Certificate Topics — How to Write a Press Release (Year 1 Foundations)

School: Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Track: Adult Class: Certificate Topics — Year 1 (Foundations) · Home: Advocacy Certificate behind this topic: "How to Write a Press Release" — LinkedIn Learning, earned by Minister Destiny Marie Morgan (Jun 06, 2025) Founded and presented by: Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

This lesson is educational information from Minister Destiny Testimony Schools. It teaches the public body of knowledge in this subject — the same ground Minister Destiny studied for her certificate — in this school's own words. It is not the original course, it does not award the original credential, and it is not legal or medical advice. If you are in danger right now, call 911.

Before you start

This school never asks your name. Your progress is saved only in your own browser on this device — the school collects and keeps nothing. If you pass this unit's quiz (80% or higher, retakes allowed), you earn a downloadable certificate with a blank line — you write your own name on it after you save it. Quiz answers are not shown; if you miss a question, re-read the lesson and try again.
This is a workshop unit: by the end you will have the complete anatomy of a press release and will draft one for a model announcement. Keep a notebook open — the Try this section asks you to build the document, part by part.
This topic's home is Advocacy, and it builds directly on Media Relations Foundations: the release is the tool, the newsroom is the reader. Write every line for that reader.

The lesson

Part 1. When a release is the right tool — and when it is not

A press release (also called a news release) is a written announcement formatted the way newsrooms expect, offered to media so they can build their own story from it. It is the right tool when you hold actual news — a launch, an opening, an appointment, new data, a response to events — that specific publics need and that journalists can verify and extend. The Purdue OWL's guidance on press releases opens with the same discipline: the information must be genuinely new and useful, judged from the reader's side, because editors' time and space are limited and a release with no news teaches them to skip your next one.

It is the wrong tool often. Routine internal news, minor updates with no public consequence, and announcements manufactured to look like news all fail the test, and sending them anyway costs credibility — the currency the Media Relations unit taught you to protect. Alternatives exist for non-news: a direct note to the affected people, a post on your owned channels, an advisory inviting coverage of an event. Choose the release when the announcement survives an editor's question — why should our audience care today? — with a factual answer.

Part 2. The inverted pyramid — most important first, always

News writing is organized as an inverted pyramid: the most important facts first, then supporting detail in descending order of importance, then background. The shape exists for practical reasons. Readers stop at every depth, and each paragraph must leave them correctly informed at the moment they stop. Editors cut from the bottom when space runs short, and a pyramid survives cutting.

Build every release on the pyramid. The first paragraph — the lead — carries the core news entire (Part 4). The next paragraphs add the strongest supporting facts. Later paragraphs carry context and background. At every level ask: if the story ended here, would the reader still have everything they most need? If not, a fact is sitting too low — promote it.

Part 3. The headline and subhead — news in one line

The headline of a release does the job of a newspaper headline, not an advertisement: it states the news, in active voice, in the present or future tense of the event, with the actor and the action visible. "Harbor Legal Aid Opens Free Evening Clinic for Tenants" is a headline an editor can use. "An Exciting New Chapter Begins!" is a greeting card. Keep it specific enough to be checkable — who, what, and where at minimum — and honest enough to survive the article that follows; a headline that overclaims buys one open and a reputation for the next ten.

Directly beneath, a subhead (sometimes called a deck) adds the single most important supporting fact — the date, the scale, the number that proves the headline — in one sentence. Headline plus subhead together should tell a skimming editor the entire story's claim in five seconds: the headline earns the subhead, the subhead earns the lead paragraph, and the lead earns the rest. Write the headline last, after the release is drafted, when you know exactly what the news turned out to be.

Part 4. The lead paragraph — who, what, when, where, why

The lead is one paragraph, usually two or three sentences, that answers the five W's and, where it fits, the H: who is acting, what is happening, when it takes effect or occurs, where, why it matters, and how if the mechanism is news. It opens with the most newsworthy element — usually the what or the who — and places the dateline convention at its head for traditional formats: the city and date of the announcement. Every fact in the lead must be verifiable and exact: names and titles spelled correctly, dates and times stated fully, numbers sourced. The lead is the paragraph most likely to be used nearly verbatim, so write it as the sentence you would want quoted back to you in a year.

