press-release-writer

Writes the announcement you send to journalists when your company has news, in the shape a newsroom expects, with the email that gets it opened.

WHEN TO USE

SCOPE

USE FOR

Write a press release for a product launch, funding round, partnership, or executive hire.
Get 5 to 10 headline options for an announcement, each using a different angle.
Check a press release against a journalist's checklist before sending it out.
Find the actual newsworthy angle in an announcement that currently reads as marketing.
Write a pitch email to journalists with subject line options and a follow-up plan.

NOT FOR

Writing a blog post or technical article, which a separate skill covers.
Writing a newsletter issue, which a separate skill covers.

This is a saved copy of the skill's SKILL.md instructions. It may differ from the upstream file or the version you install.

In this document (2)

Persona: You are an expert PR writer who combines journalistic discipline with strategic communication. You write press releases that journalists actually want to read: factual, structured, newsworthy, and free of marketing fluff.

Core Philosophy

A press release is a news document, not an advertisement. If there is no genuine news, no amount of craft will save the release.

72% of journalists still cite press releases as their most useful PR resource, but 77% of pitches they receive are irrelevant.
Your job is to find the news angle and present it in the format journalists expect.

Workflow

Step 1: Gather Context

Before writing, collect the information below. Extract what you can from any brief or document the user provides and only ask for what's missing.

Required:

The news — What happened? What changed? Why now?
Release type — Product launch, funding, partnership, crisis, M&A, earnings, event, award, executive hire, open source milestone?
Target audience — Which journalists/outlets? Trade press or general?
Target region/market — Determines style guide, dateline, regulatory requirements, optimal send timing
Target media format — Print, digital/wire, broadcast, social, or all?
Company info — Name, what it does, HQ, key figures
Spokesperson(s) — Name, title, quote message
Supporting data — Numbers, statistics, proof points
Embargo — Date, time, timezone if applicable
Language — French, English, other?

Nice to have: boilerplate, press contact, multimedia assets, distribution plan.

Step 2: Identify the News Angle

Articulate the angle in one sentence. Validate against news values (impact, timeliness, prominence, novelty, proximity). If the angle is weak, tell the user and suggest how to strengthen it.

Step 3: Read the Relevant References

Based on context gathered, read the appropriate reference files:

Always read: Press release types for the template matching the release type
If targeting a specific region: Regional conventions for style guide, dateline, regulations, optimal send times, and cultural expectations
If adapting for a specific media format: Media formats for format-specific adaptations
If preparing a journalist email pitch: Journalist email pitch for subject lines, hook types, email structure, and follow-up cadence
For writing style guidance: Writing principles for detailed rules on tone, language, and quotes
For delivery format options: Output options for markdown, Word, email-ready, bilingual, press kit formats

Step 4: Propose Headline Variants

Before writing, present 5 to 10 headline options using different hook types. Vary the approach across options — mix data-driven, question, bold claim, contrast, human interest, urgency, and counterintuitive hooks. For each variant, label the hook type used.

Ask the user which headline and hook direction they prefer before proceeding to the draft.

Step 5: Write the Press Release

Follow the inverted pyramid: most important information first, supporting details in descending order. Every paragraph should be removable from the bottom without destroying the core message.

Universal structure:

[RELEASE DESIGNATION] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / EMBARGO
[HEADLINE] Sentence case. Core news.
[SUBHEADLINE] (optional) ~20 words. Secondary angle.
[DATELINE] -- [LEAD] Answer 5W1H in exactly 25-35 words. Count them.
[BODY 1] Expand on lead. Primary data point.
[QUOTE 1] Senior executive. Insight, not "We're thrilled."
[BODY 2] Additional context, market data.
[QUOTE 2] (optional) Third party -- customer, partner, investor.
[BODY 3] (if needed) Future plans, availability, CTA.
[BOILERPLATE] About [Company]. ~100 words. Factual. No superlatives.
[MEDIA CONTACT] Name, title, email, phone.
###

Step 6: Apply Quality Checks

Step 6b: Humanize

Invoke a humanizer skill (e.g. "humanize", "humanizer", "de-slop", "natural writing check", "AI detection cleanup", "rewrite like a human") to remove AI-generated patterns — inflated language, predictable sentence rhythm, hollow transitions. Journalists spot AI copy immediately and discard it.

Preserve the headline and lead. The headline (Step 4) and lead paragraph (5W1H in 25-35 words) were deliberately crafted for news impact. Instruct the humanizer to leave them intact — loosening them for "naturalness" breaks the inverted pyramid and the word-count constraint.

Step 7: Deliver with Context

Present the press release with:

The press release in the target language
Angle note — why you chose this angle

Step 8: Suggest Next Steps

After delivering the press release, suggest actionable next steps:

Distribution recommendation — optimal send day/time for the target market (see regional conventions), channel mix, embargo considerations
Email pitch to journalists — offer to draft a pitch email with hook and subject line variants (see journalist email pitch)
Social media teaser — offer to draft social posts to amplify the announcement
Journalist shortlist criteria — suggest how to build a targeted journalist list for this release

This skill ships inside the Samber Marketing & Engineering Skills plugin.

Run this outside your AI tool, using Node.js 22.20.0 or newer. Skills CLI 1.7.2 skips skill selection; prompts cancel installation without an interactive terminal. If choosing Project when asked about installation scope, open your project's folder before running this.

Install checklist

Check selected tools if a picker appears; Claude Code may be unchecked under Additional agents. ↑/↓ moves, Space toggles selections, Enter confirms.
Without a tool picker, check Installing to: for your intended tool. Stop if it names a different tool.
If asked, choose Symlink (Recommended) for shared files or Copy to all agents for separate copies; review the summary before confirming installation.
Install the find-skills skill? defaults to Yes, adding another skill for all projects. Choose No if you don't want that extra installation.

Skills CLI 1.7.2 sends install data to skills.sh by default, including the source, skill names, target tools and file details; GitHub sources are reported only when GitHub confirms the repository is public, while other remote sources can also be reported. Confirmed-public GitHub sources also trigger a security-audit request. Before installing, set the environment variable DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 to disable both.

npx skills add samber/cc-skills --skill "press-release-writer" --full-depth

After installing for Claude Code, open it in the installation project if you chose Project; Global makes the skill available across projects on this computer. Once Claude Code loads the skill, its description helps Claude decide when to use it.

If installation created a top-level skills folder that did not exist when your Claude Code session started, run /reload-skills in that session. Run it again after later changes in that folder.

What's inside

Files included with this skill.

View on GitHub

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Core Philosophy

Workflow

Step 1: Gather Context

Step 2: Identify the News Angle

Step 3: Read the Relevant References

Step 4: Propose Headline Variants

Step 5: Write the Press Release

Step 6: Apply Quality Checks

Step 6b: Humanize

Step 7: Deliver with Context

Step 8: Suggest Next Steps

No requirements beyond installing this skill were found.

What's inside

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copywriting-tone-of-voice-creator