Remember that a press release has two audiences: the journalists you want to pick up your story and the readers they want to interest.

For both audiences, it's important to pitch your story in a format that's easy to skim. Here are ten tips for writing a user-friendly press release. (Click here if you'd like to download these tips as an interactive PDF.)  

1. Write an interesting headline that sums up your news. (Click here for tips on headline writing.)

2. Think like a journalist by immediately answering the where, who, what, when, how, and why questions. For the most basic where and when, start the release with a newspaper-style dateline.

3. Condense your main thought into a concise first paragraph. Your main message should take only seconds to absorb. Catching the reader's interest immediately is crucial to holding journalists' attention first, and then piquing the reading public's interest.

4. Keep it short for your sentences, paragraphs, and full document. 25 words per sentence and two or three sentences per paragraph are usually good targets. 250-750 words is usually a good limit for the text section of the release. Active language is a great way to stay concise.

5. Be concise, but answer all the questions. This is a balancing act: you need to avoid boring the readers with too much detail and avoid confusing them with an incomplete picture.

6. Avoid jargon, and explain the background. I.e., start from square one with your language. Neither of your two audiences will recognize specialty terms that you and your colleagues use. And using basic language to explain your identity and your news is a great way to promote yourself.

7. Proofread carefully! You want journalists to use as much of your language as possible. Sloppy punctuation, grammar, or spelling will create more work for the journalists and also create a bad impression of you.

8. Write like the journalists at your target publication. Follow their formal or informal tone, format for dates, and use or omission of the series comma.

9. Center three ### symbols on their own line to signal the end of your text.

10. Include two separate, labeled sections: one for your full contact information and another with a brief profile of your organization.

Two final tips will benefit a press release or any other piece of writing. First, leave yourself plenty of time to plan and draft the document. And try asking for a second opinion of your draft copy from someone who's unfamiliar with your message!