press-kit

# press-kit You write **the document a journalist receives and the kit they pull from** — one formatted press release plus the assembled media kit (boilerplate, fact sheet, bios, asset manifest, contact block) laid out so a busy reporter can lift the story without a second email. The leverage is form, not enthusiasm. **72% of journalists call the press release the single most useful resource a PR team offers, and 79% use releases to generate story ideas** (Cision 2025 State of the Media, 3,000+ journalists / 19 markets). The release is not dead — it just gets skipped when it ignores newsroom convention: no dateline, no end marker, a 900-word company history where a 5-W lede should be, no quotable line, no attached asset. Your job is to make the artifact match the form reporters scan, so the story survives the inbox. You produce: a `.md`/`.txt` press release with a header line and `###` marker, a ≤100-word boilerplate, a fact sheet, a multimedia manifest with usage notes, exec bios, a press-contact block, and the short pitch email that carries it. You do **not** source the reporter list, write the brand-voice spec, or wire the send. ## Is this news, and which type? First gate: **is this news or an ad?** A release earns the form only if a reporter who does not work for you would care. "We updated our pricing page" is not news. "We raised $12M to do X" is. If the answer is no, route the user to `../marketing/SKILL.md` for an owned-channel launch post instead — do not dress an ad up as a release. Then pick the type. The type decides what the lede leads with: | Release type | The lede leads with | |----------------|------------------------------------------------------| | Product launch | What it does + who it is for + availability date | | Funding round | Amount + round + lead investor + what it funds | | Exec hire | Name + role + the credential that makes it news | | Partnership | The two parties + what the joint offering enables | | Product update | The capability that is new + the user problem it ends | | Milestone | The number + why it is a category signal, not a brag | | Award | The award + the independent body + what it validates | | Event | What + when/where + why a reporter should attend | Per-type lede angles, must-include facts, and a worked lede for each (plus crisis) live in `references/release-types.md`. Read it before drafting an unfamiliar type. ## The release skeleton One page, ~300–500 words, inverted pyramid, 2–4-sentence paragraphs, at least one stakeholder quote. Reporters scan for the markers below; missing them signals an amateur and gets the release skipped. ```text FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ← header line; or EMBARGOED UNTIL [date time TZ] Headline That States the News in One Line Subhead carrying the second-most-important fact SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 2, 2026 — [5-W lede: who did what, when, where, why, ← dateline + lede in ~40 words. The story must stand alone if the reporter reads only this.] [Body ¶: the next-most-important detail. Inverted pyramid — most newsworthy first, background last, so an editor can cut from the bottom.] "[A quote a reporter can paste verbatim — a claim or insight, not filler]," said [Name, Title, Company]. [Body ¶: supporting detail, one data point, availability/pricing if relevant.] About [Company] ← boilerplate, ≤100 words, evergreen [One paragraph: what the company does, for whom, the one credibility fact, URL.] Media Contact ← contact block; a real name + email + phone [Name] · [email] · [phone] · [newsroom URL] ### ← end marker (or -30-); signals "release ends here" ``` Each marker is load-bearing (OhioState/eCampusOntario StratCommWriting). The full fill-in-the-blanks template is in `references/templates.md`. ## Lede + headline The lede answers the five W's in the first paragraph, ~40 words, so the story is intact if the reporter reads nothing else (Prowly; ereleases). The headline states the news in one line; the subhead carries the second fact. No clever wordplay that hides what happened. ```text Bad: Acme Corp, a leader in workflow innovation, is proud to share an exciting development that reflects its ongoing commitment to its valued customers. Good: Acme Corp today launched Relay, a tool that cuts invoice approval from days to minutes, available now for teams of any size at acme.com/relay. ``` The Bad version makes a reporter hunt for the news and find none. The Good version hands them the 5 W's and a verb. Write the Good version first; everything else is body. ## The quote that survives A quote exists to be pasted into the article. Make it a soundbite — a claim, a stake, or an insight — attributed to a real person with a title. **Ban "thrilled to announce" / "excited to announce" / "world-class" / "game-changer"**: they carry zero information and signal PR boilerplate, so reporters cut them. ```text Bad: "We are thrilled to announce this game-changing milestone in our journey," said the CEO. Good: "Approval used to be the slowest step in getting paid. Relay removes it entirely — that is the difference between waiting a week and waiting an hour," said Dana Ruiz, CEO of Acme Corp. ``` The Good quote says something only this person would say about this thing. If a quote would work verbatim for any company, delete it and rewrite. ## Boilerplate + fact sheet The boilerplate is the evergreen "About [Company]" paragraph that ends every release — **≤100 words**, no adjectives doing the work of facts. Write it once, reuse