover your beat, with a short personalized pitch, outperforms a mass send every time.
- Skipping the human read. Always read the final version out loud before sending. It catches robotic phrasing and logic gaps that look fine on screen.
Pitching the release to journalists
Writing the release is half the job; getting it in front of the right person is the other half. Send it as a short, personalized email — not an attachment, paste it into the body — to reporters who cover your industry or region. The pitch email above the release should be two or three sentences: why you're contacting this specific reporter, the one-line version of the news, and an offer to provide more detail or an interview. An AI email writer can draft that pitch quickly, but personalize the opening line yourself so it's clear you know what the reporter actually covers. A generic "Dear Editor" pitch with a copy-pasted body is the fastest way to get ignored.
Where AI genuinely helps, and where it doesn't
AI is legitimately good at the mechanical parts of a press release: applying the standard format, turning bullet points into clean paragraphs, generating headline options, neutralizing promotional tone, compressing to length, and drafting boilerplate. Those tasks used to take an hour and now take ten minutes.
What AI cannot do is judge whether your announcement is newsworthy, know which reporters to send it to, secure real quotes from real people, or understand the relationship and timing that actually lands coverage. If you hand those judgments to AI, you'll get a polished release for a story that doesn't exist. Use AI to move faster through the format, and spend the time it saves on deciding whether there's a story worth telling and who should hear it.
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Frequently asked questions
Can AI write a press release from scratch?
It can produce the format convincingly, but only if you supply the real facts — the announcement, dates, names, numbers, and what makes it notable. Without those, it produces a generic, hollow release. AI handles structure and wording well; it can't decide what your news is.
How long should a press release be?
About 300 to 500 words, or one page. Reporters skim, and a longer release makes them hunt for the story. If your draft is over 500 words, cut a repeated quote, an inessential background paragraph, and any sentence that doesn't add a new fact.
Will AI invent quotes or statistics in a press release?
Yes, if you don't stop it. Left unconstrained, AI fills gaps with plausible-sounding numbers and quotes. Explicitly tell it to invent nothing, supply every real figure yourself, and never send a quote the named person hasn't approved.
Do I need to disclose that AI helped write the release?
No. Using AI for drafting and formatting assistance is like using a template or spell-check — the accuracy and substance of the release are still your responsibility. What you must not do is publish fabricated facts or unapproved quotes, regardless of how they were generated.
What makes a press release get ignored?
Most often: it isn't actually news, the announcement is buried under company background, the tone reads like an ad, or it was mass-sent to reporters who don't cover the topic. A real story, stated plainly in the first sentence, sent to the right person, is what gets a response.
Should the headline be catchy or factual?
Factual. A press release headline should read like a news headline — subject, verb, object — not like a slogan. "Company Opens Second Location, Adds 12 Jobs" works; "We Have Exciting News to Share" does not. Save the personality for a quote.