Start with a real news angle, not the draft. Give AI your facts, figures and a quote you'd actually say, and ask for a release under 400 words with the news in the headline and first sentence. Then write a short personal pitch email to each journalist, with the key facts in the email itself and the release pasted below it, not just attached.
Most small business releases fail before anyone reads them, because they aren't news. "Local florist celebrates fifth anniversary" matters to the florist, not to readers. AI makes the problem worse, because it can turn any non-story into polished copy full of "delighted to announce" and "innovative", which is precisely the kind of release that reporters delete unread. The real work is in the angle and the pitch. The release itself is the easy part, and AI does it well once those two are right.
Test the angle before writing a word
The story followed here is illustrative: a florist whose owner wanted press coverage. Her first idea was the shop's fifth birthday, and she'd already sent one release about it that got no replies at all. This time, before drafting anything, she asked an assistant to play a busy local news editor:
You are a news editor at a local paper who gets 100 press releases a
week and uses about five. Here's a story idea from a small florist:
[idea]. Here are other things happening in the business: [list].
Be blunt: would you run the original idea? Why not? Which item on the
list, if any, is a stronger story, and what would make it stronger still?
Judge on: is it new, does it affect local people, is there a human
story, a surprising number, a reason to run it now, and a good photo?The reply, trimmed (illustrative):
I wouldn't run the anniversary: it's only news to you. The stronger story is on your list: you collect flowers from weddings and funerals the day after and remake them into posies for the hospice and three care homes. That has a human angle, a number if you've been counting, a local connection and a great photo. It would be stronger with a milestone (the 1,000th posy?), a quote from someone at the hospice, and a reason to run it this month.
That's the value of this step. She'd been running the posy scheme quietly for a year and never thought of it as news. She checked her records: 1,120 posies delivered. The hospice's volunteer coordinator agreed to give a quote. The anniversary became one line near the end.
A quick newsworthiness checklist to run on any idea:
- New: has it just happened, or is it about to?
- People: does it affect readers, or involve someone they'd care about?
- Numbers: is there a figure that makes people look twice?
- Timing: is there a reason to run it this week rather than any week?
- Picture: is there a photo a paper would want to use?
- Unusual: would a reader tell a friend about it?
Three or more yeses and you have a story. One or none, and the better move is a post on your own channels.
Build the fact sheet the AI works from
Everything in the release must come from you, because AI fills gaps with plausible inventions. Write the facts down first, in plain notes:
WHAT: "Second bloom" posies: flowers from weddings and funerals remade
into small posies for the hospice and three care homes, the day after.
WHO: [shop name], owner [name]; hospice volunteer coordinator [name].
WHEN: Started October last year. 1,000th posy delivered 14 October.
NUMBERS: 1,120 posies so far. About 40 events. 3 care homes + hospice.
Families agree in advance; about 9 in 10 say yes.
WHY: Owner hated seeing flowers binned after one day.
QUOTE NOTES (owner, in my words): "Wedding flowers get about six hours
of attention. It seemed mad to throw them away."
QUOTE (coordinator, approved): [exact approved words]
PHOTOS: Owner making posies; resident holding posy (consent obtained).
CONTACT: [name, phone, email], available 8am-6pm.Notice the approved quote from the coordinator goes in word for word. Never let an assistant write a quote for someone else, and never send a quote to a journalist that the person hasn't approved.
The prompt, and what comes back
Write a press release from the fact sheet below. Rules:
- 300-400 words. Headline under 12 words that states the news.
- First sentence carries the whole story: who, what, the number.
- Use ONLY facts from the fact sheet. If something is missing, write
[MISSING: ...] rather than inventing it.
- Owner quote: build it from my quote notes, keep my phrasing.
- Use the coordinator's quote exactly as written.
- No: "delighted", "thrilled", "proud to announce", "innovative",
"passionate", "unique", exclamation marks, or rhetorical questions.
- End with a 2-sentence "About [shop]" and the contact details.
Fact sheet: [paste]The first draft was good but had the usual problems, each worth knowing because they turn up in almost every AI release:
- A superlative that crept in anyway: "a heartwarming initiative". Journalists decide what's heartwarming.
- A figure it inferred: "saving over two tonnes of flowers from landfill". Nobody weighed anything. Cut.
- A polished owner quote: "We believe every flower deserves a second chance to bring joy." She'd never say that. Replaced with her own line about six hours of attention.
- A [MISSING] marker for the names of the care homes, which was the instruction working as intended. She checked with each home before naming them.
Treat every figure in the draft as unverified until you've matched it to your fact sheet. Fact-checking AI marketing copy sets out a quick method, and it matters more for press than anywhere else, because a journalist may print the error under your name.
The "About [shop]" note at the end is worth a moment too, because AI pads it. The draft read: "[Shop] is an award-winning, family-run florist dedicated to creating beautiful, sustainable floral designs for every occasion." The shop has won no awards. Her version: "[Shop] is a florist on [street], [town], run by [name] since 2021. It makes wedding, funeral and everyday flowers, and collects event flowers for reuse." Two plain sentences a journalist can lift straight into a story.
