A press release boilerplate is the "About [Company]" paragraph at the end of every release: what the company does, for whom, one proof of scale and its website. In 16 releases we measured in September 2026, from Apple to the Red Cross, the median was 70 words and 14 ran 53 to 90.
Below: what real boilerplates look like today, a formula, and fifteen examples to copy, one for each kind of organisation that sends press releases. The fifteen examples are invented, so you can reuse the wording; several of them appear in our press release examples, at the bottom of a full release.
What 16 real boilerplates look like (September 2026)
On 25 September 2026 we read the most recent release carrying an "About" paragraph from 16 organisations: big tech, software companies of every size, consumer brands, two nonprofits and a university. We counted the words and noted what each paragraph contains. The releases are linked below; we do not reproduce their text.
| Organisation | Type | Release date | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Enterprise software | 16 Sept. 2026 | 31 |
| Microsoft | Big tech | 21 Sept. 2026 | 53 |
| Figma | Software | 26 Aug. 2026 | 53 |
| Shopify | Commerce software | 5 Aug. 2026 | 54 |
| Eventtia | Small software company | 25 Sept. 2026 | 57 |
| Spotify | Consumer tech | 24 Sept. 2026 | 58 |
| Airbnb | Consumer marketplace | 25 Sept. 2026 | 64 |
| Purdue University | University | 25 Sept. 2026 | 69 |
| Ingka Group (IKEA) | Retail | 21 Sept. 2026 | 71 |
| American Red Cross | Nonprofit | 22 Sept. 2026 | 73 |
| Workday | Enterprise software | 24 Sept. 2026 | 76 |
| Nike | Consumer brand | 28 Aug. 2026 | 79 |
| Starbucks | Consumer brand | 29 July 2026 | 86 |
| Jobber | Mid-size software company | 25 Sept. 2026 | 88 |
| Apple | Big tech | 21 Sept. 2026 | 90 |
| Habitat for Humanity | Nonprofit | 17 Aug. 2026 | 121 |
- Length clusters tightly. The median is 70 words and 14 of the 16 run between 53 and 90 words, in 2 to 5 sentences. The outliers are Salesforce (31 words) and Habitat for Humanity (121).
- Most open with the name and a present-tense verb (11 of 16): "Shopify provides", "Figma is", "The American Red Cross shelters". The others open with history or scale, like Airbnb's founding story.
- The textbook checklist has thinned out. Only 6 give a founding year and 2 a headquarters city. Of the 10 listed companies, only Microsoft puts its ticker in the paragraph; six put it in the first paragraph of the release instead.
- Half make a ranking claim (8 of 16), such as the largest or the most popular. Famous brands can afford it. A company journalists have never heard of should replace the claim with a figure.
- Seven write in the first person, with "we" or "our".
- Some brand newsrooms have dropped the paragraph on their own news posts: none of the six recent Stripe releases we checked has one, nor do Spotify's newsroom posts. They keep it on investor releases and wire copies, which is where journalists and financial terminals pick it up.
| What the paragraph contains | Boilerplates (out of 16) |
|---|---|
| A mission or positioning line | 16 |
| Scale figures (customers, employees, countries, users) | 12 |
| A website address | 10 |
| A list of products or services | 9 |
| The founding year | 6 |
| The headquarters city | 2 |
| The stock ticker | 1 |
| A trademark or legal notice | 1 |
The formula
[Company] [makes / runs / provides] [what] for [whom]. [One or two proofs: customers, users, countries, employees, an outcome.] [Optional: what you sell, in a short list.] Founded in [year], [Company] is based in [city]. (if reporters don't know you yet) [Optional: ticker, licence, tax status, or one concrete mission line.] [website]
That is all a journalist needs to describe you in a sentence. The rest (your history, your values, your awards) belongs on your website, where it can be as long as you like.
