A well-written press release can earn your company media coverage, establish credibility with investors and partners, improve SEO through high-authority backlinks, and build your brand's public profile. But writing a press release that actually gets picked up—rather than ending up in a journalist's trash folder—requires specific knowledge of AP style, newsroom formats, and what makes a story genuinely newsworthy. A press release writing virtual assistant handles drafting, formatting, and distribution so your news reaches the right journalists in the right format. This guide covers what a press release VA does, what to pay, and how to hire one.
What This VA Does
| Task | Details |
|---|---|
| Story angle development | Identifies the most newsworthy angle for your announcement based on current media trends |
| Press release drafting | Writes press releases in AP style with headline, dateline, body, and boilerplate sections |
| Quote drafting | Drafts executive quotes for review and approval before inclusion |
| Media list research | Builds targeted journalist and editor contact lists relevant to your industry and story |
| Distribution | Submits press releases through PR Newswire, Business Wire, or direct journalist outreach |
| Follow-up pitching | Sends personalized follow-up pitches to key journalists who didn't respond to the initial release |
| Coverage tracking | Monitors for pickups, backlinks, and brand mentions resulting from the release |
| Press kit maintenance | Keeps your media kit (company fact sheet, exec bios, high-res images) updated and ready |
Skills and Tools Required
A press release writing VA needs strong journalistic writing skills and fluency with AP style. They should understand the difference between a press release that announces news and one that reads like a marketing pitch—the former gets picked up, the latter gets deleted. Media relations experience is a significant advantage.
Key tools: PR Newswire or Business Wire for wire distribution, Muck Rack or Cision for media list building, Google News Alerts for coverage tracking, Grammarly for proofreading, and Google Docs or Notion for drafts and approvals.
What to Pay
| Level | Rate |
|---|---|
| Entry | $7–$12/hr |
| Mid | $12–$20/hr |
| Specialist | $20–$28/hr |
Per-release pricing ($100–$300 per press release including drafting and distribution) is a common alternative for businesses that publish press releases quarterly rather than continuously.
How to Hire
Before your first press release, prepare a company boilerplate (a 100-word "About Us" paragraph in AP style), a list of recent company milestones, and executive headshots and bios. Your VA will need these for every release, so having them ready from day one saves time.
During interviews, ask candidates to identify which aspect of your most recent company news they would pitch as the most newsworthy angle and why. Their answer reveals their editorial judgment. Ask for writing samples of past press releases and check whether any of the companies they've worked with received actual media coverage.
Set a review workflow: draft submitted → your edits → final review → distribution. Never distribute without your sign-off on the final version.
"Most press releases fail not because the news isn't interesting but because they're written for marketing audiences instead of journalists. A skilled VA knows the difference." — PR agency founder
For related reading, see our guides on virtual assistant for online reputation management and virtual assistant for newsletter curation.
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