How to Write a Press Release: The Step-by-Step Guide Indian Businesses Actually Need

A press release is one of the most misused tools in PR. Most businesses write them too long, send them to the wrong people, and lead with the least interesting information. Then they wonder why nothing gets covered.

Writing a press release well is not complicated. It requires a clear news angle, a structure that respects a journalist's time, and the discipline to say what needs to be said without saying anything extra. This guide covers exactly that, step by step.

If you want to understand the different types of press releases and how they work before writing your first one, start with our press release writing guide. This guide picks up where that one ends.

Before You Write Anything: The Newsworthiness Test

The single biggest reason press releases fail is not bad writing. It is the absence of a genuine news angle. No amount of polished language can turn an internal update into a story a journalist wants to cover.

Before writing a word, run your announcement through three questions:

• Would a reader who has never heard of your company care about this?

• Does this affect anyone beyond your internal team?

• Is there a specific reason this matters right now, not just to you?

If the answer to any of these is no, the announcement is not yet press release material. It belongs in a blog post, a social update, or an internal newsletter. Sending a press release that fails this test does not just produce no coverage. It trains journalists to ignore your name in their inbox.

Once you are confident the news passes the test, you are ready to write.

The Seven Parts of a Press Release

Every press release, regardless of type, follows the same structure. Here is a quick reference before we go through each part in detail.

How to Write Each Section

Write the Headline Last, Not First

Most people write the headline first. That is why most press release headlines are vague. Write the body of the release first. Once you know exactly what the story is, the headline writes itself far more accurately.

A strong press release headline states the news directly using active verbs. It answers what happened, not what to feel about it. It includes a number where one is relevant, because numbers signal specificity. Keep it under 70 characters.

Weak vs Strong Headline: Indian Business Context Weak:   XYZ Technologies Announces New Partnership Strong: XYZ Technologies Partners with HDFC Bank to Bring Instant Credit to 2 Lakh MSMEs The weak headline tells a journalist nothing they can use. The strong headline gives them the story, the parties involved, and the scale of impact in one line.

The Dateline

The dateline opens the first paragraph. It states the city of origin in all caps, followed by the date and release status. Use For Immediate Release if the news can be published straight away. Use a specific date and time if you are sending under embargo.

For Indian businesses, use the city where the company is headquartered or where the news originates. Indian publications pay attention to this for regional relevance. A Mumbai-based company announcing a Pune office expansion should use a deadline from Mumbai, not a generic India tag.

Dateline Format BENGALURU, May 20, 2026 — For Immediate Release MUMBAI, May 20, 2026 — [Embargoed until 9:00 AM IST, May 22, 2026]

The Lead Paragraph: The Most Important 35 Words You Will Write

The lead paragraph is where most press releases fail. Businesses write three sentences of background context before getting to the actual news. Journalists read the first paragraph and nothing else if that paragraph does not earn their attention.

The lead must answer the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. Keep it to 35 words or fewer. The very first sentence should address why this matters right now, in no more than 15 words. That single constraint, applied honestly, will make your lead paragraph significantly stronger.

Weak vs Strong Lead Paragraph: Funding Announcement Weak:   Finflow Technologies, a Bengaluru-based B2B SaaS company that was founded in 2022 and serves small and medium enterprises across India, today announced that it has successfully completed a Series A fundraising round. Strong: Finflow Technologies raises INR 45 crores to expand AI-powered cash flow management to 50,000 Indian SMEs. The Series A round was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Blume Ventures. The weak lead buries the news under a company description. The strong lead gives the journalist the story in the first sentence and the investors in the second.

The Body: Inverted Pyramid in Practice

The body supports the lead with detail, data, and context arranged in descending order of importance. The most critical information first. Supporting detail below. Background and history last.

This structure, known as the inverted pyramid, exists because journalists frequently cut from the bottom when space is tight. If your essential story is not told in the first two paragraphs, it may not survive the editing process.

A practical test: remove the last paragraph of your body. If the story still makes sense, the structure is right. If removing it changes the story, move that information higher.

Keep the body to two or three paragraphs. Each paragraph should add something new. If a paragraph summarises what the previous one already said, cut it.

Writing a Quote That Actually Gets Used

Every press release needs at least one quote from the founder, CEO, or the most senior person connected to the announcement. If anyone could have written the quote, rewrite it.

A weak quote expresses enthusiasm. A strong quote expresses a specific, original point of view that only this person could credibly say. Journalists need something they can pull directly into their story. A generic quote forces them to either paraphrase you or cut your voice from the piece entirely.

Weak vs Strong Quote: Indian Fintech Context Weak:   "We are thrilled to announce this funding and look forward to serving more customers," said Arjun Mehta, CEO of Finflow Technologies. Strong: "India has 63 million MSMEs and most of them are making financial decisions based on last month's data. We built Finflow to change that. This funding lets us reach the businesses that need it most," said Arjun Mehta, CEO of Finflow Technologies. The weak quote gives a journalist nothing. The strong quote gives them a statistic, a problem, and a forward-looking statement — everything they need to write the story.

