Mini-Project 4: A One-Page Press Release for Your Local Paper

Local newspapers and TV stations love a good ‘local students do impressive things’ story, but only if you hand it to them in the format they expect. A press release is a one-page document a reporter can lightly edit and run.

The format (top to bottom):

1. Header: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE in caps, top-left.
2. Contact block: a named media contact (an adult mentor for off-hours calls), phone, email, and your team website/socials.
3. Headline: active, specific, ~10 words. Bad: ‘Our Team Did an Event.’ Good: ‘Local FRC Team 1234 Teaches 200 Elementary Students to Build Robots.’
4. Dateline + lead: CITY, STATE — Month Day, Year — followed by a lead paragraph answering who, what, when, where, why in 2-3 sentences. Reporters may print only this paragraph, so it must stand alone.
5. Body (2-3 short paragraphs): the details and one human quote from a student or mentor. Quotes are gold — reporters love a printable line like, ‘Watching a third-grader’s face light up when their robot moves is why we do this,’ said team captain Jane Doe.
6. Boilerplate: a standard ‘About Team 1234’ paragraph you reuse every time (founding year, school, mission, sponsors).
7. End mark: ### or -30- centered, the traditional journalism signal that the release is over.

Length and timing: Keep it to 300-500 words, roughly one page. Journalists prefer concise. Send event announcements 2-4 weeks ahead for coverage; send results within 24-48 hours while they’re still news.

Worked example lead:

SPRINGFIELD, IL — March 14, 2026 — Springfield High School’s robotics team, FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1234 ‘The Voltage,’ clinched a spot on the winning alliance at the Central Illinois Regional this weekend, earning enough qualification points to advance the all-student team to the FIRST Championship in Houston for the first time in school history.

That single sentence gives a reporter a complete, runnable story.

Photos and consent: Attach 2-3 high-resolution horizontal photos with caption text and a photographer credit. Reporters often skip stories with no usable art. Important: it is FIRST policy not to print a minor’s name with their picture without specific permission from the parent or guardian, so confirm permission before captioning students by name (or use first names / unnamed wide shots).

Distribution:

• Build a media list: the education or community reporter at each local outlet (find the byline, email them directly — not the generic newsroom inbox).
• Follow up once, politely, 2-3 days later.

Keep a reusable template and your boilerplate in your team drive so any student can fill in the specifics and send within an hour of an event.

Key takeaways

• Use the standard structure: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, contact block, headline, dateline lead, body with a quote, boilerplate, and ###.
• Keep it to 300-500 words and make the lead paragraph stand alone — that may be all that gets printed.
• Email the specific education/community reporter by name, not the generic newsroom inbox, and attach hi-res horizontal photos.
• Send announcements 2-4 weeks ahead and results within 24-48 hours; never caption a minor by name without documented parent permission (FIRST policy).

This lesson was adapted from learnfrc.com.