15 boilerplate examples by type of organisation
The examples run from 49 to 61 words, inside the range real boilerplates use.
| Type | Example | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Early-stage startup | 1. Loopcart | 53 words |
| B2B software company | 2. Tallyfleet | 58 words |
| Fintech | 3. Paylane | 60 words |
| Healthcare provider | 4. Northbeam Health | 52 words |
| Listed company | 5. Kestrel Analytics | 59 words |
| Nonprofit | 6. Open Shelf Foundation | 54 words |
| University research lab | 7. Coastal Resilience Lab | 55 words |
| PR or marketing agency | 8. Fieldnote PR | 54 words |
| Consumer brand | 9. Tern & Tide | 61 words |
| Local business | 10. Crumb & Co. | 52 words |
| Manufacturer | 11. Ruiz Metalworks | 49 words |
| Independent consultant | 12. Sofia Marin | 56 words |
| Consumer app | 13. Quietly | 55 words |
| Conference or event | 14. Coastal Freight Summit | 55 words |
| Professional services firm | 15. Ashgrove Architects | 54 words |
1. Early-stage startup: Loopcart
About Loopcart
Loopcart runs a reusable container service for grocery deliveries in Oregon and Washington. Customers pay a $2 deposit per container and get it back when they return it at the door or at a partner store. Founded in 2022 in Portland, Loopcart has kept more than 400,000 single-use containers out of landfills. www.loopcart.example
No revenue to show yet, so the proof is an outcome (400,000 containers) and the mechanism is explained in one sentence.
2. B2B software company: Tallyfleet
About Tallyfleet
Tallyfleet makes maintenance software for trucking companies with 50 to 2,000 vehicles. Its platform schedules repairs, tracks parts and flags problems from the data trucks already send, so mechanics know which vehicle to check first. Founded in 2019 and based in San Francisco, Tallyfleet is used by more than 300 fleets in the United States and Canada. www.tallyfleet.example
The customer is defined by size, so a reporter knows at once whether this is an enterprise or a small-business story.
3. Fintech: Paylane
About Paylane
Paylane runs payroll, benefits and tax filing for small businesses in the United States. More than 6,500 companies with 2 to 200 employees pay their teams through Paylane, which moved 4.1 billion dollars in wages in 2025. The company was founded in 2017, is headquartered in New York and is a registered payroll service provider in all 50 states. www.paylane.example
In regulated sectors, the licence or registration belongs in the boilerplate. It answers the reader's trust question before it is asked.
4. Healthcare provider: Northbeam Health
About Northbeam Health
Northbeam Health runs home dialysis programs for rural patients in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. Its nurses train patients to treat themselves at home and support them by phone and video, in partnership with 60 kidney specialists' practices. Founded in 2020 and based in Nashville, Northbeam cares for 2,100 patients. www.northbeam.example
It lists the states instead of saying "the Southeast": local reporters search for their own state.
5. Listed company: Kestrel Analytics
About Kestrel Analytics
Kestrel Analytics (Nasdaq: [TICKER]) provides credit, fraud and operational risk software to 180 regional banks and credit unions in North America. Its platform monitors more than 4 million loans and checks wire transfers for fraud before they are sent. Founded in 2015, the company is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and employs 640 people. For more information, visit investors.kestrel.example.
The ticker comes right after the name and the link points to investor relations, where financial readers go. In our study, most listed companies put the ticker in the first paragraph instead; both work. Forward-looking statement disclaimers go in a separate section.
6. Nonprofit: Open Shelf Foundation
About Open Shelf Foundation
The Open Shelf Foundation puts free books in the hands of children in rural counties that have no public library. Since 2011 it has delivered 1.8 million books through school buses, clinics and laundromats in 14 states. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Asheville, North Carolina. Learn more or donate at openshelf.example.
The mission is stated as a concrete act (books to children without a library), followed by proof and tax status.
7. University research lab: Coastal Resilience Lab
About Coastal Resilience Lab
The Coastal Resilience Lab at Harbor State University studies how rising seas and storms affect coastal towns, and works with local governments to plan for them. Its 22 researchers have advised 40 municipalities on the Atlantic coast since the lab opened in 2016, and its flood maps are free for any town to use. coastal.harborstate.example
Research units get covered when they are useful to someone outside the university. This one says who it works with and what it gives away.
