How to write a press release that journalists and AI assistants pick up

The press release is not dead. In Cision’s 2026 survey of journalists, 66% named PR-provided content, such as press releases, pitches and media kits, among the resources they rely on most for story ideas[1]. The trouble is what lands: 72% said a quarter or fewer of the pitches they receive are relevant to their audience and coverage[1], and in Muck Rack’s 2026 survey 54% said they seldom or never respond to PR pitches[2].

Most releases are written for the company, not a journalist’s readers, and sent to people who do not cover the subject. A second reader has also arrived. The Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report found that 10% of people across 48 markets use AI chatbots for news, up from 7% a year earlier[3]. Assistants answer questions about your sector by citing sources, so what they can find about you matters.

What journalists say they want

Cision surveyed 1,899 journalists in 19 markets in January and February 2026[1]. Muck Rack analysed 897 responses collected between 30 January and 2 March, mostly from US journalists[2]. Both firms sell software to PR teams, and Cision also owns the PR Newswire distribution service[1][2], so read them as industry research, not independent studies.

Relevance decides almost everything. In Cision’s survey, 79% said a pitch relevant to their beat, audience or coverage area makes them more likely to engage, far ahead of a timely angle (35%), credible data (33%) and an exclusive (27%)[1]. The most common reasons for rejection were irrelevance (82%), being too promotional or sales-focused (53%) and having no clear news angle (34%)[1]. Muck Rack’s figures are similar: 88% immediately delete pitches irrelevant to their coverage and 71% delete overly promotional ones[2].

Data or research tops Cision’s list of what journalists want more of, at 47%, followed by embargoed or early-access information (45%) and access to experts (42%)[1]. Only 22% want more press releases and 19% more spokesperson quotes[1]. In Muck Rack’s survey, 58% say a pitch should ideally come with interview access to relevant sources, 40% with original data and 37% with high-resolution images[2].

Both surveys mostly ask about pitches rather than releases, but the lesson transfers.

Write the news, not the announcement

Most weak releases fail at the first line: they say what happened to the company, not what changed for the reader.

Headline and first paragraph

Write the headline as the news itself: the company’s name and the fact that matters. The first paragraph should answer who, what, when, where and why in two or three sentences.

For example, a hypothetical broker opening a Limassol office would lead with the office, the jobs and the opening date, not “an exciting new chapter”.

A quote that says something

Canned quotes are not what journalists ask for: only 14% in Muck Rack’s survey say pre-written quotes should come with a pitch[2]. If you include one, make it add an opinion, a reason or a consequence that a fact cannot. “We are delighted” tells nobody anything. A chief executive explaining who the office is for and what will change gives a journalist something to quote or challenge.

Facts and figures with a source

One journalist in Cision’s report asked PR teams to “Source your material where able, so journalists can independently verify it more easily”[1]. Put the source next to each figure and link to the full data on your own site.

The same habits may help with AI. In an earlier Muck Rack analysis, press releases cited by AI models had about twice as many statistics, about 2.5 times as many bullet points and about a 30% higher rate of objective sentences than releases that were not cited[4]. It is a correlation in a vendor’s analysis, not proof of cause.

Short, with a person behind it

Neither survey measured ideal release length; the evidence is about pitches. Cision puts the general sweet spot for a pitch at around 100 to 200 words[1], and across eight years of Muck Rack surveys 69% of journalists prefer pitches under 200 words[2]. A release can run longer, but every paragraph after the first should add a fact, not repeat one.

End with a short boilerplate: what the company does, where it is based and, for regulated firms, who regulates it. Then name a press contact with a direct phone number and email. When they reach out, 52% of Cision’s respondents expect a reply within 24 hours and 30% within an hour, and one complained that companies make it “too hard to quickly track down contact details, press releases, background information”[1]. Journalists who like the release will call, so prepare your spokespeople so every interview builds trust before it goes out.

Assets ready to use

Link to captioned high-resolution images, a chart of any data and a fact sheet. One journalist in Cision’s report put it bluntly: “Always provide images in any product or service you pitch”[1]. Assets will not rescue an irrelevant story: only 9% say visuals make them more likely to engage[1]. For a short video version of the announcement, write the video script so people watch to the end. If the story needs more room, tell it in a company podcast that listeners finish.

Send it to people, not to a list

Cision found 97% of journalists prefer to receive pitches by email[1], and across Muck Rack’s surveys 62% prefer a one-to-one email[2]. Mass sends backfire: 50% delete pitches that look like a mass email and 35% delete those addressed to the wrong name or outlet[2].

Build a short list of journalists and trade titles that cover the subject, read their recent work, and send each a few lines on why this matters to their readers. For most business news, the specialist publication your buyers read is worth more than a general outlet that will never run it.