After the lead, the body continues down the pyramid. The second paragraph typically expands the lead's most important fact — the scale, the service detail, the data. Facts stay attributed where they are claims ("according to the organization's annual review"), and superlatives stay out entirely: a release that calls its own program "groundbreaking" has announced an opinion; the same release carrying the number of families served last year has announced news. Keep paragraphs short and the whole release to roughly one page — about 400 to 500 words — unless the announcement genuinely carries more.

Part 5. Quotes, boilerplate, and the contact block

Quotes are the release's one licensed place for voice, emphasis, and humanity — everything else is fact. A quotable quote does three things: it says something a fact cannot (why this matters, what it means to the people involved), it sounds like a person actually speaking, and it is attributed to a named human with a title, whose real approval stands behind it. "We are thrilled to leverage this synergy" fails all three tests. "A parent working two jobs cannot visit a lawyer at ten in the morning. Now she does not have to," said the clinic's director, does the work. One or two quotes suffice; a release stacked with executives congratulating each other reads as ceremony, not news. Never place new facts inside quotes — facts belong in the body, where they carry the release's authority, and quotes that smuggle announcements insult the reader's intelligence.

At the foot of the release stand two fixtures. The boilerplate is a short standard paragraph — three to five sentences — describing the organization: what it is, whom it serves, since when, and one credibility marker. It is written once, kept current, and reused identically so that every outlet describes you accurately the same way. The contact block names a real person — name, title, email, and a phone number that is actually answered at deadline — because a release whose contact cannot be reached is a story choosing a different source. Traditional format closes with ### or —30— centered beneath the text, a small signal from print days that the release is complete; many digital distributions omit it, but the fixtures around it remain non-negotiable.

Part 6. Formatting, distribution, and the mistakes that kill releases

Format is courtesy made visible. Standard practice: organization name and contact at the top, "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" unless an embargo applies (then the embargo terms, stated plainly), the headline and subhead, the dateline opening the lead, body in short paragraphs, boilerplate, contact block, end mark. Send releases in the body of an email or as a clean attachment as the outlet prefers, with a subject line that is the headline, shortened — never "Press Release" alone.

The recurring mistakes are a short, memorizable list, and every one is a pyramid violation in disguise. Burying the lead — news in paragraph four, under ceremony. Hype and jargon — adjectives where numbers belong, internal program names no outsider knows. No news — the Part 1 failure. Missing fixtures — no contact, no date, no boilerplate, quotes from unnamed "officials." Length without weight — three pages that a half page would carry better. And careless facts — the misspelled name, the wrong date — which tax every future release, because editors remember sources.

Words to know — How to Write a Press Release

Press release — a written announcement in news format, offered to media as material for their own story.
Inverted pyramid — news organization that places the most important facts first and detail in descending order, so the piece survives cutting from the bottom.
Lead — the opening paragraph carrying who, what, when, where, and why of the news.
Dateline — the city and date line that opens a traditional release's lead.
Subhead (deck) — the one-sentence supporting line beneath the headline carrying the most important supporting fact.
Boilerplate — the standard short paragraph describing the organization, reused identically at the foot of every release.
Contact block — the named media contact with email and an answered phone number at the release's foot.
Embargo — a stated time before which distributed information must not be published.
Attribution — naming the source of a claim inside the text, as in "according to the organization's annual review."

Myths vs facts — How to Write a Press Release

Myth: A clever, teasing headline draws editors in. Fact: Editors triage in seconds; a headline that states the news in active voice earns the read, and a vague one earns the delete key.
Myth: The release should build to its big announcement for dramatic effect. Fact: News writing is an inverted pyramid — the dramatic ending is the first paragraph cut when space runs short.
Myth: More pages signal a more important announcement. Fact: A strong release runs about one page; length beyond the news reads as a confession about news value.
Myth: Quotes are the place to announce key facts. Fact: Facts belong in the body with the release's authority; quotes carry voice, meaning, and humanity — and must sound like a person speaking.
Myth: Distribution means sending to the longest list possible. Fact: A targeted release to a verified list, with a working contact block, outperforms every blast; volume teaches editors to skip you.

Think it through — How to Write a Press Release

Draft release, as received: Headline — "A Dream Realized: Our Journey Continues!" Paragraph one describes the organization's founding in 1998. Paragraph two thanks the board. Paragraph three quotes the director saying the team is "thrilled and excited." Paragraph five mentions that a free Saturday vaccination clinic opens March 14 at the Riverside Community Center, serving an estimated 400 children. There is no contact block.

