Copy the block below, replace the bracketed parts, delete anything you cannot fill in with a specific fact. If a section stays empty because you have nothing concrete to put in it, that is information: the announcement is probably not ready. Six variants for different news types follow, then a fully worked example.
The template
[HEADLINE: what happened, under 100 characters, active voice, no adjectives]
[SUBHEAD: one sentence, up to 150 characters, adding the second most important fact]
[CITY, State] — [Date] — [Company], [one clause describing what it is], today
[did the specific thing]. [Second sentence containing the number, the scale,
or the change.]
[CONTEXT PARAGRAPH: why this is happening now. The market condition, the trend,
the problem it responds to. One or two sentences with a figure if you have one.]
[DETAIL PARAGRAPH: mechanics. What exactly happens, when, for whom, at what
price, in which markets.]
"[Something a person would actually say, making a claim a reporter could test],"
said [Full Name], [exact title] at [Company]. "[Optional second sentence that
adds rather than restates.]"
"[Optional second quote — a customer, partner or investor. A different angle,
not agreement with the first quote]," said [Full Name], [exact title],
[Organisation].
[CLOSING PARAGRAPH: what happens next and when. Availability date, where to
learn more, next milestone.]
About [Company]
[Two or three sentences. What it does, who for, founded when, headquartered where.]
Media contact
[Name]
[Email]
[Phone]
###
What each line is doing
Headline. The only line most people read. It should survive being republished unchanged. Test: would a journalist run it as written?
Subhead. Carries the second fact — usually the number, the price, or the credential that makes the first line credible.
Dateline. Establishes where and when. Wire services apply their own formatting, so do not fight over the dashes.
Lead sentence. Who did what. If a publication printed only this sentence, nothing essential should be missing.
Second sentence. The number. Scale, growth, price, headcount, customers. A release without a figure in the first two sentences is hard for anyone to write about.
Context paragraph. The why-now. This is the paragraph journalists most often lift verbatim, because it does their framing work for them.
Detail paragraph. The specifics that stop a reporter emailing you three questions.
Quotes. One or two, from named people with exact titles. If any company in your category could have said it, rewrite it.
Closing paragraph. Availability, timing, next step.
Boilerplate. Rarely read. Keep it short and keep it accurate.
Contact. A person who will answer, with a phone number that works.
Six variants by news type
The structure stays the same. Only the first two lines change, because the news sits in a different place depending on what you are announcing.
Funding
[Company] Raises $[Amount] [Round] to [Specific Use of Funds]
[Traction proof: customers, growth rate, deployments, markets]
Lead with the use of funds, prove it with traction. The amount alone is not news.
[Company] Launches [Product], [the narrowest true first-in-category claim]
[What it does, key spec, and the price]
Put the price in the subhead. It is the first question.
Company launch
[Company] Launches [Product]: [what category it creates or serves]
[Founder credential borrowed from something the reader already knows]
When nobody knows the company, the credential is the news.
Executive hire
[Company] Names [Prior Company] Veteran [Name] as [Title]
[What they did there, and why it maps exactly onto this company's market]
Lead with where they came from, not the title they got.
Partnership
[Company A] and [Company B] [do the specific thing together]
[What the partnership produces — a capability, not a relationship]
Test: remove the partner's name. Is there still news? If not, the name is the news.
Research or data
[The finding itself, as a percentage with a subject]
[Study of N respondents, conducted by named research partner]
The report existing is not the story. The number is.
A filled-in example
Brickeye Raises $10M Series B to Scale Construction Risk Mitigation Technology Across North America and Beyond
Toronto-based company has deployed IoT monitoring on 3,000+ projects in 20+ countries, with 150% year-over-year revenue growth
TORONTO, January 20, 2026 — Brickeye, a Toronto-based construction technology company, today announced a $10 million Series B financing round to expand its IoT monitoring and risk mitigation services platform across North America and into international markets.
The round was led by GreenSky Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Graphite Ventures, Export Development Canada, Beauchamp Construction, and one of the largest building materials suppliers in North America.
This is a real release we wrote and distributed. Note the subhead doing the heavy lifting: three checkable numbers before the reader has to decide whether to keep going.
Common mistakes the template will not save you from
Writing one for news that is not news. If a journalist could not build a story from it without asking you for more, the release is not the problem.
Adjectives. Revolutionary, innovative, leading, seamless, cutting-edge. Delete on sight.
"Is pleased to announce." Three words of nothing in the most valuable sentence you have.
Quotes written by committee. They read as marketing and never get used.
Two announcements in one release. If the headline needs a semicolon, split it.
Expecting distribution to create interest. A release states facts; it does not persuade anyone to care. What produces coverage is emailing a journalist who covers that subject. Between December 2025 and August 2026, 63% of graded replies to our direct outreach were a yes. None of it came from a wire.
Before you send
- Headline under 100 characters, active voice, zero adjectives?
- Would a journalist run the headline unchanged?
- Is there a number in the first two sentences?
- Would a person actually say the quote out loud?
- Between 400 and 600 words?
- Could a reporter write a story from this alone?
- Sending it inline, one recipient at a time, to people who cover this subject?
The short version
- Copy the block, fill the brackets, delete what you cannot make specific.
- An empty section means the announcement is not ready.
- Only the first two lines change by news type. The rest of the structure holds.
- Put the number in the first two sentences and the price in the subhead.
- The template cannot make a non-story into news.
Salient PR runs earned media programmes for technology companies. Outreach figures come from our own database covering December 2025 to August 2026.
Sources
- Salient PR outreach database, Dec 2025 – Aug 2026
If you would rather someone else wrote it — Salient PR is a technology PR agency working with technology companies. See how we work or start a conversation.
Related reading
About Salient PR
Salient is a B2B tech PR agency. We help startups become the story — landing tier-one coverage, building executive visibility, and turning attention into pipeline.
Senior team. No hand-offs. Radical transparency. If you’re ready to talk, reach out.
A press release template you can copy, with a filled-in example, six variants for different news types, and notes on what each line is doing.
