For decades, a press release had a single audience: the journalist. If it caught their attention, the story reached the media and, from there, the public. That route still exists and is still the most valuable. But there’s now a second reader you can’t ignore: AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or the AI summaries Google shows in search, which more and more people use to learn about companies, products and industries.
When someone asks one of these assistants who’s doing something in your sector, the answer is built from what’s been published: news stories, company websites and, of course, press releases. Our press office has spent years writing for journalists, and today we also write with that other reader in mind. The good news is that what works for one largely works for the other.
1. The news, in the first sentence
It’s the golden rule of journalism, and it matters more than ever. Journalists receive dozens of releases a day and decide in seconds whether to keep reading. AI, for its part, tends to pick up whatever is stated most clearly and directly.
The first sentence has to cover the essentials: who, what, when, where and why it matters. No introductions about the company’s history, no “we are pleased to announce”. If the headline and first paragraph make sense on their own, without reading the rest, you’re on the right track.
2. Hard facts, not adjectives
“Leader”, “innovative”, “benchmark” and “end-to-end solution” are words journalists skip and AI has no way of verifying. What does work is facts: figures, dates, names, places, percentages, measurable results.
Saying a company is “strongly committed to sustainability” is not the same as explaining that it has cut its emissions by 30% in two years thanks to a specific change. The second sentence is news, it can be quoted, and it’s far more likely to appear both in a media outlet and in an assistant’s answer.
3. A clear structure that’s easy to summarise
Journalists and AI both appreciate a well-organised text: an informative headline, a subheading that adds the key fact, a first paragraph with the essentials, and then context in short paragraphs, each with a single idea.
Quotes are still very useful, as long as they add something: an opinion, a vision for the future, an explanation only the speaker can give. A quote that repeats the previous paragraph gets picked up by no one. And at the end, a sober, factual boilerplate covering what the company does, where it’s based and since when, which is exactly the information AI uses to describe you.
4. Publish it on your website too
Many companies send the release to the media and forget about it. That’s a mistake, today more than ever. A newsroom on your corporate website, with releases published as text (not just PDFs), dated and well organised, is one of the sources search engines and AI assistants use to understand what a company does.
That newsroom should also include material that makes journalists’ lives easier: high-resolution images, logos, spokesperson bios and a clear press contact.
5. Media relationships are still what makes the difference
Writing well is essential, but it isn’t enough. What gets a release published is reaching the right journalist, at the right time, with an angle that fits their outlet. No algorithm does that: it comes from years of relationships with general and trade newsrooms, knowing what each one looks for and knowing when a story deserves a phone call rather than just an email.
And every appearance in a respected outlet counts twice: it reaches that outlet’s audience and becomes one more trusted source that AI will draw on when it talks about your company.
Your press office, focused on how people get informed today
At Fairplay we’ve spent more than 35 years working as a press office for companies and institutions: we define the angle, write the releases, get them to the right media, organise press conferences and measure the results. And we do it with an eye on how people get informed today, including through artificial intelligence.
If you have news to share in the coming months, let’s talk about giving it the reach it deserves.