Logo – If you have a company logo it should appear at the top of the page. Missilefish is playing with the idea of a QR code integrated with a logo, calling it a “Smart Logo“.

Identifier – Simply identifies the document as either “PRESS RELEASE” or “NEWS RELEASE”. Both are acceptable.

Release Information – Simply identifies when the information is meant to release. Most commonly it will be “For Immediate Release”.

Contact Information – Should include a name, title, phone number, web address, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and email. Keep in mind this adds to the final word count.

Headline – Headline Here (this should be similar to a headline you read in the newspaper, it should be short and grab attention. This is often the most important aspect of the release. If a headline doesn’t grab a writer’s attention – they may not read the rest of the release. Write a headline that is short and simple. It should not be longer than 170 characters and the primary keyword for the release should be included.

Sub-Head – a little longer than the headline and usually rounds out the information found in headline with a little more information. The sub-head is optional. It should briefly illustrate what the main point of the release is, including why the information provided is relevant and newsworthy. It should be italicized.

Microlines – This is a developing trend for hinting at acceptable or desirable Twitter™ messages or short Facebook™ status updates. This is clearly optional.

Place Line – The Place line identifies where the story is coming from. This is very important information for a reporter. If the reporter is based in San Francisco and the story is from Idaho, and covers a local news issue – they will probably not be interested. But if it’s from San Francisco, they will most likely read on.

Date Line – Simply lets the reporter know when the release was issued.

Lead Paragraph – Paragraph one is the information that is meant to hook the reader (hopefully a journalist). This paragraph included the five W’s (who, what, when, where, why). It should present information in a manner that is compelling, and thus makes the reader want to read more. It should include the shop name and URL.

Body – What typically follow the lead paragraph are three to five paragraphs – the body of the release itself. The most important information is placed in the first paragraphs, and it gets less important as you continue towards the end. This is known as an inverted pyramid. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Think of an upside down pyramid, the shape represents the information you are trying to explain. The width of the pyramid directly relates to the weight of the material – its importance. So, the most important info goes at the top, and the least at the bottom. There is a very logical reason for this writing style: editing. When an editor needs to cut a story they simply cut from the bottom up. Since the least pertinent info is at the bottom – there is little lost.

The body should include a quote or two about the subject matter from someone in the company, an expert in the field, or a client.

The last paragraph should wrap up the story with contact information.

Boilerplate – This is a description of you company that goes at the end of your release. It is usually identified with a header. For instance “About CafePress.com”. The information that follows is the company history, and services. Reporters look for this to get a quick understanding of what exactly your company does.

End Mark – All press release end with a standard ### or -end-. If a press release is more than one page the end of the first page should have be noted with -more- at the bottom. Note: in general a press release should be kept to one page when possible (400 words).

More Information – You can add an editor’s note after the end mark. Anything that follows the standard ### is meant to be unprinted material. If this is a political campaign message, the financial source should be identified here as well.

Supplemental Information

The correct formatting creates a professional, news or press release that is automatically more media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly. How you present your news is just as important as your content.

Initial Case: Your headline should be written in initial case, with the first letter of each word capitalized. Exceptions to this include words less than three characters and prepositions.

ALL CAPS: It is considered bad form to submit a press release entirely in upper case letters, or ALL CAPS. In the unlikely event that your release passes through Missilefish’s editorial review process, it will be ignored by journalists and many readers. In addition, avoid using ALL CAPS to create emphasis on certain words or phrases, as this is a red flag that your release is an advertisement or spam. Always use mixed case when formatting your news release.

Summary: Include a one paragraph summary, ideally two to three sentences in length. Some distribution points will only display your headline, summary and a link to your news release, so if your press release does not have a summary paragraph, you may reduce the effectiveness of your news since readers will not be enticed to click through to the full release.

Dateline: Your press release body should begin with a dateline, which looks like this:
City, State (PRWEB) Day, Month and Year.

Including the city and town related to your news is optional, but helpful for readers. The date should reflect the date of distribution for your release. In the event that this release is a promotional release for a web domain, the domain url should be in place of the originating “port of call”.

Spacing: Each paragraph should have natural line wraps, not forced line breaks. Leave one line break between each paragraph.  It’s not necessary to include dashes, asterisks or other symbols to separate sections in your release.

Grammar: Be sure your news or press release follows the accepted rules of grammar and style. Grammatical and punctuation errors affect your credibility. Editors will hold your press release from distribution until you fix excessive errors.

Link Spam: To avoid link spam, include no more than one link per 100 words of your release. These links include both anchor text links and active URL hyperlinks.

Ticker Symbols: Unless you have express written permission to use another company’s ticker symbol, don’t include it in your release.

Lists: We have found that long lists may cause your release to be rejected from the news search engines. To avoid this, limit your use of listed items.

Graphs and Charts: Attach graphs and charts to your release by converting them to images or PDFs and attach them to your press release, because graphs and charts in will not display properly if they are in the text of your news release

Length: It is nearly impossible to announce your news in a few sentences. If you do not have more than a few sentences, you may not have a newsworthy item. We recommend release lengths between 300 and 400 words in paragraph form. No more than 800 words, and in some cases, releases with more than 400 words can incur additional costs depending on release scope.

Final word count will include your headline, boilerplate, the date of publication and your contact information (approximately 25 words generally). In most cases, a final word count tally ideally sites just under 400 words total. Additional words could incur additional charges, typically in batches of 100 additional words.

Most modern PR wires publish the release online. This provides SEO opportunity. This might be helpful as well: https://seo.prnewstoday.com/tools/calculator.php for looking at keyword density.

Do you have other tools or ideas to contribute? Comment below and I will update this post!