Press Releases Review Checklist: What to Check Before Publishing

Your Press Releases Review Checklist

Press releases follow strict conventions that journalists expect. Deviate from these and your announcement gets ignored. Use this checklist for every press release before distribution.

Structure

• Inverted pyramid: most important info in first paragraph
• Who, what, when, where, why answered above the fold
• Dateline format correct (CITY, State — Date)
• Boilerplate company description at the end
• Contact information included with name, email, phone

Content

• Headline is newsworthy (not a marketing tagline)
• Lead paragraph stands alone as a summary
• Quotes attributed to named executives with titles
• Quotes add perspective (not repeat the lead)
• Statistics and claims sourced or attributed

Style

• AP Style followed for numbers, caps, abbreviations
• Third person throughout (no "we" or "our")
• Under 600 words total
• No marketing jargon or superlatives
• ### or -END- marker at bottom

How to Use This Checklist

Run through this checklist before publishing any press releases. For teams using AI content review, these checklist items can be converted into weighted evaluation criteria — so every piece is scored automatically against your quality standards.

Start by identifying which checklist items are most critical for your team (these become your highest-weighted criteria), then build a custom reviewer that enforces them on every piece of content.

Frequently Asked Questions