What Makes a Press Release More Useful to the Media?

The press release is written. Executive names have been checked. Photos are attached. The media list is ready. The email goes out. Then… silence. This often leads to questions such as: “Was the story not interesting enough?” “Did journalists even open it?” “Should we send it again?”

There are many reasons why a press release may not become media coverage. A bigger story may break that day. The topic may fall outside a journalist's beat. Editorial space may be limited. Or the newsroom may already have similar information from another source.

No press release format can guarantee coverage. What PR teams can do, however, is make the news value easier to recognise and the information easier for journalists to work with.

A press release is not an advertisement in a Word document

One of the fastest ways to lose editorial attention is to open with promotional language. Phrases such as: “the industry's leading innovative solutions provider” or “a groundbreaking milestone that reinforces market leadership” may sound appropriate in marketing copy.

But an editor is likely to ask: What actually happened? A press release should make the event or development clear first. The corporate superlatives can wait.

1. Be able to explain the news in one sentence

Before writing the release, ask: If we had ten seconds to explain this story to a journalist, what would we say?

For example:

“A company is opening a new service centre in eastern Thailand to expand capacity for industrial clients.” Or: “A new survey finds that many Thai businesses still lack a centralised customer-data system.”

Both give the reader something concrete. If it takes several paragraphs to discover what happened, the release probably needs a clearer angle.

2. Put news value before brand messaging

What a company wants to announce and what an audience finds interesting are not always the same thing.

• A company may want to say:

• “We launched a new product.”

• A journalist may want to know:

• What problem does it solve?

• What is genuinely new?

• What does it reveal about customer behaviour?

• How large is the market?

• Why does it matter now?

That is where news value enters the picture. Timeliness, impact, scale, new data, emerging trends and relevance to readers can all make a story more useful editorially.

3. Headlines should tell people what happened

Press release headlines do not need to be clever. They need to be clear. Compare: “ABC Reinforces Innovation Leadership With a Groundbreaking New Initiative” with: “ABC Opens New Data Centre to Expand Cloud Capacity for Thai Businesses”

The second may be less dramatic. But a journalist can understand the story immediately. For press releases, clarity usually wins over corporate language.

4. Get to the point early

A journalist should not have to reach paragraph four to discover the news. The opening should quickly establish the essentials:

• Who is involved?

• What happened?

• When?

• Where?

• Why does it matter?

Not every 5W1H element has to be squeezed into one sentence. But the core story should be visible in the first few paragraphs.

5. Provide facts that help journalists develop the story

A useful release gives journalists more than company statements. Relevant supporting information might include:

• market size,

• growth figures,

• survey findings,

• investment value,

• customer numbers,

• project scale,

• consumer behaviour,

• timelines,

• industry trends.

Specific information is more useful than vague claims. “Rapidly growing” is less useful than an actual growth figure. “Most customers” is less useful than a percentage. And whenever possible, data should have a clear source.

6. Write quotes that sound like something a person would actually say

Executive quotes often become the most generic section of a press release. They tend to say that the company is delighted, committed and continuously striving to deliver innovation. Nothing is technically wrong with that. The problem is that the same quote could often belong to almost any organisation. A better quote adds something the rest of the release cannot provide: a point of view, a reason behind a decision, an observation about the market, an expectation for what happens next, or a genuine perspective from the speaker. Ask: If a journalist could use only one sentence from this executive, which sentence would actually be worth quoting? Write that sentence.

7. Replace vague claims with useful detail

Press releases are often filled with phrases such as: “elevating customer experience” “creating an integrated ecosystem” “unlocking future potential” These expressions are not inherently wrong. But they need evidence. What exactly changed? How much faster is the service? What new function was introduced? What step was removed? How many customers can now be supported? Concrete detail turns promotional language into usable information.

8. Make the release easy to edit

The goal is not necessarily to have a publication copy and paste the entire release. Most journalists will rewrite it. A useful press release allows them to: remove sections without losing the core story, extract a quote, pull out a statistic, or develop one part of the announcement into a separate angle.

This is why the inverted-pyramid approach still works well: most important information → details → quotes → context → supporting information Do not hide the strongest point at the end for dramatic effect. A press release is not a mystery novel.

9. Include usable media assets

Even a strong story can create extra work if the newsroom has to request everything separately. Useful assets may include:

• high-resolution images,

• accurate photo captions,

• names and titles of people shown,

• executive headshots,

• logos,

• fact sheets,

• corporate background,

• downloadable media assets,

• PR contact information.

Small details matter when a newsroom is working against a deadline.

10. One story may need different pitches for different media

The core release can remain the same. The pitch does not have to. A business publication may care about market impact. A technology publication may care about the underlying technology. A marketing publication may focus on consumer behaviour. Local media may care about employment or impact on the area.

Before sending the email, ask: Why should this particular publication care about this story? A relevant subject line and short tailored introduction can be more useful than sending the exact same message to everyone.

11. A relevant media list beats a large media list

Having 1,000 media contacts is not necessarily better than having 50 relevant ones. If 950 recipients do not cover the subject, they are simply 950 irrelevant emails. Good media relations means understanding: who covers which beat, which publications reach the right audience, who has written about similar topics, and which issues journalists are currently following. Media-list quality matters more than raw volume.

12. Timing matters too

A good story can disappear on the wrong day. Major breaking news may dominate editorial attention. A release sent days after an event may no longer feel timely. A release arriving too close to deadline may leave little time for fact-checking or follow-up. PR planning therefore includes more than writing. It also means considering timing, embargoes, pre-briefings and interview availability.

Follow up with a reason

Following up after sending a release is normal. But there is a difference between offering useful information and repeatedly asking: “Have you published it yet?” A good follow-up may provide: new data, an interview opportunity, additional images, clarification, or access to a spokesperson. Media relations is a relationship. It becomes a very thin one if every conversation is only about whether the journalist has published the company's latest release.

A press release should support journalism, not replace it

The PR team's job is to make information: clear, accurate, verifiable, relevant and accessible. The newsroom then decides whether that information deserves coverage and how it should be presented. Thinking this way changes the role of a press release.

It stops being a finished article that the media is expected to reproduce word for word. Instead, it becomes a well-structured source of newsworthy information that journalists can build on.

Before sending: a quick checklist

Ask:

• Can the news angle be explained in one sentence?

• Does the headline say what actually happened?

• Does the opening get to the point?

• Are there credible facts or data?

• Does the executive quote add a real point of view?

• Have unnecessary promotional claims been removed?

• Are media assets ready?

• Is the story going to journalists who actually cover the subject?

• Does the pitch explain why it matters to their audience?

If most answers are yes, the press release is in a much stronger position to do its job. Editorial decisions, of course, still belong to the media. That is part of how PR works.

The goal is not necessarily to have the whole release published

Sometimes a journalist uses one statistic. One quote.ืOne angle. Or the release becomes the reason they request an interview. That can still mean the release has done its job. So instead of asking only: “Is this written well?” ask: “If I were a journalist, what could I take from this and use immediately?” If the answer is easy to find, the press release has a much better chance of moving beyond the inbox.

Good press releases start with a news angle, not promotional language

Mepor Media helps businesses and organisations develop news angles, press releases, media materials and media-relations approaches that make corporate information clearer and easier for journalists to work with.

Talk to Mepor Media if you have a story or business development that needs to be shaped for the media.