Insights · Press Releases

Is your news actually news?

October 23, 2026 · Beacon PR Group

Every week, small businesses pay to distribute press releases that no journalist will ever read. Not because the businesses aren’t interesting — because the release announces something that is only news inside the building. “We’re excited to announce” is not a headline. It’s a hope.

Before you write — or pay anyone to write — a release, run your announcement through the seven tests below. Pass three or more, and you may have news. Pass one, and you have an advertisement wearing a costume.

The seven newsworthiness tests

• New. Is this the first time it’s true? A first location, a new service, a just-signed deal. New to you is not enough — it has to be new to the reader.
• Local. Does it change something on a specific street, in a specific town? Local outlets forgive small scale when the geography is unmistakably theirs.
• Human. Is there a person a reader can root for — a founder’s second act, a 19-year-old employee promoted to manager, a customer whose life changed?
• Numbers. Can you attach a real figure? Jobs created, years in business, meals served, dollars raised for a cause. Numbers make editors trust the rest.
• First or only. Are you the first, the only, the oldest, the last of your kind in your market? Superlatives you can prove are news. Superlatives you can’t are a liability.
• Milestone. Anniversaries with a zero in them, a tenthousandth customer, a ribbon cutting after a fire or a flood. Milestones give a story a date — and dates give editors a reason to run it now.
• Bigger story. Does your announcement plug into something already in the news — a trend, a season, a shortage, a celebration the whole town is having? Riding a wave is not cheating; it’s timing.

A tale of two announcements

Example, both fictional: an independent bookstore turns ten. Version one announces a “10th Anniversary Sale — 10% off everything!” That is an ad; the newspaper will happily sell you space for it. Version two leads with the milestone and the human story: a decade after everyone predicted bookstores would die, this one survived a flood, a pandemic, and two chain competitors — and now hosts 4,000 neighbors a year at story time. Same store, same anniversary. One is a promotion. The other is a story an editor can assign.

If it passes: write it like news

Headline states the news in under twelve words. First paragraph answers who, what, where, and when — nothing else. The quote sounds like a person talking, not a brochure clearing its throat. Facts a reporter can verify sit up top; the company boilerplate goes last, where it belongs. And the work is only half done at distribution: a release that isn’t also pitched, person to person, is a message in a bottle. Distribution is hope. Pitching is strategy.

And if your announcement fails the seven tests? Don’t force it. Bank the effort, build toward the milestone or the bigger story, and publish when you have something an editor would thank you for. Restraint is a PR strategy — it’s what makes your next release believable.

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