Writers’ Blog

Writing an effective press release depends entirely on the understanding of its type. Each type of release, i.e. general news release, product press release, event release or social media release etc aim to focus entirely different areas and hence the making of each type of release needs different grounds and strategies. It is, however, a matter of concern that all sorts of releases share a common platform of structure. This structure actually differentiate a release from other PR communication methods like pitch letters.  

The common structure of all sorts of press releases is composed of some elements, i.e. headline, dateline, introduction, body, boilerplate, close and media contact information.

 In order to have a brief analysis of each element, let’s start with headline; it’s the most prominent element, which says all at once. Headline is mainly used to gimmick the readers’ attention at very first instance. In order to make the headline more attractive, it should be well summarized and the news should be wrapped in such words that make the reader to explore the text. 

The next important structural element is dateline which represents the date of the release and in most efficient manner it also contains the city whereby the release has been originated. 

Getting finished the impressive headline and the dateline, it’s time for the introductory paragraph. This part mainly consists of Ws, i.e. what, when, who, where and why. There’s no need to answer these Ws in detail here, instead being brief is recommended.  Introduction leads towards the body of the release, which contains detailed statistics of the matter with background and explanations.

The body of the release is then directly related to the boilerplate, which is a short ‘about’ of the issuing company or an individual.  Having all the details discussed, it’s now to close the release with a suitable end, i.e. “-30-“, “###”, and “ends” etc. After closing the release do not forget to mention the name, phone, and other contact details for PR or related media relation personnel.