8. PR or marketing agency: Fieldnote PR
About Fieldnote PR
Fieldnote PR is a public relations agency for climate and energy companies. Its team of 15 has run launches, funding announcements and crisis communications for more than 60 clients in Europe and North America since 2018, from battery makers to grid software companies and climate funds. Fieldnote is based in Amsterdam and Boston. www.fieldnote.example
An agency boilerplate should name its specialty. "Full-service agency" tells a journalist nothing.
9. Consumer brand: Tern & Tide
About Tern & Tide
Tern & Tide makes swimwear from recycled fishing nets collected in the Mediterranean. Each suit uses the nylon from about 1.5 kilograms of recovered nets, and the company publishes where every batch comes from. Its suits are sold online and in 120 shops in 9 countries. Tern & Tide was founded in 2020 in Marseille by two former sailing instructors. www.ternandtide.example
A consumer boilerplate can carry a bit of story (the founders) as long as the rest is facts a reporter can check.
10. Local business: Crumb & Co.
About Crumb & Co.
Crumb & Co. is an independent bakery in Riverton, Ohio, with shops on 5th Street and Mill Road. It bakes bread and pastries every morning from flour milled in the county and employs 30 people, 12 of them hired through the county's re-entry job program. Nadia Brooks founded it in 2019. www.crumbandco.example
Both addresses, the founder's name and one local detail: what a local paper needs.
11. Manufacturer: Ruiz Metalworks
About Ruiz Metalworks
Ruiz Metalworks machines precision metal parts for agricultural and construction equipment makers. The family-owned company employs 140 people at its plant in Toledo, Ohio, makes about 2 million parts a year and ships to customers in 11 countries. It is ISO 9001 certified and was founded in 1978. www.ruizmetal.example
Trade reporters and buyers want the end markets, the plant location and the capacity. All three are here.
12. Independent consultant: Sofia Marin
About Sofia Marin
Sofia Marin is a brand strategist who helps companies with 50 to 500 employees rename and rebrand. She has led 40 rebrands since 2012 for software, healthcare and retail companies in Europe and Latin America. She previously ran brand strategy at a design agency in Madrid and teaches a naming course at a business school. www.sofiamarin.example
For a person, the boilerplate works as a short bio: specialty, track record, one credential.
13. Consumer app: Quietly
About Quietly
Quietly is a sleep app that coaches people with insomnia through a six-week program based on cognitive behavioral therapy. It has been downloaded 2.4 million times and is available in English, Spanish and German, at 59 euros a year with the first week free. Quietly was founded in 2021 and is based in Berlin. www.quietly.example
It names the method (cognitive behavioral therapy) instead of promising results a boilerplate cannot back up.
14. Conference or event: Coastal Freight Summit
About Coastal Freight Summit
The Coastal Freight Summit brings together port operators, shipping lines and logistics buyers each spring in Savannah, Georgia. Sessions cover port automation, customs and cold-chain logistics. The 2027 edition, on April 13 and 14, expects 2,500 attendees and 120 speakers, and is free for port authority staff. The summit was first held in 2014. www.freightsummit.example
An event boilerplate needs the next date and the expected size, and has to be updated after each edition.
15. Professional services firm: Ashgrove Architects
About Ashgrove Architects
Ashgrove Architects is a 20-person architecture practice in Hartford, Connecticut, that designs public buildings and restores historic ones. Its work includes libraries, schools and town halls across New England, including 14 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. The firm was founded in 2008 and has won 11 state and regional awards. www.ashgrove.example
It names the building types, which is how editors of trade and local press sort their stories.
Before and after
A boilerplate as it is often written:
InnoCloud is a leading provider of innovative, AI-powered cloud solutions that empower businesses of all sizes to unlock their full potential. With a passion for excellence and a customer-first mindset, InnoCloud is revolutionizing the way the world works.
