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TL;DR - Key takeaways:
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Somewhere in a newsroom, a journalist has twenty tabs open, two deadlines approaching, Slack notifications firing nonstop, and another (sigh) pitch landing in their inbox.
They’re moving at lightning speed, as are the systems helping them behind the scenes.
According to Muck Rack’s 2025 State of Journalism research, 77% of journalists now use AI tools in their workflow. Nearly half use ChatGPT specifically.
At the same time, only 20% of journalists say they consistently have enough time to do their work to the standard they want.
Journalists need material they can work with quickly. AI systems are on the hunt for language they can interpret and surface. Both are scanning for the same thing: something worth repeating.
That something is usually a press release quote - if it's any good.
The right one gives your company a voice inside the story, adds context, and is often the sentence someone copies into an article, references in a newsletter, or spots in an AI-generated summary.
And when we say the ‘right quote’ we don’t mean:
“We’re excited to announce this important milestone as part of our continued commitment to innovation and customer success.”
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In this post, we’ll cover why some press release quotes get lifted while others sit there sounding like they they went through seven rounds of approval, each sucking more life out of it than the last.
Most bad quotes share the same problem: they repeat information readers already saw in the headline or body copy.
For example:
Headline:
Acme launches AI tool reducing customer response times by 35%
Body copy:
The tool automatically categorizes and routes support requests.
Quote:
“We’re excited to launch this new tool and provide better experiences for our customers.”
The quote has nothing new to add. No insider insight, no personal opinion, no additional context. It’s dead air.
Journalists are already short on time. According to Muck Rack, 86% ignore pitches that are off-topic.
And according to PR News Online, journalists increasingly appreciate ready-to-use assets that reduce work on their side.
That includes:
AI systems behave in a similar way, looking for concise statements that explain significance or add a POV.
If your quote says nothing, there is nothing to reuse.
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RESOURCE ALERT Quotes are just one piece of the puzzle. If your press releases are getting ignored more broadly, here's a look at the 6 most common PR content mistakes - and how to fix them. |
Strong quotes make a journalist’s job easier. They also give AI systems cleaner signals about what your company actually thinks.
Picture a journalist writing a story about a company launching a new employee onboarding platform. They already have the launch date, the feature list, and the customer numbers.
What they don't have is a human angle:
Instead of:
“We’re excited to launch this new platform.”
You want:
“People decide whether they belong long before their first day. It’s a fragile time period and many companies largely ignore it. Our aim is to give new hires the software equivalent of a warm hug during that crucial pre-start period.”
That’s a thought someone can work with.
| RESOURCE ALERT The quote gets you into the story. The pitch gets the story to the journalist. Here's the difference between a media pitch and a press release - and when to use each. >>> Check out the blog |
Don’t expect a perfect formula - press release quotes are not Lego - but there are patterns. The ones that get lifted tend to do several of these things at once, while the best ones manage to do all of them and still sound like a real person said them.
The body explains what happened, and the quote explains why somebody should care. Those are two different jobs.
❌ Bad:
“Today we announced the launch of our employee app.”
✅ Better:
“Employees already use consumer apps that feel personal and intuitive every day. Workplace tools are finally catching up.”
Some quotes sound like they were assembled by six people and approved by three departments.
People don’t speak that way.
They pause, generalize, use contractions and (occasionally) have opinions - yes, even CEOs.
❌ Bad:
“We are delighted to leverage our technology capabilities to create enhanced user experiences.”
✅ Better:
“People get frustrated when software adds steps instead of removing them.”
If you can almost hear someone saying it, that’s usually a good sign.
Strong quotes take a position, not necessarily an extreme position, but something beyond banalities.
❌ Bad:
“The market continues evolving rapidly.”
✅ Better:
“For years, companies treated cybersecurity as an IT problem. That was the mistake. Customers experience it as a trust problem.”
Someone reading that learns something new about your company’s approach.
Long executive speeches rarely survive intact. Journalists cut them and AI systems summarize them. So you might as well be the one who chooses what stays and what goes.
Aim for roughly one to three sentences. If you need to take a breath halfway through reading it aloud, that’s your cue to cut.
Ask yourself: Could someone copy this sentence into a story immediately without losing context?
If yes, you’re on the right track.
| RESOURCE ALERT Press release quotes are increasingly citation material for AI systems - which means how you structure and publish them matters. Here's a practical guide to making your newsroom content work for both search and AI discovery. >>> Check out the blog |
Your CEO isn’t automatically the best person.
Often the better choice is:
If you want the quote to be on-point, you need to match the person to the story.
Cybersecurity story? Use the security lead.
