Seven mental models behind every press release that gets picked up

I've read thousands of press releases over two decades in comms. The ones that get coverage and the ones that get ignored almost never differ on writing quality. They differ on thinking quality.

A well-written press release with a bad frame goes nowhere. A rough draft with a brilliant angle gets picked up by Monday. The frameworks below are how I think about framing — and how I coach founders and comms teams to think about it too.

1. The So What Test

If you can't explain why a journalist's readers care — in one sentence — it's not ready.

This sounds obvious. It isn't. Most press releases are written from the inside out. "We launched a new product." "We hired a new VP." "We expanded to a new market." All of which answer the question nobody asked: what's new at your company?

The So What Test forces you to flip it. Start from the reader. A journalist at Sifted or TechCrunch has an audience of investors, founders, operators. What changes for them? If the answer is nothing, you don't have a press release — you have an internal announcement.

Use it: Before you write a single line. Run every potential announcement through this filter first.

2. News vs Noise

The gap between what's important to you and what's interesting to someone else. That gap is where most press releases die.

Your Series B is the biggest moment of your company's year. To a journalist who covers 200 funding rounds a quarter, it's Tuesday. Your new product feature took six months to build. To a reader who doesn't use your product, it's irrelevant.

News is external. Noise is internal. The skill is translating one into the other — finding the element of your announcement that connects to something the audience already cares about.

Use it: When you're convinced something is a big deal but struggling to get traction. The story might be real — but you're telling it from the wrong direction.

3. The Pub Test

Would you tell someone this at a pub and have them say "really?" If the answer is no, rethink the angle.

This is the simplest filter I know. Imagine you're telling a mate about something you saw at work. Not a journalist, not your board — a normal person with a pint in their hand. Do their eyebrows go up? Do they lean in? Or do they nod politely and change the subject?

The Pub Test kills jargon, kills boring angles, kills self-importance. It's brutal and it works. If you can't make someone at a pub interested, you won't make a journalist interested either.

Use it: When you've been too close to a story for too long and you've lost perspective on whether it's actually interesting.

4. Ride the Wave

Tie your announcement to something already in the news cycle.

Journalists think in terms of the current conversation. If AI regulation is dominating headlines, a press release about your AI governance tool is timely. The same release in a quiet news week is a cold pitch.

This doesn't mean being opportunistic or cynical. It means understanding that relevance is contextual. The same company, the same product, the same story — lands completely differently depending on what's happening in the world that week.

Use it: When you have flexibility on timing. Hold the release for a week if the news cycle is about to swing in your favour.

5. Data as Story

Numbers are boring. Trends are interesting. Surprises are irresistible.

"We processed 10 million transactions" — boring. "Transaction volume tripled in 6 months while the market contracted" — interesting. "The sector everyone thought was dying just grew faster than fintech" — irresistible.

Raw data isn't a story. It's evidence. The story is what the data means — especially when it contradicts what people assumed. Journalists love data that challenges conventional wisdom, because it gives them something to write about beyond the press release itself.

Use it: When you have proprietary data or market insight. Don't just cite the numbers — frame what they reveal.

6. The Contrarian Take

Disagree with conventional wisdom in your industry. But bring evidence.

Everyone in your sector says X. You say Y — and here's why. That's a story. Not because disagreement is inherently interesting, but because it creates tension. Tension is the engine of every good piece of journalism.

The caveat: you need receipts. A contrarian take without evidence is just noise. A contrarian take backed by data, customer results, or market research is a feature article waiting to happen.

Use it: Thought leadership, founder commentary, or when launching a product that challenges the status quo.

7. Show Don't Tell

Case studies and outcomes beat claims every time.

"Our platform transforms enterprise operations" is a claim. "Rolls-Royce reduced downtime by 40% using our platform" is a story. One gets ignored. The other gets a phone call from a journalist asking for more.

This is where most B2B companies fall down. They describe what their product does rather than what it's done. The press release becomes a product spec sheet dressed up in marketing language. Journalists see through it instantly — they've read a hundred that sound exactly the same.

Use it: Whenever possible. If you can name a customer and quantify the outcome, lead with that. Everything else is supporting material.

8. Timing is 80%

The same story lands differently on Monday morning versus Friday afternoon. January versus September.

This gets underestimated constantly. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are when most UK tech journalists are actively looking for stories. Friday afternoon is a graveyard. January is slow — good for getting attention, bad for anything that needs a news hook. September is back-to-school energy in newsrooms; editors are planning Q4 features.

August? Don't bother unless you've got something extraordinary. Half the newsroom is on holiday. The other half is writing year-in-review pieces they started too early.

Use it: When scheduling your release. A two-day shift in timing can be the difference between coverage and silence.

9. One Story, One Angle

A press release that tries to say three things says nothing.

I see this constantly. "We've raised £10m, launched a new product, expanded to Germany, and hired a new CTO." That's four press releases crammed into one, and a journalist will engage with none of them. Because there's no story — there's a list.

Pick the strongest angle. Lead with it. Let everything else be colour or context. You can always send a second release next month. You can't un-muddle a confused one.

Use it: Every single time. This is the model I enforce most often, because the instinct to cram is almost universal.

10. The Follow-Up Is the Pitch

Most coverage comes from the follow-up email, not the initial send.

Here's a stat that surprises people: most journalists who cover a story from a press release didn't respond to the first email. They responded to the second — the short, personal follow-up that said "did you see this, here's why it's relevant to the piece you wrote last week."

The initial send is the air cover. The follow-up is the actual pitch. It's where you demonstrate that you've read their work, you understand their beat, and you're offering something specific rather than spamming a list. Most comms teams treat the send as the finish line. It's the starting line.

Use it: Always. Build the follow-up into your plan from the start. Personalise it. Reference their recent work. Keep it to three sentences.

The bottom line

Press releases are a thinking exercise, not a writing exercise. The companies that get consistent coverage aren't better writers — they're better thinkers. They apply these frameworks before they open a document, not after.

If you're a startup founder wondering why your press releases aren't landing, the answer is almost never "we need better PR." It's "we need better framing." Get the mental model right and the words follow. Get the mental model wrong and no amount of polish will save you.