The quote approval process matters. Draft the quote yourself based on what the spokesperson would say, then have them review and refine it. Never publish a quote the spokesperson has not approved. A journalist who fact-checks and finds a discrepancy will not cover you again.

The Boilerplate

The boilerplate is a short, standard paragraph at the bottom of every release. Journalists use it to write the attribution line in their story. Write it once and keep it consistent across all releases.

It should cover: what the company does, who it serves, when it was founded, and a link to the website. It must not contain superlatives, marketing claims, or anything that requires a journalist to verify. Factual, current, and free of promotional language.

Contact Information

List the name, direct email address, and direct mobile number of the person handling media queries. This is the person who will answer the phone at 6 pm when a journalist is on deadline for a morning edition. Do not list a general inbox. Do not list the CEO unless they are also the communications contact.

A Complete Press Release Example for an Indian Business

The following is a complete, annotated press release for a fictional Bengaluru-based B2B SaaS startup. Every section is labelled. The commentary after each section explains what it is doing and why.

Finflow Technologies Raises INR 45 Crores Series A to Bring AI-Powered Cash Flow Management to 50,000 Indian SMEs Peak XV Partners leads the round; funds to accelerate product expansion and pan-India SME outreach BENGALURU, May 20, 2026 — Finflow Technologies, a B2B SaaS platform that helps Indian small and medium enterprises manage cash flow in real time, today announced the successful close of its INR 45 crore Series A funding round. The round was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Blume Ventures and Titan Capital. India has over 63 million registered MSMEs, yet fewer than 12% use any form of digital financial management tool, according to the Ministry of MSME’s 2024 annual report. Finflow’s platform integrates directly with Tally, Zoho Books, and major Indian banking APIs to give business owners a live view of their cash position, outstanding receivables, and payment obligations in a single dashboard. Since its launch in 2023, the company has onboarded over 8,000 SMEs across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. The Series A proceeds will fund expansion into Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Chennai, a 40-person engineering and customer success hire, and the launch of a vernacular-language interface in Hindi and Tamil by Q3 2026. “India’s SMEs are running on last month’s data and making decisions in real time. That gap costs them. We built Finflow to close it, and this funding lets us reach the businesses that need it most,” said Arjun Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO of Finflow Technologies. “Finflow has built something genuinely useful for a segment that has historically been underserved by enterprise software. The traction across Tier 1 cities gives us confidence in the Tier 2 opportunity,” said Priya Nair, Partner at Peak XV Partners. About Finflow Technologies Finflow Technologies is a Bengaluru-based B2B SaaS company founded in 2022 that provides real-time cash flow management software for Indian small and medium enterprises. The platform integrates with leading Indian accounting and banking systems and currently serves over 8,000 businesses across three cities. www.finflow.in

Writing a Press Release for Indian Media: What Is Different

Most press release guides are written from a Western perspective. The Indian media landscape has specific characteristics that affect how you write, time, and distribute a release.

India Is Not One Media Market

India has national English-language publications like The Economic Times, Business Standard, and Mint. It also has hundreds of regional language outlets across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, and other languages, and a growing base of digital-first publications that have significant reach in specific sectors. A press release strategy that targets only national English outlets is missing the majority of the available audience for most Indian businesses.

For a company based in Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, or Bhubaneswar, regional and vernacular media will deliver significantly more relevant coverage than a national English publication. Build your media list to match your actual audience, not the publications you aspire to appear in.

Timing Matters More Than Most Guides Acknowledge

Send press releases on Monday or Tuesday mornings for the best chance of coverage. Friday afternoon releases are reliably overlooked. Beyond the day of the week, India has specific news cycle considerations that most international guides ignore entirely.

Budget week in February, quarterly results season, and major festival periods all affect journalist availability and editorial priorities. A strong product launch press release sent during Budget week will compete with significantly more important news for the same column inches. Time it for a quieter week, and the same story has a substantially better chance of coverage.

Personalise the Pitch Email, Not Just the Release

Indian journalists receive a very high volume of generic press release blasts. A short, personal covering note in the email body, three to four lines written in plain conversational language and referencing one specific piece of their recent coverage, dramatically improves response rates compared to a cold distribution blast.

The release goes below the pitch note. Never send a press release as an attachment. Paste it directly into the email body. Journalists do not open attachments from senders they do not recognise. An attachment-only email is an email that does not get read.

At Bridgers, every release we distribute for a client goes with a personalised covering note tailored to each journalist's beat. The time investment is significant. So is the difference in pickup rates.

Press Release Mistakes That Kill Coverage

The mechanics of a press release are learnable. The mistakes that kill coverage are almost always about judgment, not format.

