Using AI to write a simple media pitch or press release…

You just won a local business award, signed a partnership with a nonprofit you love, or you're opening a second location after five years of grinding — and someone says, "You should send a press release." Great idea. But then you sit down to write it and realize you have absolutely no idea what that even looks like.

This post walks you through using AI tools to write a press release for your small business and a media pitch email, from blank page to ready-to-send, without hiring a PR agency or learning a new career.

It's more straightforward than it sounds — especially when you've got a tool doing the heavy drafting.

What you need before you start

ChatGPT{:target="_blank"} — an AI tool you can type instructions to in plain English and it writes copy back for you. The free version works, but GPT-4o (the smarter version) is available on the Plus plan at $20/month and will give you sharper results. Claude{:target="_blank"} by Anthropic is a strong alternative — Claude 3.7 Sonnet (released February 2025) is excellent at this kind of structured writing and has a free tier worth trying.

Time required: About 45–60 minutes for your first one, including building your prompt and tweaking the output. Future releases take 20 minutes once you have the format down.

Skill level: If you can write a text message describing something that happened, you can do this.

When does your small business actually have news worth pitching?

This trips people up. They assume press releases are for big companies announcing IPOs. They're not.

Local journalists — especially at newspapers, community blogs, and TV stations — are often one- or two-person operations desperate for good local stories. What counts as news for them includes: a business anniversary (5, 10, 25 years), a new location opening, a community partnership or charity tie-in, an award win, a hiring milestone, or an unusual product or service launch. If it affects or interests local people, it's worth pitching.

The story angle matters more than polished language. A Muck Rack{:target="_blank"} survey found that 48% of journalists say the most common PR mistake is pitches that aren't relevant to their beat. Being local and specific beats being perfectly written every time.

What journalists expect: AP Style and press release format

Journalists work in a specific format called AP Style{:target="_blank"} — think of it as a shared grammar rulebook that newsrooms use so everyone's writing looks consistent. You don't need to learn the whole book. You just need to know the basic structure of a press release:

Headline in title case (capitalize the main words)
Dateline — your city and state at the start of the first paragraph (e.g., "AUSTIN, Texas — ")
Body in inverted pyramid format, meaning the most important information comes first, details fill the middle, and background comes last
Word count: 400–600 words is the sweet spot
A quote from you or a named staff member (journalists can use it without calling you back — that's a gift to them)
Boilerplate "About Us" paragraph at the end, 75–100 words about your business
"###" on its own line at the very end, which signals to editors that the copy is finished

The good news: you don't have to memorize any of this. You're going to tell the AI to follow it.

How to write a small business press release using ChatGPT or Claude

The single biggest mistake people make with AI is being too vague. If you type "write a press release about my bakery," the tool will invent details to fill the gaps — and those invented details will be wrong. This is called hallucination, and it's a real risk with AI writing tools. The fix is simple: give the AI all the facts in your prompt.

Here's how to do it step by step.

1. Open ChatGPT or Claude in your browser and start a new conversation.

2. Gather your facts first. Before you type anything, jot down: your business name, location, what happened, when it happened, why it matters to local people, and a quote you're happy to have published under your name.

3. Paste this prompt, filling in your details:

Write a press release in AP Style using the inverted pyramid format. The release should be 400–500 words. Include a dateline, a title case headline, a quote from the business owner, and a boilerplate "About Us" paragraph at the end (75–100 words). End the release with ###.

Here are the facts:

Business name: [your business name]

Location: [city, state]

What happened: [describe the news in 2–3 sentences]

When: [date or time period]

Why it matters to local people: [one sentence — who benefits or why it's interesting locally]

Owner quote: [write a quote you'd be happy to see published — a real sentence in your own voice]

About Us: [2–3 sentences describing your business, how long you've been open, and what you do]

4. Review the draft. Read it out loud. If a sentence sounds like something a corporate lawyer wrote, flag it and ask the AI to "rewrite this paragraph in a warmer, more conversational tone."

5. Check every fact. The AI used only what you gave it. But double-check dates, names, and titles before sending.

A boilerplate "About Us" paragraph, once written, can go on every future release. Worth spending five extra minutes getting it right now.

Writing the media pitch email that gets opened

The press release is what you send after a journalist says yes. The pitch email is what gets you to yes.

