Press Release Length: How Long Is Too Long?
Last update: 22 March 2024 at 11:09 am
5.00/5Writing press releases can be stressful. Announcing company updates becomes easier as you grow comfortable with your audience, and they remain interested in your announcements.
When the audience extends outside the company, getting the words down on paper can be hard. What is too much? What is too little? What is the right press release length? Will they be interested?
If you have asked yourself these questions before while writing a press release, I suggest you keep reading.
Key Takeaways:
- Purpose of Press Releases: They announce important company news to a wider audience, aiming to attract journalists’ attention for potential coverage.
- Ideal Length: Aim for 400 words or less, ensuring concise content that fits on one printed page.
- Writing Guidelines:
- Focus on value: Ensure the information is valuable beyond the company.
- Keep it concise: Use short, punchy sentences and limit paragraphs.
- Emphasize the opening paragraph: Make it standalone to convey the main message quickly.
- Answer the five ‘W’s: Address who, what, when, where, and why upfront.
- Consider the audience: Tailor the content to engage your target market.
- Final Touches: Include company background, contact details, and a catchy title.
- Distribution: Send the press release to relevant media outlets.
What is a press release, and what is its purpose?
A press release announces vital company information of interest beyond the organization’s boundaries.
A business press release is sent to journalists, who determine whether the news is print-worthy. Whether or not they decide to publish the news is based on how well you have written your story.
When writing a press release, aim to grab the journalist’s attention as the primary objective. Passing this, Numerous businesses send press releases, and journalists review them regularly. A lengthy, non-concise press release may not get read. Let’s see how to avoid this from happening.
Writing your press release
We have already established that there should be an aspect of rapidity. To quickly answer the question, “What is the ideal press release length?”: 400 words. Maybe a little more, perhaps a little less, but never more than one printed page for one central point.
How do you start writing these 400 words? Here are the five golden rules for writing your press release:
1. Value
First, assess if the information holds value before crafting the title or body of your text. Will this piece of information be of interest to anyone outside of the company?
Don’t waste time on a press release that doesn’t answer this question with a “yes.” Journalists seek human interest angles and the impact on readers in their content. If there is no impact, there will be no release.
2. 400
This is your star value. Your ideal press release length should be 400 words. It may seem like a lot, but they fill up very quickly. Try not to sugarcoat information and ensure your message is within the limit.
Use short, punchy sentences and aim to keep them under 25 words for added precision.
Length can easily be why someone decides to read or not read your piece. Remember that pictures can sometimes speak louder than words if you struggle to keep your comment count down. Add one or two pictures (or videos) to your final structure.
3. The opening paragraph of a press release is 🔑
Your first paragraph should be able to stand alone without any other information necessary to understand what it is you want to tell your audience.
It may be the only thing a journalist will read before making up their mind on whether or not they should publish, pursue or throw out the news. It is not only the journalists that will most probably only read the opening paragraph, audiences will probably do the same.
We are in an age of speed and if a piece of news takes more than a couple of seconds to give us the important elements and relevant details, we move on. Even if your press release makes it past the journalists, it is just as important for your target audience to have a clear understanding of what it is you are publishing within the first few lines of text (and maybe even just the opening line).
The next paragraphs can focus on other topics that can easily be discarded if the journalists want to keep the news short. The second paragraph serves as additional detail to the first, the third provides some quotes and the fourth as a way to highlight any new product you may be offering.
4. Five ‘W’s
The five ‘W’s in English are: who, what, when, where, and why. By answering all five of these one-word questions, anyone who reads your press release will know exactly what it is you wish for them to know.
You should answer all five of these ‘W’s within the first paragraph. Before starting to write your press release, write these five words as bullet points on a piece of paper and answer each one of them in the shortest possible manner. From there, you can start to form your first paragraph around your responses.
5. Audience
Just like with any piece of text, you need to keep in mind who your target market is. Some companies may have a very niche audience that they always target and know how to address them. For others, they may have multiple audiences from various demographics and this is where it can get a little tricky.
If your target audience spans over a variety of different demographics you may want to consider more than one press release for the same information.
Keep in mind what they may see as most important and what is most relevant to them. Furthermore, remember that your audience is not your company. Colleagues may be interested in the technicalities and details of certain changes with the company, however, your audiences do not need to read about the nitty-gritty points.
Final touches
To conclude any effective press release, make sure you leave some space to remind people of who you are, and any background information that makes your company unique in its field.
Also add some contact information for the journalists or readers to get in touch with someone from your public relations team for further questions e.g an email address or any form of contact information.
Once you have finished your news story and covered all the important information, finish your press release with the word End, and think of an attention-grabbing title. Remember that people may only read your title and not your message so you want the overall gist of your press release to be within the few words in your heading!
Send it out
You are finally done, you are happy with your press release length, you clearly get your message across and you are ready to share the final product with the press.
Once everything is in order, decide which media outlets would be most suitable for the kind of information you are looking to release. If you are a local business, look into the local press. If you are a specific type of business in a niche specialty, look for specific outlets catered to your field. Make sure you send your announcement to multiple media outlets, not just one.
Conclusion
If you wish to share a new piece of information with everyone, take into consideration the tips in this blog post! Keep it short and get straight to the point.
As a golden rule, remember that your press release length should be 400 words on just one single page. That is the maximum amount you need. There is no need for extraneous detail when writing an effective press release. Additionally, you can always reach out to one of our public relations agencies for assistance.
