What is the standard press release format?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE at the top. A headline in present tense, under about twelve words, with no full stop. An optional subheadline. A dateline opening the first paragraph — city in capitals, state abbreviated AP-style, the date, then an em dash. A lede that carries the entire story on its own. Supporting paragraphs in descending order of importance. A quote attributed to a named person with a title. Boilerplate about the company. Media contact details. Three hashes, centred, to mark the end.

How long should a press release be?

One page — roughly 300 to 500 words. Editors skim, and anything past the first screen is at risk of being cut anyway. If you have more material than that, the extra belongs in a linked press kit or a data appendix rather than in the release body, where it dilutes the news.

What is a dateline and do I still need one?

The dateline is the city and date that open the first paragraph — WICHITA, Kan., September 11, 2026 — and yes, it is still convention. It tells an editor immediately where the news is from, which matters for whether it is relevant to their patch. AP abbreviates most state names rather than using the two-letter postal code, and some larger cities stand alone without a state at all.

Should I write the quote myself?

You will end up writing it either way, so write one a person would plausibly say. Quotes that begin "we are excited to announce" or "thrilled to partner with" are cut or ignored, because they carry no information. A usable quote says something the facts in the release do not already say — a judgement, a reason, or a consequence.

Will a press release get me coverage?

On its own, rarely. Coverage comes from a journalist deciding the story is worth their byline, which is decided by the pitch and by whether you have something genuinely new. The release is the artefact they need once they have already said yes. Sending a well-formatted release to a list you have no relationship with is the most common and least effective thing in public relations.

Free tool · AP style

A press release template that fills itself in while you type

A generator rather than a document to download

Most press release templates are a Word file with square brackets in it. This one is a generator: type into the fields, and a formatted AP-style release assembles itself underneath, dateline and closing hashes included. Copy it, download it, or print it to PDF.

It is free and ungated because a template is not worth an email address. What is worth something is knowing which of these releases will actually get used, and that is the part the sections below deal with.

Press release generator

Fill in what you have. Anything you leave blank is simply omitted from the finished release rather than left as a placeholder.

Company name

Dateline city

State or country

Release date

Release timing

Headline

Subheadline, optional

Lede — the whole story in one paragraph

Supporting detail

Spokesperson name

Spokesperson title

Quote

Boilerplate — about the company

Media contact name

Media contact email

Media contact phone

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or stored anywhere.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Your headline appears here

Fill in the fields above and the release below assembles itself in AP style: dateline, lede, body, quote, boilerplate, media contact and the closing three hashes.

Press release template, in AP style

The generator above produces the structure Associated Press style expects, in the order an editor reads it. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE at the top left. A headline in present tense, under about twelve words, with no full stop. A dateline — city in capitals, state abbreviated AP-style, then the date and an em dash — opening the first paragraph. Then the lede, which has to carry the whole story on its own.

Everything after the lede is in descending order of importance, because the paragraphs an editor cuts are the ones at the bottom. The quote sits in the middle, attributed to a named person with a title. The boilerplate goes last, then the media contact, then three hashes centered to mark the end.

Two conventions people get wrong: numbers one through nine are spelled out and 10 upward are figures, and a company is it, not they.

Sample press release template, and what makes one get used

A sample tells you the shape. It does not tell you why most releases are ignored, which is that they announce something only the company finds interesting. A funding round, a hire or a rebrand is news to you and an inbox item to a journalist.

What gets used is a release carrying something the journalist cannot get elsewhere — proprietary data, a number nobody has published, a customer outcome with permission to name it, or a genuinely contrarian read on a category assumption. Put that in the lede, not in paragraph four.

Press release template for event announcements

An event release inverts the usual advice on one point: the practical details — what, where, when, who can attend, how to register — belong high, usually immediately under the lede, because that is what the reader needs. Keep the significance paragraph, but do not make an editor hunt for the date.