Sending something that is not genuinely newsworthy. This is the most common and most damaging mistake. An internal milestone reframed as market news, a product feature update presented as a launch, a partnership that affects no one outside the two companies involved. Sending these trains journalists to filter out your name. The test is simple: would a journalist's reader care about this if they had never heard of your company? If the answer is no, do not send it.

Burying the news in the opening paragraph. The most important information should be in the first sentence, not the third. Every sentence of context or background that appears before the actual news reduces the chances the release gets read past the first paragraph.

Writing a quote that sounds like a quote. Corporate enthusiasm, superlatives, and generic forward-looking statements signal to a journalist that a committee wrote the quote. A quote that sounds like a real person said a real thing is the one that ends up in the story.

Sending the release as an attachment. Journalists do not open attachments from unknown senders. Paste the full release into the email body below the pitch note. Always.

Wrong or missing contact information. A journalist on deadline who cannot reach a human being within the hour will move on. List a direct mobile number, not just an email. And make sure the person listed is actually available.

Before You Hit Send: A Press Release Checklist

Run through this before distributing any release. A release that fails three or more of these checks is not ready to send.

• The announcement passes the newsworthiness test: a reader who does not know the company would care about this

• The headline states the news clearly in under 70 characters using active verbs

• The first sentence of the lead answers why this matters now in 15 words or fewer

• The lead paragraph answers who, what, when, where, and why in 35 words or fewer

• The body follows the inverted pyramid: most critical information first

• The quote says something specific that only this person could credibly say

• The quote has been reviewed and approved by the spokesperson

• The boilerplate is current, factual, and free of marketing language

• Contact information lists a named individual with a direct email and mobile number

• Visual assets are ready and linked, not attached as files in the email

• The release is pasted into the email body, not sent as an attachment

• The covering pitch note is personalised to each journalist, not a generic introduction

The downloadable press release template below includes this checklist. Download the Bridgers Press Release Template

The Release Is Only the Beginning

A well-written press release gets you in front of the right journalist. What happens after that depends on the strength of your news, the quality of your relationship with that journalist, and how easily you do their job of covering the story.

The businesses that earn consistent coverage are not the ones that write the most press releases. They are the ones that write the right ones, send them to the right people, and build the kind of relationships that make journalists want to cover them even when they are not pitching.

Write less. Target better. Follow up with respect for the journalist's time. Those three things will do more for your coverage rate than any improvement to your press release format.

Need help writing a press release that earns coverage?

At Bridgers, we write press releases built around genuine news angles, targeted to the publications and journalists that matter for your specific business, and distributed in a way that builds relationships rather than burning them. If you have an announcement coming up and want to make sure it lands, we would be glad to help.

Get in touch with Bridgers

Frequently Asked Questions About Writing a Press Release

How long should a press release be?

Between 300 and 500 words for most announcements. Funding releases and research releases sometimes run slightly longer when the supporting detail genuinely adds to the story. 600 words is a practical ceiling for any type. Every word beyond what is needed to tell the story tests a journalist's patience.

What is the correct format for a press release?

A press release follows seven sections in order: headline, dateline, lead paragraph, body, quote, boilerplate, and contact information. The lead paragraph should answer the five Ws in 35 words or fewer. The body follows the inverted pyramid, with the most important information first. The quote should be specific and genuinely attributed to the named spokesperson.

How do I send a press release to a journalist in India?

Paste the full press release into the email body below a short, personalised pitch note of three to four lines. Never send it as an attachment. Address each journalist by name. Reference one specific piece of their recent coverage to show you have chosen them deliberately. Send on Monday or Tuesday morning for the best response rate. Avoid Budget week, quarterly results season, and major festival periods.

What is the difference between a press release and a pitch?

A pitch is the short, personal email you write to a journalist to introduce the story and explain why it is relevant to their audience. The press release is the full announcement that follows below the pitch or is sent alongside it. The pitch earns the journalist's attention. The press release gives them everything they need to cover the story. Both are necessary. The pitch is often more important.

Should I send a press release as an attachment or in the email body?

Always paste it in the email body. Never send it as an attachment. Journalists do not open attachments from senders they do not recognise. An attachment-only email is an email that does not get read, regardless of how strong the story inside it is.

How do I know if my press release is newsworthy?

Ask three questions: Would a reader who has never heard of your company care about this? Does this affect anyone beyond your internal team? Is there a specific reason this matters right now? If the answer to any of these is no, the announcement is not yet press release material. The most common mistake is sending a press release about something that matters internally but has no external relevance.

How many quotes should a press release have?

At a minimum, one quote from the most senior person connected to the announcement. For partnership releases, one quote from each organisation is standard. For research releases, one quote from the author or a relevant industry expert adds credibility. Every additional quote beyond what is genuinely necessary dilutes the impact of the ones you keep.