According to Cision's 2024 State of the Media report{:target="_blank"}, 68% of journalists prefer pitches under 200 words before they decide whether they want the full release. Keep it short. Keep it local.

Use this prompt to write your pitch email:

Write a short media pitch email, under 200 words, for a local journalist. Use this structure: one sentence hook with a local angle, two to three sentences explaining why their readers care, one sentence about my business, and a call to action offering an interview, the full press release, or photos.

Facts:

News: [your news in one sentence]

Local angle: [why does this matter to people in your city or neighbourhood?]

My business: [name, what you do, how long you've been open]

Journalist's outlet: [name of the paper, blog, or station]

Subject line: Keep it under 50 characters, include your city or neighbourhood name, and skip words like "exclusive" or "urgent" — those trigger spam filters at newsrooms. Something like "Local Bakery Marks 10 Years in Oak Park" works better than it sounds.

Building a local media list without a PR budget

AI tools cannot do this part for you. They don't know which reporter covers small business at your local paper.

Start here: Google "[your city] newspaper reporter small business" and look for bylines. State press association directories are often free and list reporter contacts by beat. Muck Rack has a paid database if you want to go deeper, but for most local pitches, a handbuilt list of 5–10 journalists is plenty.

Email them individually. A personalized pitch to five relevant journalists beats a mass blast to fifty every time.

Where and how to distribute your press release

Once you have a polished release, you have two options.

Direct outreach to your media list is the highest-value move — a placement in a local outlet can generate a backlink that lifts your Google Maps ranking. Earned mentions from local news sites are trust signals Google uses in its local search algorithm, which means a single well-placed story can do real SEO work for you.

Free distribution platforms like PRLog{:target="_blank"} and OpenPR{:target="_blank"} can syndicate your release at no cost. Paid services like EIN Presswire{:target="_blank"} (starting around $99 per release) reach AP and Reuters wire feeds if you want broader reach.

Send Tuesday through Thursday, between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. in the journalist's time zone. That's when open rates are highest, consistently, across PR industry research.

Common mistakes to avoid when using AI for PR copy

The AI output sounds stiff and corporate. This happens when your prompt doesn't include enough of your actual voice. The fix: paste in a paragraph you've already written about your business — a bio, a social post, even an email — and ask the AI to match that tone.

The release is too long. AI tends to over-write when given open-ended instructions. If your draft comes back at 700+ words, add "Trim this to under 500 words without removing any facts" and it'll tighten it up.

You forgot the quote. A release without a quote from a real person gets lower pickup rates because journalists have to call you to get one — which is extra work they often skip. If you got a draft back without a quote, prompt: "Add a quote from the business owner expressing [excitement/gratitude/vision] about this news. Here's their name and title: [fill in]."

These are normal first-pass issues, not disasters. One extra prompt fixes each one.

What to do next

Send your first pitch to three journalists you've identified and see what comes back. Even one response is a win worth building on.

If you want to take this further, look into using AI to write your Google Business Profile posts and local content — it connects well with the local search benefits you'll start building through press coverage.

FAQ

Do I need to know AP Style to write a press release for a small business? No — that's exactly what the prompt is for. When you tell ChatGPT or Claude to write in AP Style, the tool applies the formatting rules for you. You just need to supply your facts.

Is a free press release distribution service worth it? For most local businesses, direct outreach to a handful of relevant journalists will outperform any distribution platform — free or paid. A placement in your local paper carries more weight (for SEO and credibility) than syndication on a wire service. Use distribution as a supplement, not your main strategy.

What if a journalist never responds to my pitch? Totally normal. Response rates in PR are low even for professionals. Follow up once, politely, about five business days later. After that, move on and try a different journalist or angle. Timing, topic relevance, and the journalist's current workload all play a role — none of which you can fully control.

Can I reuse the same press release format every time? Yes, and you should. Once you have a format and a boilerplate "About Us" paragraph you're happy with, save them as templates. For each new release, you're updating the facts and the headline — the structure stays the same. That's part of why the second and third releases take a fraction of the time the first one does.

How do I know if my news is actually worth a press release? Ask yourself: would a stranger in my city find this interesting or useful? If yes, pitch it. If the honest answer is "probably not," it might work better as a social post or email newsletter instead. Business anniversaries, community involvement, new hires with a human story, and genuine local firsts tend to land well. A Tuesday promotion on your lunch special does not.

Using AI to write a simple media pitch or press release when your small business has news worth sharing