Giving the press release a structure

A press release should inform more than it entertains. Don't tease or attempt to dress the material in a journalistic style.

• Make the headline work for you. Keep the headline short: 6-10 words. Make the headline tell the gist of the story, without going into detail or being clever. Use minimal punctuation, active verbs and concrete nouns. Avoid jargon and abbreviations.
• Put it all into the first paragraph. Cover all the '5Ws': what, who, when, where, why. Keep this paragraph short and don't swamp it with detail.