In short: A press release is a canonical record of an announcement, not a marketing channel and not coverage. Issue one when the news is material and citable, write it plainly, and do the pitching separately.
Key points
- A release puts the facts of an announcement in one quotable place with a named contact.
- Wire distribution costs from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, and guarantees distribution, not attention.
- Coverage comes from direct pitching to journalists on the beat, with the release as supporting document.
- Issue releases for funding, regulated launches, senior hires, notable partnerships or verifiable milestones.
- Skip releases for feature updates, opinions, momentum announcements without numbers, or filling a quiet month.
A press release is a short, formal written announcement a company issues to the media, and increasingly to the public directly, about something it wants known.
It has existed for over a century, and it survives because it does one job well: it puts the facts of an announcement in one canonical, quotable place, with a named person to call. Everything else people expect from it is usually misplaced.
What a press release is for
It records the facts. A journalist, partner, investor, or customer who wants to know exactly what was announced, by whom, on what date, with what quotations, can find it in one place. That is why press releases are structured the way they are: headline, dateline, lead paragraph with who, what, when, where, and why, supporting detail, a quotation from a named executive, a boilerplate paragraph about the company, and contact details.
It signals seriousness. Some announcements, a funding round, a regulated product launch, a senior hire, a partnership with a public company, are expected to have a release, and their absence looks odd.
It creates a durable, indexed record. Releases distributed through the wire services are picked up by financial data terminals, news aggregators, and search engines, and, increasingly, by the systems that feed AI answer engines. A release is one of the few pieces of company-authored text that third parties will republish verbatim.
What a press release is not
It is not coverage. Issuing a release does not make anyone write about you. Journalists receive far more releases than they can read. Coverage comes from a story a journalist wants, a relationship, and a pitch, of which the release is the supporting document.
It is not a marketing channel. Nobody's customer acquisition plan should contain "issue press releases." The readers of wire services are journalists, analysts, and bots.
It is not a place for adjectives. The release that describes the company as a leading, innovative, next-generation platform is signaling to every journalist that it contains no news.
How distribution works
Wire services charge a fee, from a few hundred dollars for a basic regional release to several thousand for national distribution with multimedia, to push the release to newsrooms, terminals, and aggregators. They guarantee distribution, not attention.
Direct pitching sends the release, or more often a short personal note with the release attached, to specific journalists who cover the beat. This is where coverage actually comes from, and it is the part PR agencies are paid for.
Owned publication posts the release on the company's own newsroom page, which is the canonical version everything else should link to.
When to issue one
When the announcement is material: money raised, a product a regulated audience needs the facts on, a senior appointment, a partnership with a party whose name carries weight, a milestone with a verifiable number. When a third party, a partner, an investor, an exchange, expects one. When the company needs a citable record of what was said.
When not to bother
Feature updates. Blog-post-sized opinions. "Momentum" announcements with no number. Anything the company would be embarrassed to see quoted in full. Anything the company is announcing to fill a quiet month. Each of these costs money, trains journalists to ignore the company, and produces a search result the company will later wish were something else.
The lowob rule for releases
Write them in the plainest language available, with the news in the first sentence, one quotation a human would actually say, and a number wherever one can be substantiated. Put the canonical version on your own site. Use a wire only when the announcement is material. And never confuse the release with the work of getting someone to care.
lowob takeaway: A press release is a canonical record of an announcement, not a marketing channel and not coverage. Issue one when the news is material and citable, write it plainly, and do the pitching separately.
Common questions
Does a press release get you media coverage?
No. Journalists receive far more releases than they can read. Coverage comes from a story a journalist wants, a relationship and a pitch, with the release as the supporting document.
How much does press release distribution cost?
Wire services charge from a few hundred dollars for a basic regional release to several thousand for national distribution with multimedia. They guarantee distribution, not attention.
When should a company issue a press release?
When the announcement is material, such as money raised, a regulated product launch, a senior appointment, a weighty partnership or a verifiable milestone, or when a partner, investor or exchange expects one.
What should a press release contain?
A headline, dateline, a lead paragraph with who, what, when, where and why, supporting detail, a quotation from a named executive, a boilerplate paragraph about the company, and contact details.