Hiring trend story? Use the HR director.
Retail data story? Use the commercial lead.
The closer the speaker sits to the topic, the more natural the quote will feel.
Certain words trigger immediate press release fatigue.
You’ve seen them:
These words usually replace actual substance (and they kinda make you sound like an amateur).
Try replacing adjectives with observations.
Instead of:
“We’re excited to introduce our cutting-edge AI platform.”
Go with:
“Teams were spending hours searching through support tickets for recurring issues. The system now identifies those patterns in minutes.”
Specific outperforms generic every time.
A B2B software company is announcing an AI assistant that helps customer support teams find answers faster. They've included the product name, key features, and a stat on response time improvement in the body copy.
❌ Bad
“We’re excited to launch our new AI assistant and continue delivering innovation to customers.”
✅ Better
“Support teams spend a surprising amount of time hunting for answers they already have somewhere. We wanted to stop people searching for information and start putting information in front of them.”
A mid-sized food manufacturer is announcing a new packaging reduction programme, cutting single-use plastic across its product lines by 40% over two years.
❌ Bad
“This initiative reflects our commitment to sustainability and our future vision.”
✅ Better
"We kept setting targets and missing them for three years in a row. At some point you have to stop and ask whether you're actually solving the problem or just getting better at talking about it. For us, the answer was in the materials. So that's where we started."
A fast-growing fintech is announcing a new Chief Risk Officer, brought in as the company prepares to expand into three new European markets.
❌ Bad
“We are delighted to welcome Sarah to the company.”
✅ Better
"Expanding into new markets means dealing with regulation that looks completely different depending on where you are. Sarah has spent fifteen years doing exactly that. We needed someone who'd already made the mistakes we haven't made yet."
A HR technology company is announcing a new integration partnership with a payroll software provider. The combined offering will let customers move employee data between platforms without manual exports.
❌ Bad
"We're thrilled to partner with PayrollPro and deliver even more value to our shared customers."
✅ Better
"We'd been watching customers build their own workarounds for years - spreadsheets, manual exports, weekend fixes. That's usually a sign that two tools should be one conversation. Now they are."
A food and beverage brand is responding to a supply chain disruption that has caused product shortages across several retail partners. The issue has been picked up in trade press.
❌ Bad
"We apologize for any inconvenience caused and are working hard to resolve the situation as quickly as possible."
✅ Better
"Some of our retail partners are seeing gaps on shelf and we know that's frustrating. The short version is that one of our key suppliers went down unexpectedly and we're rebuilding that part of the chain. We expect normal supply by the end of the month and we'll update this page if that changes."
A quote gives a spokesperson space to add interpretation, opinion, or context around the announcement. It should do something the body copy can't, such as add a human voice, take a position, or explain why the news matters. If it just repeats what the headline already said, it isn't pulling its weight.
The best press release quotes examples tend to come from announcements where the spokesperson adds perspective rather than repeating facts. Looking at strong press release examples across product launches, partnerships, hiring announcements, and crisis communications can help you identify common patterns.
Most press releases work well with one or two quotes. One strong quote from the right person usually does more than three average ones. Too many quotes can fragment the story and dilute the message, especially if they all say variations of the same thing.
One to three sentences is usually the sweet spot. Long quotes get cut by journalists and summarized by AI systems, so it's better to make the editorial decision yourself. If you can't read it aloud in one breath, it's probably too long.
The person closest to the story, not necessarily the most senior person in the room. A product leader, researcher, regional manager, or customer-facing team member will often produce a more credible and specific quote than a CEO speaking in generalities. Match the spokesperson to the subject matter.
AI can help with first drafts and brainstorming, and it's a useful starting point when you're stuck. But generic language surfaces quickly and perspective disappears fast. Any AI-assisted quote needs a human edit, ideally from the person being quoted, to make sure it actually sounds like them.
Most do benefit from one. A good quote adds a layer of meaning the body copy can't provide on its own. But if there's genuinely no perspective to add, leaving it out is better than forcing weak filler into the story. A missing quote is less damaging than a bad one.
Press release quotes shape how people understand the story after they leave your brand newsroom.
Increasingly, they are also the line AI systems surface back to readers, which puts a lot more weight on the words inside those quotation marks.
So don’t waste them.
Facts belong in the body copy. The quote is where a real person gets to explain what those facts mean. If all they can add is “we’re delighted,” they probably shouldn’t be the one speaking.
Want to find out for yourself if your own press releases are doing enough to earn attention?
Watch our recent webinar session - The PR Content Roast - on demand and see what makes PR content get skipped, skimmed, or picked up.