Timing matters less than relevance. In Muck Rack’s surveys 78% want pitches before noon and half do not mind which day[2]; only 4% of Cision’s respondents reject pitches for arriving at an inconvenient time[1]. Follow up once: 64% of Cision’s respondents want one follow-up and 28% none[1]. Across Muck Rack’s surveys, 51% say a follow-up should come three to seven days later, and in its 2026 survey 46% delete pitches sent repeatedly without response[2].

A newswire still has a place as a public, timestamped record, but a release on a wire is not coverage and should not replace direct pitches.

Embargoes and exclusives

An embargo is not a label you put on a release. Belgian press ethics guidelines, collected in Tampere University’s EthicNet database, define it as “an agreement between a source of information and the journalist or the media on not publishing certain information during a certain period of time”[5]. They add that the press accepts a one-sided embargo request only in exceptional cases, and that such an embargo is cancelled as soon as the information is known from another source[5]. In practice: ask first, send only to those who agree, state the date, time and time zone, and assume a leak ends it.

Journalists value both: 45% of Cision’s respondents want more embargoed or early-access information[1], and 33% of Muck Rack’s say a pitch should ideally offer exclusive or embargoed content[2]. For an exclusive, offer the story to one journalist at a time, say how long it lasts, and never promise it twice. If the news could move a share price, involve your compliance team before anyone outside the firm sees it.

Links, search and your own newsroom

Google’s spam policies list “links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites” as link spam[6]. The same policy says paid links are not a violation “as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value”[6], and Google’s link guidance says to mark advertisements or paid placements as sponsored, with nofollow still acceptable[7]. So link with the company name or a plain address, not keywords, and check whether your distribution service qualifies links.

Publish every release on your own website, in a newsroom where each one has its own page, a visible date and an address that never changes. Google’s advice is to “Add a user-visible date to the page and feature it prominently”, backed by datePublished and dateModified structured data[8]. That page is also what AI search can use: Google says that to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Search with a snippet[9]. A PDF attachment, or a page overwritten each year, gives neither journalists nor AI a stable record to cite.

What AI assistants actually cite

Muck Rack’s May 2026 “What is AI Reading?” study analysed more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini in answers to realistic consumer prompts[10]. About 84% of citations came from earned media, a broad category covering journalism, academic and government sources, reference sites such as Wikipedia, social platforms and third-party company content[10]. About 27% came from journalism alone[10]. Press releases, counted wherever they were published, made up 1.1%[10].

That share is volatile. The same report notes it was 6% in Muck Rack’s December 2025 edition and 1.2% in July 2025, and puts the fall mainly down to ChatGPT citing releases less often[10]. Releases appear almost exclusively in answers about industry trends[10].

Journalism citations are spread across more than 20,000 outlets, a long tail of trade press, local news and national titles, and 57% of journalism citations with a known date were published in the previous 12 months[10]. Specialist titles count, and so does a steady flow of coverage.

These figures are directional: Muck Rack sells a tool built on this data, the prompts are consumer questions, and the report itself warns that AI systems “are rapidly evolving and inherently opaque”[10]. Still, the direction is clear: assistants cite earned coverage far more often than press releases, so the release’s job is to earn that coverage and leave a clear record on your own site. For the mechanics, see how AI answer engines decide which sources to cite; for the longer game, how to become the expert your industry’s media quotes.

Measure pickup, not column inches

AMEC, the measurement industry body, states in its Barcelona Principles 4.0 that “Invalid measures such as advertising value equivalents (AVEs) should not be used” and that communication should be evaluated “by its outcome and impact”[11]. For a release, track:

• Coverage that matters: which target outlets ran the story, including the trade titles your buyers read.
• Accuracy: whether the headline fact, the key figure and your spokesperson’s quote were used correctly.
• Follow-on interest: interview requests, enquiries and visits to the newsroom page.
• AI answers: 10 to 20 client questions run monthly in the main assistants, noting whether you are named, what is said and which sources are cited; run each more than once.

A checklist before you press send

1. State the news in one sentence an outsider would care about. If you cannot, pitch a feature instead.
2. Make the headline and first paragraph answer who, what, when, where and why.
3. Give every figure a named source and a link to the full data.
4. Use a quote that offers a view or a reason, not a feeling.
5. Keep the boilerplate short, name a contact who replies within a day, and brief your spokespeople.
6. Prepare captioned images, a chart or fact sheet and, where it helps, a short video.
7. Build a list of named journalists and trade titles, each with a personal note.
8. Agree any embargo in advance, or offer one exclusive to one outlet.
9. Link with the company name or a plain address; paid distribution links should be sponsored or nofollow.
10. Publish the release on your own newsroom page, dated, at a permanent address, the moment the news is public.
11. Follow up once, three to seven days later, then measure coverage, accuracy, enquiries and AI answers.