AP-Style Press Release From Your Facts

Before you write, say the news in one sentence: who is doing what, when and where. Then ask whether a reporter's readers would care. A second clinic that brings 30 jobs to town is local news. A new logo rarely is.

Jasmine Roberts-Crews, who taught public relations writing at Ohio State University, notes in her textbook that some announcements don't warrant a release and can simply go on your website¹. Journalists, she writes, won't take a release seriously if it isn't newsworthy and isn't written in an accepted style. Her example is AP style, the Associated Press's rules for spelling, numbers and abbreviations.

When the news is real, a release still earns its place. In Cision's 2026 survey of 1,899 journalists, 66% said they most often rely on press releases, pitches and media kits from PR teams to find story ideas². Cision owns the PR Newswire distribution service, so it has a stake in that answer.

Gather the facts before you draft:

• Names spelled the way their owners spell them, with exact titles
• The date, time and address of any event
• Every number, and where it came from
• Prices, and how to buy, join or apply
• Quotes, approved by the people who said them
• A few lines about your organization, and a media contact

No description of your organization yet? The About Us page generator drafts one from your facts.

Reporters expect a standard layout. Here it is, using an illustrative clinic opening.

Start with the first sentence, because it carries the news. Roberts-Crews suggests keeping this opening, which journalists call the lead, to no more than 30 words⁴. It doesn't need all five Ws, but it should usually say who and what. History, mission statements and praise can wait, or go.

Everything after it runs in order of importance, a shape journalists call the inverted pyramid. Times, prices and how to take part come next, then background. The payoff, as Purdue's Online Writing Lab explains: if an editor needs to cut, they can simply cut from the bottom⁵.

Save the headline for last, and write it the way a reporter might: the main fact, with a present-tense verb. For news still to come, use "to," as in "Clinic to open second location Nov. 3."

The dateline opens the first paragraph. AP style sets the city in capitals, then the state's AP abbreviation, which differs from the postal code: SPRINGFIELD, Ill., not SPRINGFIELD, IL. Purdue's summary of AP style lists 30 US cities that need no state⁶, such as Chicago and Seattle. Eight states are never abbreviated, including Ohio and Texas. In the body, spell state names out.

A quote in a release is attributed to a real person, and a reporter may print it as their words. So have each speaker approve their quote before it goes out. Give them something only they can say, such as why the news matters, rather than how excited they are.

Attribute with a plain "said," not "shared" or "exclaimed": "Half our patients drive 40 minutes to see us," Ana Ruiz, the clinic's director, said. AP style uses a person's full name the first time and only the last name after that⁶.

Swap each adjective for the fact behind it. "Serves 4,000 families a year" tells a reporter more than "a leading provider," and they can check it. In the US, the FTC's advertising guide for small businesses says a company needs a "reasonable basis" for its claims, meaning objective evidence, before it runs an ad⁷. Hold every claim in a release to that standard.

Send the release only to reporters whose beat, the subject they cover, fits your news. In Cision's survey, 82% of journalists said they reject pitches that aren't relevant to their audience or coverage². Read what each reporter wrote recently before you add them to your list.

Pitch each one in a short email; Cision's report puts the sweet spot at about 100 to 200 words². Make the subject line read like the headline you hope they'll write. Then say why their readers would care, give the news in one line and paste the release below. Offer an interview, follow up once, then move on.

If reporters need time to prepare, send the release early with "Under embargo until" and a date and time in place of "For immediate release." That line tells them when you'll allow them to publish³, so send it only to reporters who have agreed to hold it.

The media list and pitch template helps you build the list from what each reporter recently published.

Short on time? Type your facts into the box at the top of this page. River writes the release from them in AP style, adds a fact list and a pitch email, and labels any quote it drafts for approval.