The quote is the only part of a press release a journalist can lift word for word and print under your name. It is also the part most companies waste. This guide covers what makes a quote usable, the test that catches a bad one in seconds, and who should be saying it.
The delete test
Cover the quote with your hand and read the release without it. If nothing is lost, it is not a quote — it is decoration.
Most quotes fail this immediately, because they repeat what the paragraph above already said, in a more excited voice.
| Fails the test | Survives it |
|---|---|
| We are thrilled to launch this exciting new product | We built it because our support team was answering the same question forty times a week |
| This partnership marks an important milestone in our journey | Neither of us could serve these customers alone, and we had both tried |
| We are committed to delivering excellence to our customers | Our delivery times had slipped to nine days and we stopped taking new accounts until we fixed it |
The right-hand column contains information that appears nowhere else in the release. That is the whole job of a quote.
What a usable quote contains
A quote earns its place when it carries something the factual paragraphs cannot: judgement, reasoning, or an admission. Facts belong in the body. Opinion belongs in the quote.
- Why you did it — the problem, constraint or decision behind the announcement
- What surprised you — what turned out harder, slower or different than expected
- What it changes — for a customer, an employee, a market
- What you got wrong — the single most quotable thing a company can say
That last one is uncomfortable and it works. An executive saying “we underestimated this by about a year” is the sentence a journalist writes the story around, because it is the only sentence in the release that could not have come from a template.
Who should be quoted
The default is the CEO. The default is often wrong.
| Announcement | Best voice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Product or feature launch | Whoever built it | They know what was hard |
| Funding round | Founder, plus the lead investor | Two perspectives on the same decision |
| New hire | The person hired, not the person hiring | Their reason for joining is the story |
| Operational change | The operations lead | Specifics a CEO would not have |
| Crisis or recall | The most senior person available | Seniority signals that it is being taken seriously |
One strong quote beats three weak ones. A release with quotes from the CEO, the CTO and a board member usually says the same thing three times.
Write it as speech
Read the quote out loud. If you would never say it in a meeting, do not put quotation marks around it.
The tell is vocabulary. Nobody says “leverage”, “synergies”, “best-in-class” or “we are excited to unveil” out loud. Marketing prose inside quotation marks reads as fabricated, and the journalist knows the executive did not say it — because you wrote it and emailed it for approval.
- One or two sentences. Anything longer gets cut in the middle, and you do not control where.
- Contractions are fine. People use them.
- No second person. “You can now do X” is advertising copy.
- No stacked adjectives. “Innovative, scalable, industry-leading platform” is three words of nothing.
Attribution and approval
- Full name, exact job title, company — on first mention, spelled as they spell it
- “said”, not “commented” or “stated” — “said” is invisible, which is the point
- Get written approval before publication, even for a quote you drafted for them
- Do not soften it in review. The specific sentence is usually the first thing an approver removes, and removing it is what makes the release unusable
If a quote comes back from legal or from the executive with every number and every admission stripped out, the honest move is to ask what can replace them. A quote that survives review by saying nothing is worse than no quote at all.
A worked before and after
BEFORE “We are incredibly excited to announce this transformative new platform, which represents a significant milestone in our mission to deliver best-in-class solutions to our valued customers,” said Dana Whitfield, CEO of Harbour Logistics. AFTER “Dispatchers were keeping a paper list next to the screen because the software could not show them two depots at once,” said Dana Whitfield, CEO of Harbour Logistics. “We watched them do it for two years before we understood what it meant.”
The second version is the same length. It contains a specific image, an admission, and a reason the product exists — none of which appear anywhere else in the release. A journalist can build a paragraph from it. The first version cannot be used for anything.
Related guides
- How to Write a Press Release
- Press Release Examples
- Press Release Boilerplate: What It Is and How to Write One
- How to Pitch a Story to a Journalist
References
- The AP Stylebook — attribution, titles and the use of “said”.
- Poynter reporting on ethics and trust — how newsrooms treat supplied quotes.
Frequently asked questions
Does a press release need a quote?
Almost always, because it is the only part a journalist can reproduce verbatim and attribute. The exception is a short factual notice such as a date change. If the only quote available is a line of enthusiasm that repeats the paragraph above it, the release is stronger without one.
How long should a press release quote be?
One or two sentences, around 25 to 45 words. Longer quotes get cut, and the journalist decides where the cut falls. Two short sentences also let a publication use just the first one without losing the meaning.
Can I write the quote for the executive?
Yes, and it is standard practice — but get written approval before publication, and write it in words that person would actually use. A drafted quote is fine. A drafted quote that nobody could say out loud is what makes a release read as fabricated.
How many quotes should a press release have?
One, in most cases. Two when a second party is genuinely involved, such as an investor in a funding round or the other company in a partnership. Three quotes from the same organisation usually say the same thing three times and dilute all of them.
Should the CEO always be the one quoted?
No. Quote whoever has the most specific knowledge of what the announcement covers — the person who built the product, ran the operation, or made the decision. A CEO quote on a technical launch is usually vaguer than one from the engineer who shipped it.
Next
For the surrounding format see how to write a press release, and press release examples for quotes in context. When the draft is ready, submit it or see the plans.
