How To Write a Press Release

Every press release is reviewed by Canna Newswire’s editorial staff before it is posted. All press releases must comply with standard journalistic style guidelines. Below is a sample template to guide you in writing your press release. You can also download this template as an MS Word doc.

The Headline Grabs Attention

 The subheadline adds context to the headline and briefly summarizes the news

CITY, State – Date of Announcement – Your company (www.website.com) is announcing something important. Get right to the news in this first paragraph. Tell the reporter what is being announced and the most important reason the reporter should care. Don’t complicate this paragraph with lots of facts and data. This first paragraph may be the only one that gets read, so make every word count. Save the explanations and descriptions for later paragraphs.

“The second paragraph is a good place to put a quote from a company executive,” said Executive Name, non-capitalized job title at Your Company. “The quote should add more context about why your market will see the importance of your news. Keep this quote to three or four sentences (max) that can be used either as a whole paragraph or excerpted as individual sentences. Never write sentences that begin with ‘we are pleased,’ ‘proud,’ ‘excited,’ or ‘happy’ as that’s already implied by the fact you’re issuing a press release.”

Use the third paragraph to add more detail to the news you’re announcing. Try to limit the amount of detail you’re sharing. Most reporters will care more about what you’re announcing rather than the how that thing works. Don’t let your press release become the entire sales pitch or a training document. Leave your audience feeling compelled to contact you to learn more.

Use bullets to add essential details such as important competitive differentiators or key explanations, for example:

• For best social media sharing, limit your headline to 10 words and 80 characters (including spaces)
• Try and include a customer or industry expert quote near the bottom of the press release
• Try and limit your press release to between 400 and 600 words
• Refer to the Associated Press Stylebook to guide you on the correct use of words, capitalization, grammar and abbreviations
• Remember you can included up to three high-resolution photos or other images, and you can embed a video hosted on YouTube or Vimeo – images and videos increase the number of people who will pay attention to your release

About Your Company
This paragraph is called “the boilerplate” and is a 3-4 sentence overview of your business. Give basic information such as what is the company’s primary market, its product or service vision, when it was founded and where it is headquartered. Keep this paragraph to under 100 words. For more information, visit www.website.com.

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Contact Information
Contact Name
Contact Company
email@address.com
(503) 555-1234