Press Release Template
The release
who, what, when, where, whyRelease
Fill in the headline and the lead — the release assembles as you type.
Checks
- Name the organisation issuing the release.
- Add a headline: a short, factual phrase a news desk can reuse.
- Add the dateline — city and date — because editors strip releases without one.
- The lead must say what happened in one sentence.
- Say who is affected or involved.
- Add timing and place, even briefly: they are the details a reader checks first.
- Say why it matters; a release without a reason is an announcement, not news.
- Add a quote from someone who can speak for the organisation.
- Add a short About paragraph with the details an editor reuses.
- Add a media contact; a release with no contact is a dead end.
Scope and limits
The template assembles the conventional structure — dateline, lead, supporting paragraphs, quote, boilerplate, contact — and checks what is missing. It writes no news and makes no judgement of it.
A release is only as good as its news and its list. Check the media contact and the date before sending, and tailor the boilerplate to the outlet rather than pasting one paragraph everywhere.
The press release template assembles the conventional structure — dateline, the five Ws, a quote, boilerplate and a media contact — and checks what is missing before the release goes out.
What is Press Release Template?
The press release template assembles the conventional structure a news desk expects: the words for immediate release, a headline, a dateline, a lead that answers what happened, supporting paragraphs, an attributed quote, an about paragraph and a media contact. The template's value is not the news — that is yours — but the order and the completeness, because editors drop releases that make them hunt for a date or a name.
The lead is the part the checks watch most closely. It needs the what in one sentence, the who affected and the why it matters; timing and place follow in the next paragraph. A lead built that way can be skimmed in five seconds, which is roughly the attention a release gets. The dateline — city and date — sits at the front of the lead, and the check asks for both because a release without one reads as a letter.
The quote is the human part, and the checks ask that it be attributed as speaker | words. An unattributed quote is unusable: a desk will not run a sentence nobody said. The headline is title-cased, kept under a dozen words, and stripped of a closing period, since press headlines are set without one — each of those is a prompt rather than a rewrite.
The boilerplate is the paragraph an editor reuses when covering the organisation, so the template provides the About heading and asks for the text. The media contact is last and non-optional; a release with no contact is a dead end for the one reader who wants to follow it up.
Nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored beyond the tab. The engine composes the release locally and takes no view of the news, the organisation or the audience; it writes no claims and sets no tone. What it does is make the conventional shape visible, so the missing pieces are obvious before the release leaves.
Before sending, read the release as a stranger would: does the first sentence say what happened, is the quote checkable, is the contact live. Then check the date and the place once more — the two details most often wrong in a hurried release — and let the structure do its quiet work.
The order of the release does more work than any single sentence, because a desk reads the headline first, then the lead, then the quote, and only then the boilerplate. Anything essential buried below the contact will not be seen, which is why the what belongs in the first sentence and the quote sits high. Keep each paragraph to two or three sentences: a release that looks dense is skimmed less, not more. The template cannot measure newsworthiness and does not pretend to; a release that passes every check may still be spiked, and one that breaks a rule may still run. What it guards is the structure, so the news gets its best chance. Send it as plain text in the body of an email rather than as an attachment, unless the desk has asked otherwise, since filters strip attachments first.
How to use Press Release Template
- Enter the organisation and a headline of twelve words or fewer.
- Add the dateline and the what in one sentence.
- Fill in who is affected, when and where, and why it matters.
- Add an attributed quote as speaker | words.
- Add the boilerplate and a media contact, then read the checks and copy the release.
When to use Press Release Template vs related tools
Use the press release template when an announcement has to reach a desk and you want the conventional shape complete before it does. The about paragraph is often a trimmed version of the Bio Generator's long bio, so build that first when the organisation and the person are introduced together.
Before it goes out, the Readability Grade Scorer confirms the lead reads at the level a busy desk wants, and the Formality Level Detector shows whether the voice sits anywhere near the register of a news release.
Privacy & Security
This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.