How to Write a Press Release With AI That Editors Read

Writing a press release with AI works best when you supply the facts and the assistant supplies the structure and speed. Give it the news, the quotes you have approved and the audience you are writing for, and it will produce a clean first draft in the classic format in a minute. What it cannot do is decide whether your story is news, or invent the facts and quotes that make a journalist interested.

This guide walks through the whole process: checking the story, collecting the right inputs, prompting for a draft, editing it into something an editor will actually read, and the mistakes that get AI-written releases deleted unread.

What a press release is for, and what editors want

A press release is a short, factual document that announces something newsworthy to journalists, in a form they can quickly judge and reuse. The classic structure, described in the Wikipedia overview of press releases, has barely changed in decades: headline, dateline, lead paragraph, supporting detail, quote, company background and contact details.

Editors and journalists receive far more releases than they can use. In the few seconds they spend on yours, they are asking:

• Is there actual news here, or is this marketing?
• Is it relevant to my readers?
• Are the key facts in the first two sentences?
• Is there a real person I can quote or contact?
• Can I trust these numbers?

AI can help with the third point enormously. It can do nothing for the first, second or fifth unless you give it the material.

Step 1: check that you have a story

Before opening any tool, write one sentence that answers “what happened, and why should anyone outside our company care?” If that sentence is hard to write, a better draft will not fix it.

Things that usually are news

• A launch that changes something for customers: a new product, a new market, a lower price.
• Results with real numbers: growth, a study, survey findings with a clear method.
• Partnerships, investment, acquisitions, new senior hires.
• Local impact: jobs created, a new office, community projects.
• An expert reaction to a current event, from someone with genuine standing.

Things that usually are not

• A redesigned website.
• A minor feature update.
• “We are excited to announce” with nothing concrete behind it.

An assistant can be a useful sparring partner here. Ask it: “You are a business journalist at a regional newspaper. Here is my announcement. Would you cover it? What angle would make it relevant to your readers? Be blunt.” The answer is often more honest than internal enthusiasm.

Step 2: gather the inputs before you prompt

The quality of a press release written with AI depends almost entirely on what you feed in. Collect these first:

1. The core facts. What, who, when, where, how much. Exact figures, dates and names.
2. Approved quotes. At least one from a named person, ideally in their own words. If you do not have one yet, you can ask the AI for a suggestion, but the person must approve or rewrite it.
3. The audience. Trade press, local media, national business press or a specific niche. Each needs different emphasis.
4. The boilerplate. Your standard “About the company” paragraph.
5. Contact details. A named media contact with email and phone.
6. Supporting material. Links, images, a product page, the full study.

If you write press releases regularly, put the boilerplate, contact details and house style rules into a project’s instructions or files once. Ask Mio’s projects keep those for every chat in the project, so you never paste them again.

Step 3: prompt for a first draft

A vague request produces a vague release full of phrases like “innovative solution” and “industry-leading”. A specific prompt produces something usable. Here is a template you can adapt:

“Write a press release for business journalists in the Baltic tech press. Use the inverted pyramid: the most important facts in the first paragraph. Structure: headline (under 12 words), subheadline, dateline ‘Vilnius, 1 October 2026’, lead paragraph answering who, what, when, where and why, two supporting paragraphs, one quote, boilerplate, media contact. Maximum 450 words. Neutral, factual tone: no superlatives, no ‘excited to announce’, no claims I have not given you. Facts: [paste]. Quote from our CEO: [paste]. Boilerplate: [paste].”

The instruction “no claims I have not given you” matters. Without it, an assistant may helpfully add a market-size figure or a vague benefit that you cannot back up. The general principles behind prompts like this are covered in our guide on how to write an AI prompt that works.

Ask for several headlines

The headline decides whether the release is opened. Ask for ten options, in three styles: straight news, number-led, and benefit-led. Then pick one and ask for it to be shortened, or combine two.

Ask for the lead paragraph three ways

The first paragraph carries most of the weight. Ask for three versions: one that leads with the impact on customers, one that leads with the number, and one that leads with the local angle. You will usually find the best one quickly.

Step 4: edit the draft like an editor would

An AI draft is a first draft. Before a press release with AI help goes anywhere, go through it with these checks.

Facts

Check every name, title, date, figure and product name against your source material. If a sentence contains a fact you did not provide, delete it or verify it. Assistants can produce plausible details that nobody said; our guide to AI hallucinations explains why this happens.

Language

• Remove adjectives that sell rather than inform: “revolutionary”, “cutting-edge”, “seamless”, “game-changing”.
• Replace abstract benefits with concrete ones: not “improves efficiency” but “cuts invoice processing from three days to one”.
• Keep sentences short. Journalists copy sentences directly; make them easy to lift.

Quotes

AI-drafted quotes tend to sound like everyone else’s quotes. A good quote adds opinion, context or emotion that the rest of the release cannot: why the person made the decision, what surprised them, what it means for the region. Ask the quoted person to say it out loud and write down what they naturally say.

Structure

Read only the headline and first paragraph. If a journalist read nothing else, would they have the story? If not, move the key facts up. This is the inverted pyramid in practice.