it. The fact sheet is the skimmable block a reporter copies from: ```markdown **Fast facts** - Founded: 2021 · HQ: San Francisco, CA - Employees: 48 · Funding: $12M Series A (lead: Northwind Ventures) - One metric: 4,200 teams; 1.1M invoices processed in 2025 - Site / newsroom: acme.com · acme.com/press ``` Templates for both are in `references/templates.md`. ## Embargo vs immediate Default to `FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE`. Use an embargo only when you are giving named outlets early access to prepare coverage that drops at a set moment. **An embargo is a request, not a contract** — it holds only when stated unambiguously and sent to reporters who have a reason to honor it. Vague or mass-blasted embargoes get broken (Dynamics of Writing 2024; ereleases). - Immediate → news is live now, anyone can publish. Use this most of the time. - Embargo → coordinated drop. Use the exact line, **always with a timezone**: ```text EMBARGOED UNTIL 9:00 AM ET, June 9, 2026 — DO NOT PUBLISH BEFORE THIS TIME ``` Send embargoed releases 1:1 to reporters you have a relationship with, not to a blast list. A list of strangers will break it. ## The media kit manifest A complete media kit is ~9–11 components, **hosted as an online newsroom, not emailed as a zip** (Prezly; Prowly; Agility PR). Assemble it as a checklist: - [ ] Boilerplate (the ≤100-word "About") - [ ] Fast-fact sheet - [ ] Product/service description - [ ] Leadership bios (2–4 sentences each — template in references) - [ ] Company history / timeline - [ ] High-res photo library - [ ] Logos in multiple formats, **including SVG**, with usage guidelines - [ ] Case studies / testimonials (the stories themselves are `../case-studies/SKILL.md`) - [ ] Recent press releases - [ ] Direct press-contact block Attach assets — **a majority of journalists use a PR-supplied image, and releases with multimedia get ~9.7× more views than text-only** (Cision; ereleases). Label every asset so a reporter can use it without asking: ```text acme-relay-hero.jpg · 2400×1600 · Credit: Acme Corp · Free editorial use acme-logo.svg · vector · Credit: Acme Corp · Do not recolor or crop dana-ruiz-headshot.jpg · 1200×1200 · Credit: Photo by J. Lin · Editorial use only ``` Designing the logos/colors themselves is `../brand-identity/SKILL.md`, not this skill. ## The pitch email that carries it The release rides in on a short email. **96% of journalists prefer email, ideal length ~100–300 words (best under ~200), and you follow up once only** (Cision; Muck Rack via prlab.co). And **86% reject a pitch that is off-beat** — so the email names one reason this reporter, on this beat, would care (fact #2). ```text Subject: [The news in 6–9 words, no "Press Release:" prefix] Hi [First name], You covered [specific recent piece] — so [the one-line reason this is your beat]. [1–2 sentences: the news, the number, the stakes.] Full release and high-res assets below / at acme.com/press. Happy to set up a call with [exec name] this week. [Your name] · [email] · [phone] ``` Personal, beat-relevant, one bump after a few days if no reply — then stop. The multi-touch cadence to many reporters is `../cold-outreach/SKILL.md`; sourcing the reporter list is `lead-gen`'s job; wiring the actual send is `email-connector`'s. ## AI + fact-check discipline **71% of journalists are open to AI-drafted releases, but 72% worry about factual errors and only ~2% strongly favor AI-generated content** (Cision). Drafting with AI is accepted — shipping unverified copy is not. Before send, run a human pass on every **name, number, date, dollar figure, quote attribution, and embargo time**. A wrong figure in a release is a correction request and a burned reporter. ## Anti-patterns | Anti-pattern | Why it kills pickup | Do instead | |---------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | Release reads like an ad | No news → reporter rejects on sight | Run the news-or-ad gate; route ads to `marketing` | | No `###` / `-30-` end marker | Looks amateur; reporter can't tell it ended | Close the body with the end marker | | Buried lede / 5 W's in paragraph 4 | Editor cuts before reaching the news | 5-W lede in ~40 words, paragraph one | | "Thrilled to announce" quote | Zero-information filler; gets cut | A pasteable soundbite only this person says | | Mass-blasted embargo | Strangers break it; news leaks early | Embargo 1:1 to relationships, with timezone | | No assets attached / linked | Forfeits the ~9.7× multimedia lift | Manifest with labeled high-res + SVG logo | | Sent off-beat | 86% reject; instant delete | Name the reporter's beat in the pitch line | | Unverified name/number/date | Correction request; reporter won't trust next | Human fact-check pass before send | ## References + siblings - `references/templates.md` — full annotated release, boilerplate, fact-sheet, bio, media-kit manifest, and ≤200-word pitch-email templates. - `references/release-types.md` — per-type lede angle, must-include facts, worked lede. - `scripts/verify.sh` — read-only structural check over a drafted release file (header line, dateline, boilerplate, `###`, contact, filler banlist, length). Siblings: `../cold-outreach/SKILL.md` (pitch cadence) · `../brand-voice/SKILL.md` (tone spec) · `../brand-identity/SKILL.md` (logos/colors) · `../case-studies/SKILL.md` (customer stories) · `../marketing/SKILL.md` (owned launch) · `../social-publisher/SKILL.md` (posting to your own channels). The reporter list is `lead-gen`'s and the actual send is `email-connector`'s.