We read a lot of press releases. The gap between the ones that get published and the ones that do not is rarely effort, and almost never budget. It is usually who the release was written for.
Lead with the thing that happened
Not the company boilerplate. Not the mission statement. The event. A reader decides in one line whether to continue, and "X has announced" is not a line.
Name the place in the first paragraph
Local means local. If we cannot tell which town this belongs to, we cannot tell which title it belongs in either.
Give us one real quote
Real means it sounds like a person said it. "We are delighted to announce this exciting milestone" is not a quote, it is punctuation. Tell us what it took, or what surprised you, or what it means for the people involved.
Include a usable image
One good photograph does more for publication odds than another two hundred words. It needs a caption, a credit, and confirmation you have permission to use it.
Cut the last third
Most releases are a story followed by a paragraph of claims. The claims are usually what gets a piece rejected, and removing them costs nothing.
Do those five things and you are ahead of most of what lands in our inbox. Our content guidelines cover the rest.