Before and after: the opening paragraph
The opening decides whether the rest gets read. Here's her original anniversary release, written before she found the angle:
[Shop] is thrilled to announce its fifth anniversary! Since opening in 2021, the passionate team has been dedicated to providing the local community with stunning, high-quality floral arrangements for every occasion.
And the final version:
A florist in [town] has turned more than 1,100 wedding and funeral bouquets into small posies for hospice patients and care home residents, collecting the flowers the morning after each event. The 1,000th posy was delivered to [hospice] on 14 October.
The second tells the whole story in two sentences. A reporter reading only that much knows what happened, who's involved, the number and the date, and can decide in five seconds whether it's for them.
The headline: ask for five, choose one
The headline does the same job as the subject line of your pitch, so it's worth a few minutes. Ask the assistant for options rather than accepting its first:
Write 5 headlines for this release, each under 12 words.
Each must state the news, include the number, and use no adjectives
like "heartwarming" or "innovative". No puns. Then rank them for a
local news editor and say why in one line each.Three of the five it offered (illustrative), with her verdicts:
- "Florist turns 1,100 wedding bouquets into posies for hospice patients" Chosen: clear, concrete, the number early.
- "Second bloom: how one florist gives flowers a second life" Rejected: it names the scheme, which means nothing to readers yet, and hides the number.
- "Local florist marks 1,000th posy for care homes" Close second, but "marks" is weak and it drops the weddings, which are the surprising part.
If a headline needs the reader to know your business already, it isn't working. Test it on someone who's never heard of you: can they tell you what happened?
Quotes that sound like a person said them
Quotes in AI-drafted releases are usually the weakest part: they sound like mission statements. A good quote adds something the facts can't, such as an opinion, a feeling or a detail only that person knows, in words they'd actually say aloud.
| AI-style quote | Sounds like a person |
|---|---|
| "We are committed to sustainability and giving back to our community." | "Wedding flowers get about six hours of attention. It seemed mad to throw them away." |
| "This partnership represents our shared values of compassion and care." | "One resident keeps every posy card in her drawer. She's got forty-odd now." |
The trick: tell the assistant the story out loud (or type it as you'd say it), then ask it to find the most quotable sentence in what you said, rather than asking it to write a quote. The second example came from the coordinator talking, and it's the line the paper eventually used as its headline.
The pitch email matters more than the release
A journalist decides from the email, often from the subject line alone. Keep it short and specific to them, and put the story in the body of the email rather than only in an attachment. A template:
Subject: [The story in under 10 words]
Hi [first name],
[One line on why you're sending it to them: a recent piece of theirs
or the section they cover.]
[Two or three sentences: the story, the number, why now.]
[What you can offer: photos, an interview, a visit on a specific day.]
Release below. I'm free on [phone] all week.
[Name]
[Release pasted as plain text]Her pitch to the local paper's community reporter (illustrative):
Subject: Florist turns 1,100 wedding bouquets into hospice posies. Hi [name], I saw your piece on the care home volunteers last month, so I thought this might suit you. For a year we've collected flowers from weddings and funerals the morning after and remade them into posies for [hospice] and three care homes. We delivered the 1,000th last week. I can arrange photos of a delivery this Thursday morning, and the hospice's volunteer coordinator is happy to talk. Release below; I'm on [phone] all week.
A realistic mistake, from that first anniversary release: she sent a PDF attachment with the email "Please find attached our press release. Kind regards." to 30 addresses at once. Nobody replied. Attachments get skipped, some inboxes block them from unknown senders, and a message with no story in it gives a busy reporter nothing to decide on. The posy story went out as nine individual emails with the story in the body, and four of them got replies.
Subject lines that work state the story; ones that don't sound like marketing. "Florist turns 1,100 wedding bouquets into hospice posies" beats "Press release: [shop] launches Second Bloom initiative" every time.
Change the angle for each outlet. For the local radio station, the offer was a live interview during a delivery. For a florists' trade magazine, the angle was the logistics: how she gets families' agreement and fits collections into the working day. Same facts, three different pitches. An assistant is useful here: paste the release and ask for "a 100-word pitch for a trade magazine for florists, focusing on how other florists could copy the scheme".
Finding the right people to send it to
Ten well-chosen journalists beat three hundred addresses bought from a list. For a small business, the list usually includes the local paper's news desk and the reporter covering your subject, local radio, community newsletters and websites, and the trade press for your industry. For each, read their last few pieces. If you paste a handful of a reporter's recent articles into an assistant, it can summarise what they cover and suggest an angle, but read at least one yourself so your opening line is genuine.
Don't send the same email to everyone in one blast, and don't add journalists to your marketing list. Keep a simple sheet of who you sent it to, when, and any reply, because relationships built over a few stories are worth more than any single release. If the story is also good material for your own channels, writing LinkedIn posts with AI that don't sound like AI and turning interviews into case studies show how to reuse it.
