What Most Press Releases Get Wrong and How to Fix It
/After more than 25 years in PR, I have written, rewritten and fixed thousands of press releases. The mistakes I see are remarkably consistent, no matter how experienced the marketing team or how many years the company has been in business. Writing a press release is a specific craft and most people simply do not know how to do it.
The press release seems deceptively simple. It is 400 to 600 words. There is a standard format. How hard can it be? Believe me, it is harder than it looks.
Burying the News
The most common mistake I see is a press release that spends the first paragraph, sometimes the first two, building up to the announcement. It provides background on the company, context about the market, a brief history of the problem. By the time the actual news appears, the reporter has already moved on.
Press releases should follow the inverted pyramid. Lead with the news. Everything else is supporting detail. If the news is not in the first sentence, rewrite it until it is.
Quotes That Add Nothing
The two most common problems with quotes are that they either restate what the release already says or they are purely promotional. Neither adds anything. A good executive quote should add something the body copy does not: a perspective, a conviction, a sense of why this matters to the person reading it.
Here is what many companies write:
"Our new AI platform transforms how enterprises manage risk across their technology stack. It delivers unprecedented visibility into agent behavior," said Jane Morris, chief AI officer at Acme Corp.
The attribution comes after the second sentence and the quote itself is purely promotional, restating what the release already said.
Here is how it should read:
"We built this because security teams were flying blind on AI agent behavior," said Jane Morris, chief AI officer at Acme Corp. "This gives them the visibility they have been asking for."
Attribution comes after the first sentence and the quote adds something the body copy does not.
Not Saying What Matters
When a press release only describes product features it reads like a spec sheet, not news. Reporters and their readers do not care what a product does as much as they care what problem it solves and why that problem matters right now.
Every press release should answer three questions:
What’s the news?
Why does it matter to the business?
Why does it matter right now?
If these three questions cannot be answered clearly in the first two paragraphs, the release needs more work.
Words That Weaken Your Release
Press releases should read like news, not like marketing copy. Certain words have no place in a news release because they are superfluous and exaggerated, the kind of language that belongs in a brochure, not a news story. For example, transform, transformation, revolutionary, next-generation, best-in-class, cutting-edge, innovative, groundbreaking, disruptive. Stick to facts, specifics and business impact. The strongest releases use plain language to make a specific claim. Let the news speak for itself.
More Is Not More
More detail is not better. A press release is not a white paper or a product brief. It is an invitation for a reporter to want to know more. Include the essential facts, one or two strong quotes and a clear call to action. If there is deeper technical detail or background worth sharing, link out to a white paper or blog post. Save the rest for the briefing.
Get the Basics Right
Press releases should read like news copy, which means following AP style: no Oxford comma, lowercase job titles and attribution after the first sentence of a quote, not the second or at the end. These details matter because getting them right removes unnecessary distractions and shows respect for how journalists work.
The press release is often the first impression a reporter has of a company and its story. If it's clear, concise and genuinely newsworthy, you've already made the reporter's job easier. That's one of the best ways to improve your chances of earning coverage.