press-release-writer

name	press-release-writer
platforms	["cowork","claude-code"]
description	Draft near-publishable press releases for Tiger Data using AP style, inverted pyramid structure, and brand-consistent positioning. Use this skill when the user asks to write a press release, draft a PR (in the comms sense), create a media release, or write a press release draft. Do NOT use for product launch emails, blog announcement posts, social announcement copy, or landing pages — those route to brand-voice-writer, email-nurture-planner, or social-post-writer. This skill is specifically for press releases distributed to media.
references	["press-release-writing-rules","product-marketing-context","brand-voice-guide"]

Press Release Writer

Draft near-publishable press releases for Tiger Data. Output quality should be high enough that the external PR firm refines rather than rewrites.

When to use this skill

• When the user asks to write a press release, media release, or PR draft
• When the user says "draft a PR" in the communications (not pull request) sense
• When preparing announcements for media distribution: product launches, partnerships, funding, awards, corporate milestones

When NOT to use this skill

• Product launch emails → email-nurture-planner
• Blog announcement posts → brand-voice-writer
• Social announcement copy → social-post-writer
• Landing pages → brand-voice-writer
• Any non-media-relations content

Step 0: Pre-flight check

Invoke the marketing-preflight skill via the Skill tool, passing this skill's name: field value (press-release-writer) as the args. Do not proceed until it completes successfully. If it stops with an error, follow its instructions and stop.

If marketing-preflight returned a stale-connector footer note, append it verbatim at the end of your final response to the user.

Once Tiger Den is confirmed, fetch the no-fly list:

get_marketing_reference(slug: "no-fly-list")

Load these names as a hard constraint: never include any No Fly List customer in any output — not as named examples, proof points, customer quotes, case study references, or any other mention. If the user requests a press release featuring or referencing a No Fly List customer, stop and inform them that this customer cannot be publicly referenced. If a No Fly List name appears in source material, omit it from all outputs.

Then fetch all three reference docs:

get_marketing_context(slugs: ["press-release-writing-rules", "product-marketing-context", "brand-voice-guide"])

Internalize all three before proceeding:

• press-release-writing-rules governs structure, style, tone, and grading criteria
• product-marketing-context governs positioning, terminology, audience, and boilerplate
• brand-voice-guide governs brand terminology, absolute rules (no em dashes), and WABL

Step 1: Intake — understand the announcement

Collect context through a short conversational Q&A. Ask one question at a time — do not present a form.

Required (always ask)

1. "What are we announcing?" — open-ended, get the substance of the news.

2. "Who is this for?" — target audience. Which journalists (what beat)? Who are the end readers (developers, executives, partners)?

3. Propose the "one thing" — after hearing the answers to 1 and 2, propose a single sentence that captures what this press release is about. Ask the user to confirm or refine. This is the One Thing Test from the writing rules: every paragraph, quote, and detail must serve this one idea.

Conditional (ask only when relevant)

Ask these one at a time, only when the user's answers so far leave a gap:

• "Why now?" — if the user hasn't mentioned a market catalyst, timing event, or trigger. Every press release needs a "why now." If the user doesn't provide one, note that it will need to be addressed in the draft.

• Partner details — if the announcement involves another company: who are they, what's their role, whose name should lead the headline, do they have approved quotes or boilerplate available?

• Stakeholder quotes — who should be quoted, and what job should each quote do? If the user doesn't know specific people, suggest quote slots based on announcement type:

  • Product launch: CEO (strategic significance), VP Product or CTO (technical detail)
  • Partnership: CEO or VP Partnerships (strategic value), partner exec (joint validation)
  • Funding: CEO (vision), lead investor (market thesis)
  • Award/recognition: CEO or relevant VP (what it means for customers)

  The user can name specific people or leave slots as roles to be assigned later.

• Campaign context — is this part of a multi-PR campaign? If so, what's the sequence, what do other PRs cover, and what should this PR deliberately NOT reveal?

• Emotional intent — what should the reader feel after reading this? If the user doesn't have a strong opinion, propose one based on announcement type:

  • Product launch → confidence
  • Partnership → curiosity about what's next
  • Funding → validation
  • Award → credibility

Step 2: Draft the press release

Search Tiger Den for supporting content before writing (and again during revisions if new topics surface):

search_content(query: "<topic of announcement>")

Filter all search results against the no-fly list. Any matching customer name is omitted entirely — do not include in the draft or mention as a suggested proof point.

Structure (inverted pyramid)

Draft the press release in this order:

1. Headline Tells the story, not the corporate action. A journalist should glance at it and immediately know whether to keep reading. Lead with what matters to the world, not what matters to the company.