Photos, embargoes and following up
- Photos: send two or three real photos, high resolution, in landscape and portrait, with a caption naming who's in them and a photo credit. Get consent from anyone pictured, especially in care settings. Don't send AI-generated images as though they were real photos.
- Embargoes: an embargo asks journalists not to publish before a set date and time, useful if the story is tied to an event. For most small business stories, you don't need one; simply send when it's ready.
- Follow-up: once, two or three working days later, with something new, such as another photo or a detail for that outlet. Then stop.
- Be reachable: if a reporter calls, they often need an answer that day. Put a mobile number in the release and answer it.
The florist's story ran in the local paper with a photo of a resident holding a posy, was picked up by the radio station for a four-minute interview, and appeared in the trade magazine two months later. Two couples mentioned the article when booking wedding consultations. Illustrative results, but typical of what a genuinely good local story can do.
Signs a release was written by AI, and how to remove them
Reporters now read a lot of AI-drafted copy and recognise the patterns. Check your final draft for these before sending:
- Opening with the company name and an emotion ("[Shop] is thrilled…").
- Stacked adjectives: "innovative, sustainable and community-focused".
- Quotes that could come from any business.
- Figures that aren't in your fact sheet.
- Sentences built as "not only X, but also Y", or three-part lists everywhere.
- A closing paragraph about "the future" or "continuing the journey".
- Spellings that don't match the rest of your writing, since AI tools often default to one variety of English.
Whether to mention AI use in your marketing more generally is a separate question, covered in should you tell customers when you use AI in your marketing? For a release, what matters is that every word is true and sounds like you.
Five angles from five small businesses
If you're not sure whether you have a story, these illustrations show the difference between a non-story and a story in the same business:
| Business | Not a story | A story |
|---|---|---|
| Bakery | "Bakery launches new sourdough range" | "Bakery's charity cake auction raises $4,200 for the school roof" |
| Independent bookshop | "Bookshop redecorates children's section" | "Bookshop's reading club gets 60 reluctant readers finishing books" |
| Bicycle repair shop | "Bike shop offers winter service discount" | "Free bike check day for pupils finds faulty brakes on one in five bikes" |
| Café | "Café introduces new seasonal menu" | "Café's 'pay it forward' board has bought 900 coffees for strangers" |
| Dog groomer | "Groomer adds new cat grooming service" | "Groomer's free makeovers help rescue dogs find homes twice as fast" |
The pattern is the same each time: a real number, real people, and something readers would repeat. Each claim, like "twice as fast", must come from records you can show a journalist if asked; if you can't back it up, leave it out. With a story like that and a fact sheet in hand, AI can draft a solid release in minutes. Without one, no prompt will save it, and that's a job where, as marketing tasks never to hand to AI argues, your own judgement has to come first.
Press releases with AI: follow-up questions
Should I tell journalists I used AI to write the release?
You don't need to label a release drafted with AI help, any more than one drafted with a template, as long as every fact and quote is true and approved by you. Be honest if a journalist asks. Never send AI-generated photos presented as real, and never let AI invent a quote from anyone, including customers or partners.
Is it worth paying for a newswire distribution service?
For most small businesses, rarely on its own. Wire services put your release on many sites, but that isn't the same as a journalist choosing to write about you, and local reporters mostly find stories through direct pitches and contacts. Spend the time on a short list of the right people first; consider a wire only for announcements aimed at a trade audience.
How long should a small business press release be?
Usually 300-450 words: a headline, a first paragraph that carries the whole story, two or three paragraphs of detail, one or two quotes, and a short note about the business with contact details. Anything longer is rarely read. Put extra detail in a fact sheet or on a web page you can link to.
What if nobody replies?
Follow up once, a few days later, with something new: a photo, a figure or a different angle for that outlet. If there's still no reply, the story probably wasn't right for them. Publish the release on your own website and social channels, and keep the contacts for the next story; relationships with reporters build over several pitches.
Further reads
- Why Your AI Marketing Copy Sounds Generic (and How to Fix It) — Fix the bland phrasing that AI drafts fall into.
- How to Turn One Customer Story Into a Month of Marketing With AI — Reuse your news story across a month of marketing.
- How to Build a Brand Voice Guide That AI Can Follow — Give the AI your voice before it drafts anything public.
- How to Plan a Month of Marketing Content With AI in One Hour — Plan announcements into your content calendar.
- Can You Legally Use AI-Generated Images in Your Marketing? — The rules on AI-generated images you might send with a story.
- How to Check Sources and Citations in AI Research — Check any figures AI research adds before a journalist does.
- AI Hallucinations Explained for Business Owners: Causes and Fixes — Why AI invents statistics, quotes and policies, where that hurts a business most, and two copy-ready prompts plus a checking routine that catch it.
- How to Back Up Every Claim AI Writes in Your Marketing — How to hold evidence for every claim in AI-drafted marketing: evidence by claim type, implied claims, a filled-in register and before-and-after rewrites.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: general press-release practice; OpenAI and Anthropic terms on output ownership (facts sheet). Example businesses and figures are illustrative.