Forty words, and a reporter still does not know what InnoCloud sells, to whom, how big it is or where it is. The same company, rewritten with facts:
InnoCloud sells cloud hosting and backup to independent retailers with one to twenty shops. About 3,000 retailers in the UK and Ireland use it to run their tills, stock and online orders, and it processed 9 million transactions last year. Founded in 2016, InnoCloud is based in Leeds. www.innocloud.example
Common mistakes
- Adjectives instead of facts. Leading, innovative, world-class, cutting-edge. Replace each with a number or delete it.
- Old numbers. A customer count from two years ago gets copied into articles, then into AI answers about you.
- A different version everywhere. Website, LinkedIn, Crunchbase and your releases should describe the company the same way.
- Contact details inside the boilerplate. They go in the media contact block below it.
- Too long. Past 100 words, the paragraph turns into a sales page, and on wires that bill by length, you pay for it.
- No website. The one link every reporter uses to check who you are.
How to write yours in 15 minutes
- Say what you do, for whom. Write one sentence in the present tense: the name, what you make or do, and who it is for. 11 of the 16 real boilerplates we measured open this way.
- Add one or two proofs of scale. Customers, users, countries, employees or an outcome. 12 of the 16 include at least one figure. Pick numbers you are happy to see quoted, and can source.
- Add the founding year and location if journalists do not know you. Big brands skip them (only 6 and 2 of the 16 include them) because everyone knows who they are. A company a reporter has never heard of needs both.
- End with the website. One URL, the homepage or investor relations page. Contact details go in the media contact block below the boilerplate.
- Read it next to your About page. The boilerplate, the About page and your LinkedIn description should say the same thing with the same numbers. Update all three when a number changes.
The last step matters more than it used to. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google what your company does, the answer is assembled from the descriptions of you that appear most often. A boilerplate repeated on every release, and matching your About page, is one of the few places where you write that description yourself.
FAQ
What is a boilerplate in a press release?
The boilerplate is the standard "About [Company]" paragraph at the end of a press release, after the last quote and before the media contact. It tells journalists who the company is in a few lines, and stays the same from one release to the next until a fact changes.
How long should a press release boilerplate be?
About 50 to 100 words. In 16 recent releases we measured in September 2026, from Apple to the American Red Cross, the median was 70 words and 14 of the 16 ran 53 to 90 words, in 2 to 5 sentences. Length has a cost on the big wires: Business Wire counts the boilerplate in its word total and charges 195 USD per 100 words beyond 400 (Prezly, verified August 2026).
What should a company boilerplate include?
What the company does and for whom, one or two figures that show its size, and its website. Companies journalists do not know yet should add the founding year and the city. Listed companies add their ticker, here or in the first paragraph; regulated companies add their licence or registration; nonprofits add their tax status.
Should a boilerplate include a mission statement?
All 16 real boilerplates we measured carry a mission or positioning line, so yes, but make it concrete. "We put free books in the hands of children in counties without a library" is a mission a reporter can use. "We empower communities through innovative solutions" is not.
Can a boilerplate be written in the first person?
Yes. 7 of the 16 real boilerplates we measured use "we" or "our", including Apple's and the American Red Cross's. The third person is still the safer default, because journalists copy the paragraph into articles.
How often should you update your boilerplate?
Whenever a number in it changes, and at least once a quarter. An old customer count or employee number is the most common error, and it gets copied into articles and AI answers about you.
What happens to the boilerplate in a joint press release?
Each organisation gets its own "About" paragraph, one after the other, usually in the order the companies appear in the headline. Each company approves its own.
Is boilerplate text the same as an About Us page?
It is the short version of it. The About page can tell the story; the boilerplate keeps the facts. They should never contradict each other, because journalists, search engines and AI assistants read both.
Related guides
- Press release examples: 10 annotated samples
- Media pitch examples: 12 annotated emails
- Boilerplate: definition
- How to write a press release
- Free press release templates
A release with its boilerplate, drafted in minutes
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