Walk it through: (1) The gate (Part 1): real news exists here — the clinic — so a release is the right tool; nearly everything above it is not. (2) The pyramid (Part 2): the only news fact sits in paragraph five, beneath history and ceremony that an editor will cut toward — incorrectly, because the pyramid was built upside down. (3) Headline and lead (Parts 3–4): rebuild from the fact: headline "Free Saturday Vaccination Clinic Opens March 14 at Riverside Community Center"; lead carrying who (the organization), what, when, where, and why (400 children, no appointment) in three sentences. (4) Quotes and fixtures (Part 5): replace the thrilled-and-excited quote with one that says what facts cannot — a parent or the clinic nurse on why Saturday matters — and close with a current boilerplate and a named contact whose phone is answered. (5) The history and thanks (Part 6) are not deleted from the world; they are demoted to a background line an editor may use, where the pyramid says background belongs.

Try this — How to Write a Press Release

☐ Take one real announcement and pass it through the Part 1 gate: state in one sentence why an editor's audience should care today
☐ Draft the lead paragraph only: who, what, when, where, why — every fact exact and checkable
☐ Write the headline and subhead last, and test whether a stranger gets the story in five seconds
☐ Replace one ceremonial quote with a human one: meaning a fact cannot carry, words a person would actually say, full name and title
☐ Assemble the full release with boilerplate and a working contact block, then cut it to one page without losing a load-bearing fact

Resources to keep — How to Write a Press Release

Purdue OWL (owl.purdue.edu) — Purdue's press release guidance: news value, the five W's, and standard requirements.
Public Relations Society of America (prsa.org) — practice guidance and the ethics code release work must honor.
Poynter Institute (poynter.org) — journalism writing resources showing how the receiving newsroom reads.
Institute for Public Relations (instituteforpr.org) — free research on communication effectiveness and trust.

What you earned / what's next — How to Write a Press Release

✅ How to Write a Press Release complete (quiz score 80% or higher): You can judge when a release is the right tool, build it on the inverted pyramid, write a headline and subhead that state the news, carry the five W's in the lead, use quotes for voice rather than facts, and finish with boilerplate and a working contact block — formatted and distributed like a professional.

Your certificate

Minister Destiny Testimony Schools Certificate of Completion — How to Write a Press Release

This certificate is presented by Muslim Ordained Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

Awarded to: ______________________________ (write your name here after you download — your name is never collected or stored by this school)

Date completed: ______________

You can now put real news in the form every newsroom trusts: the important thing first, every fact standing up straight. Write it true and send it clean. — Minister Destiny Marie Morgan

This is a certificate of educational completion from Minister Destiny Testimony Schools. It is not a state license, a government certification, or the original course credential.

What's next: Return to the Certificate Topics for your next Year 1 Foundations topic.

Sources

Press Releases — Purdue OWL, Purdue University (owl.purdue.edu) — news value, the five W's and H, and basic requirements for effective releases.
Public Relations Society of America (prsa.org) — practice and ethics guidance for release work.
Poynter Institute (poynter.org) — news writing and inverted-pyramid teaching from the newsroom side.

Your Progress — On Your Device Only — How to Write a Press Release

Learning outcomes: On completing this unit, the student can:

Judge whether an announcement passes the news gate and a release is the right tool
Structure a release on the inverted pyramid so it survives cutting from the bottom
Write a headline that states the news and a subhead carrying the strongest supporting fact
Write a lead paragraph answering who, what, when, where, and why with exact, verifiable facts
Write quotes that carry voice and meaning, attributed to a named, approving person
Complete a release with boilerplate, a working contact block, standard formatting, and targeted distribution

Study time: Approximately 1.5 hours — an estimate covering reading, activities, and the test. Students move at their own pace.
Assessment: A 10-question test drawn only from this unit's lesson. 80% or higher passes and earns the unit certificate. Answers are not shown; your score is saved only in your own browser on this device, and retakes are allowed.
Level: Certificate Topics — Year 1 (Foundations) · Adult school · working rank on completion path: Freshman → Sophomore.
Version: Version 1.0 — October 2026.

Minister Destiny Testimony Schools — Adult. Educational information only. Help lines: 911 for emergencies · 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call/text 988).

Ready to test? This course's test is given at the Testing Center. Answers are never shown; score at least 80% to earn your certificate of completion. You may retake the test as many times as you need — each retake presents the questions in a different order, with the answer choices in a different order too.