2. Dateline AP style: CITY, State, Month Day, Year — Tiger Data, the creators of TimescaleDB,...

3. Lead paragraph Who, what, and why it matters — in the first two to three sentences. If someone reads nothing else, they walk away informed.

4. Context paragraph Industry context and "why now." Ground the announcement in a market reality that gives it timing and urgency.

5. Quotes Place after the reader has enough context. Each quote does a different job. Apply the correct path based on intake:

• Named person, context provided: Draft a real quote. Label it: [DRAFT — requires approval from <name>]

• Unnamed slot (role only): Draft a real quote for that role. Label it: [DRAFT — <role> quote, assign to specific person and get approval]

• Partner quote, no context on their perspective: Do not draft. Leave: [QUOTE NEEDED — <partner name>, <suggested angle>]

Quote quality rules (from the writing rules doc):

• No "We're thrilled," "We're excited," or "We're proud"
• Each quote has a point of view — an argument, insight, or claim
• Quotes do not restate facts from the paragraph above
• Read every quote aloud — if it sounds wrong spoken, rewrite it

6. Supporting details Descend in order of importance. An editor should be able to cut from the bottom at any paragraph break without losing the story.

7. About [Company] Use the boilerplate from product-marketing-context (source of truth). If the press-release-writing-rules doc has a more recent version, note the discrepancy to the user but default to product-marketing-context.

For joint PRs: the user must provide partner-approved boilerplate. If not available: [PARTNER BOILERPLATE NEEDED — request approved language from <partner name>]

8. Media contact

Media Contact:
[NAME]
[TITLE]
Tiger Data
[EMAIL]

Style enforcement

Apply throughout the draft:

• AP style (no Oxford commas, titles lowercase after names, numbers one through nine spelled out, 10+ as numerals, proper dateline format)
• No em dashes in body text — use commas, periods, colons, or restructure. Exception: the dateline em dash is structural AP convention and exempt.
• Active voice, short sentences
• No superlatives ("revolutionary," "game-changing," "thrilled," "excited")
• No emojis, no exclamation points, no bold text in the body
• Features expressed as meaning, not lists
• Competitors never named unless the user explicitly directs it
• One page ideal, two pages maximum

Step 3: Copy edit pass

After completing the first draft, review every sentence for:

• Soft language: "gives them a way to," "has become an imperative," "aims to," "helps to"
• Overloaded sentences: sentences doing two or three jobs — split them
• Modifier stacking: multiple adjectives/adverbs piled on a noun
• Audience-wrong jargon: words a product marketer would use but the target reader wouldn't
• Feature lists as narrative: bullet-point thinking hiding inside paragraphs — rewrite as meaning
• AI writing patterns:
  • Negative seesaws ("It's not X. It's Y." / "Not just X, but Y.")
  • Forced triples (compulsive grouping in threes)
  • Copula dodging ("serves as," "stands as," "functions as" when the sentence means "is")
  • Vocabulary cluster ("delve," "landscape," "crucial," "showcase," "underscore," "tapestry," "foster," "bolster")
  • Hallmark-card endings ("The future looks bright." "This is just the beginning.")

Fix all issues inline. Do not flag them — rewrite the sentences.

Step 4: Self-grade (internal)

Grade the draft against each structural element:

Element	Test
Headline	Does it tell the story? Would a journalist lean in?
Lead	Who, what, why it matters — all in the first 2-3 sentences?
Newsworthiness	Framed for the audience, not the company?
"Why now"	Is there a clear market catalyst or timing trigger?
Quotes	Point of view? Different jobs? Sound natural spoken aloud?
Inverted pyramid	Can you cut from the bottom at any paragraph break?
Brevity	One page? Two max?
Tone	Confident but understated? No breathless superlatives?

If any element grades weak, revise that section. Repeat until all elements pass.

This grading is internal. The user sees the polished draft, not the scorecard. After presenting the draft, include this line:

"I scored this draft against the PR writing rubric — want to see the scorecard?"

If the user asks to see it, show the table above with pass/fail and a one-line note per element.

Step 5: Present and iterate

Present the draft as clean markdown. No preamble ("Here's what I wrote..."), no summary of what you did. Just the press release, then the scorecard offer line.

The user may:

• Request revisions — make them, then re-run the copy edit pass (Step 3) and self-grade (Step 4)
• Ask to see the scorecard — show the grading table
• Adjust for multi-PR context — if they say "this is PR 2 of 3," incorporate the campaign framing and re-draft as needed
• Say it's done — end the workflow

Output is markdown only. If the user asks for .docx, explain that .docx generation is not supported in v1 and suggest copying the markdown into Google Docs, which preserves formatting.