7 bad press release examples, with better rewrites

Bad press release examples are useful because the problem is easier to spot when the copy is sitting in front of you.

A bad press release is rarely doomed by one typo. It fails because the reader cannot quickly answer three questions: what happened, why does it matter, and what can I use?

The examples below are fictional composites. We are not here to publicly flog some junior comms person for a release written at 18:57 on a Friday. Each example combines mistakes that show up regularly in real press releases, followed by a stronger rewrite and a rule you can apply to your own copy.

This matters because press releases still have a job to do. In Cision's 2025 survey of more than 3,000 journalists, 72% named press releases as the most useful resource PR teams provide. Useful is the important word. A release full of vague claims and missing details merely gives everyone more text to ignore.

The headline gives the reader enthusiasm, but no information. What changed? Is the company launching a product, opening an office, replacing its CEO, or buying a particularly ambitious fern?

Words such as "delighted", "exciting", and "new chapter" make a claim about the announcement without describing it. A journalist cannot assess the story until the real news appears.

Now the reader knows what happened, where it happened, and why the expansion may be worth covering. If the revenue figure is confidential or cannot be verified, replace it with another concrete fact rather than an adjective.

The same rule applies to the email subject line. State the announcement in plain language. Our guide to press release headlines goes deeper into clarity, length, and common headline mistakes.

The rule: Put the concrete change and the strongest verifiable detail in the headline.

The announcement is hiding at the end of a paragraph about the company. The founding year, mission, office count, and other background may be useful later. They are not the lead.

Readers should not have to excavate the news from underneath a boilerplate. Start with the opening, location, date, and practical consequence. Move the general company description to the end of the release.

That opening gives the reader the announcement and usable details immediately. The company history can sit in a short press release boilerplate, where it belongs and can quietly reflect on what it has done.

The rule: Lead with what changed today. Put evergreen company background at the bottom.

A story aimed at everybody usually gives nobody a reason to care. Different audiences notice different consequences.

A trade journalist may care about a change in how the market works. Local media may care about jobs or regional investment. Customers may care about price, availability, or whether an existing service will change. Investors need evidence and commercial context.

Trying to fit every angle into one release produces a bland compromise and often a heroic number of commas.

Both versions describe the same development, but they lead with a consequence relevant to the intended reader. Only use figures you can substantiate, and explain how they were measured.

If the audiences genuinely need different stories, publish or pitch different versions. That is less elegant than one universal masterpiece, but considerably more useful.

The rule: Pick one primary audience and one reason that audience should care.

The quote contains no information that could not have been written outside quotation marks. It repeats the company's approval of its own announcement, then adds several phrases that appear in roughly every corporate quote since the invention of milestones.

A useful quote adds consequence, opinion, uncertainty, motivation, or experience. Muck Rack's current press release guidance makes the same point: quotes should add something new rather than restate the release.

This version contains a measurable problem, a result, and a limit. It also sounds like somebody was briefly allowed into the room.

Read our full guide to writing press release quotes for examples, attribution, and a more comprehensive ban on executives being delighted.

The rule: Use quotes for interpretation or perspective. Keep factual announcements in the factual copy.

The paragraph contains several useful facts, but the reader has to survive the sentence to find them. A dense release is difficult to scan, quote, or verify, especially on a phone.

Structure is not decoration. It tells the reader which facts belong together and where to look next. PR Newswire's press release writing guide recommends short paragraphs, useful section headings, and lists where they genuinely improve comprehension.

The information has not become less serious because it acquired some white space. It has become usable.

The rule: Build the release around a one-sentence lead, short supporting paragraphs, and lists only where readers need to compare or collect details.

The release has no clear next step. Each link competes with the others, and many send readers away before they understand the story.

Links should either substantiate a claim or help the reader take the next logical action. They should also have descriptive anchor text. "Read the methodology" is more useful than "click here", both to readers and to search engines.

That gives the general reader one primary source and gives journalists one place for working materials. A product launch might instead link to product specifications and availability. An event release might link to registration and a media-accreditation page.

The rule: Use one primary call to action. Add supporting links only when they verify a claim or provide material the reader is likely to need.

"Revolutionary", "transforming", and "unprecedented" are not evidence. Neither are anonymous customer praise, charts without sources, or percentages with no baseline.

A strong claim should tell readers what was measured, when, among whom, and against what comparison. If you cannot reveal the methodology, use a narrower claim you can support.

The release should also give people something they can publish. That may include product images, charts, headshots, captions, credits, transcripts, or a short demo. Cision's 2025 survey found that 72% of journalists consider press releases the most useful resource PR teams provide, and its report specifically points to the value of multimedia. Useful media still needs rights, labels, and download access. A mysterious low-resolution image called `IMG_0042-final-FINAL.jpg` is not a media strategy.

The rewrite is less dramatic and much harder to dismiss. It names the sample, period, measure, comparison, and limitation.

For practical guidance on formats, permissions, captions, alt text, and downloads, see how to use images and video in press releases.

The rule: Replace superlatives with evidence. Give journalists publication-ready assets with context and rights information.

Before publishing, confirm that your release has:

• a factual headline that states the announcement;
• the news in the first paragraph;
• one primary audience and angle;
• exact dates, names, locations, prices, and availability where relevant;
• at least one verifiable proof point;
• a quote that adds information or perspective;
• short paragraphs and a useful heading structure;
• links that support the story rather than compete with it;
• downloadable media with captions, credits, and usage details;
• a concise boilerplate;
• a named media contact who can answer follow-up questions;
• one clear next step.

Check the claims too. Every number needs an owner and a source. Comparisons should define their category, period, and baseline. Superlatives such as "first", "largest", and "fastest" must be supportable, while legal, financial, health, regulatory, and environmental claims may require specialist review.

Then read it once as somebody outside the company. If the announcement only becomes clear halfway down the page, move it. If a sentence could describe almost any company, cut it. If a claim sounds impressive but cannot survive the question "according to what?", fix it before a journalist asks.

You can compare the result with real press release examples, or use the complete step-by-step press release guide to build the release from scratch.

Software can make a release easier to publish and navigate. It cannot turn vague claims into news or verify a statistic.

Once the copy and evidence are ready, Prezly's press release software lets PR teams format a branded story, add downloadable media, publish it in an online newsroom, pitch relevant contacts, and track the campaign without passing around `final-final-v8.docx`.

A strong press release does not need to sound important. It needs to make the news clear, credible, and easy for someone else to use.