Press release anatomy: what AI does well and what you must do

Section	What AI does well	What you must supply or check
Headline	Many options fast, trimming length	Choose the one that is true and specific
Subheadline	Adding a second key fact	Accuracy of that fact
Dateline	Correct format	Correct city and release date
Lead paragraph	Who, what, when, where, why in two sentences	The actual news and figures
Body	Logical order, concise wording	Every detail must come from you
Quote	A draft to react to	Real words from a real person, approved
Boilerplate	Tightening your existing text	Company facts, kept consistent
Media contact	—	Name, email, phone, availability

A worked example of a press release with AI

Imagine a small bakery chain opening its third shop and hiring twelve people. The owner writes down the facts: the address, the opening date, the number of jobs, a free-coffee offer for the first weekend and one sentence about why she chose that neighbourhood.

A first attempt at a press release with AI, using only “write a press release about our new shop”, returns a text about “a passion for quality” and “an exciting new chapter”, with the actual address in the fourth paragraph. Not usable.

The second attempt uses the template above, with the facts pasted in and the rule “no claims I have not given you”. The lead now reads, in substance: a local bakery opens its third shop on a named street on a named date, creating twelve jobs. The owner’s real reason for the location becomes the quote. The free-coffee weekend moves to the final body paragraph, where it belongs.

Total time: about fifteen minutes including checking, instead of an afternoon. The difference was not the tool; it was the inputs.

Adapting one release for different outlets

One of the most useful things an assistant can do is adapt a finished release for different audiences without starting over. For example:

• Trade press: “Rewrite the lead for a logistics trade magazine. Emphasise the technical change and what it means for warehouse operators.”
• Local media: “Rewrite the lead for a local newspaper in Kaunas. Emphasise the 40 new jobs and the office location.”
• Other languages: “Translate the release into German for Austrian business media. Keep figures and names exactly. Use formal register.” Always have a native speaker check translated releases before sending.

Mio’s Write mode handles text in 25+ languages. For a wider comparison of writing tools, see our overview of the best AI for writing.

The pitch email

Most releases are sent with a short personal email. Ask the assistant for a three-sentence pitch: why this matters to that journalist’s readers, the single most interesting fact, and an offer (interview, data, images). Then personalise the first line yourself, referencing something the journalist has actually written. Do not let AI invent that reference.

Mistakes that get AI-written releases ignored

1. Generic openings. “In an ever-changing landscape…” signals filler. Start with the news.
2. Invented statistics. A number with no source damages trust in everything else. Only use figures you can back up and say where they come from.
3. Quotes nobody said. Journalists may call the person quoted. The quote must be something they would stand behind.
4. Too long. Most releases work best under about 500 words. Put extra detail in a linked fact sheet.
5. Burying the date or place. Journalists need to know immediately when and where.
6. Mass sending. A release sent unchanged to hundreds of addresses looks like spam, however well written.
7. Confidential information. Do not paste embargoed financial results or unannounced deals into a tool unless you know how your data is handled and stored.

How Ask Mio helps with press releases

Ask Mio is an AI assistant with a dedicated Write mode for articles, emails and business texts. For press work, the useful parts are:

• Write mode for drafts, headlines, pitch emails and adaptations, available on the free plan.
• Projects that keep your boilerplate, contacts and style rules for every chat.
• Research mode on paid plans to check background facts with cited sources.
• File uploads on paid plans, so you can give Mio the study, fact sheet or previous releases to work from.
• Privacy: your chats are not used to train models, and data is stored in the EU.

What Mio does not do is distribute releases to journalists. For that you still need your own media list or a distribution service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can AI write a press release?

Yes, AI can write a well-structured press release draft in the standard format within a minute. It needs you to supply the real news, facts, figures and quotes. Treat the output as a first draft: verify every fact, replace generic phrases with specifics, and have the quoted person approve their words before anything is sent.

Is it acceptable to send an AI-written press release to journalists?

Journalists care about whether the release is accurate, relevant and clearly written, not which tool helped draft it. Problems start when AI adds unverified claims, invented quotes or empty marketing language. If a person has checked every fact and the quotes are genuine, using AI for the drafting is simply a time saver.

How long should a press release be?

Most effective releases fit on one page, roughly 300 to 500 words. The headline and first paragraph should carry the whole story on their own. Put additional detail, such as technical specifications, methodology or background, in a linked fact sheet rather than making the release longer.

Should AI write the quotes in a press release?

It can suggest a draft for the spokesperson to react to, but the final quote must be approved by the person named, and ideally reflect how they actually speak. AI-generated quotes tend to sound interchangeable. A quote that expresses a real opinion or reason gets picked up far more often.

Can AI translate a press release into other languages?

Yes, and it usually does a good job with major European languages, keeping the structure intact. Tell it to keep names and figures exactly as given and to use the right register. Always have a native speaker review the translation before sending, especially for names, titles and local conventions.

What does it cost to write press releases with Ask Mio?

Drafting in Write mode is included in the free plan, with 600 points a month. A normal reply costs 1 point and a long one 3. Paid plans from 5 € a month add file uploads, memory and web research with sources, which help when you work from studies or fact sheets.

The Bottom Line

A press release written with AI can be faster and cleaner than one written from scratch, as long as you bring the story, the facts and real quotes, and edit the draft with a journalist’s eye. Use the assistant for structure, headlines, variations and translations; keep judgement and verification for yourself. You can draft your next release in Mio’s Write mode for free, and see what the paid plans add on the Ask Mio pricing page.