The Associated Press is a news wire service that has brought over thousands of clients to their brand ever since 1881. The first ever report comes from an employee named Frank Trusdell as he gave updates on President James Garfield outside of his hospital room after coming off getting shot. As the current state lies, The White House placed a ban on the AP over the use of the ‘Gulf of Mexico’, this was effective for the Oval Office and Air Force One. The reason of this comes from President Trump and the administration renamed it the Gulf of America. The company right now has the world’s largest news organization that hired around 3,700 employees in 121 countries. These reporters have written dispatches for readers when it comes to a wide range of political views. The AP stylebook also delivers the skill of clearing up news organization’s rules on grammar which started in 1977.

AP Style refers to the English style and usage guide for journalism and news writing, such as magazines and newspapers. The style guide is published in the Associated Press Stylebook.

I asked our PR and growth experts to provide startups with a brief introduction of AP as an organization and describe the importance of the AP Stylebook as a reference for startup press releases.

The experts will also highlight some of the AP Stylebook's implementation of style.

Read ahead and learn how to improve your press announcements.

• Speak the language of journalists
• Keep the AP Stylebook subscription on your phone
• Standards for how media content is written and shared
• AP-compliant press releases are a sign of consideration
• Provide publish-ready writing
• Articulate actual news
• How journalists expect announcements to be structured
• Mirror the way newsrooms write
• Don't write the way you pitch, write the way editors read.
• Lead with facts, then context
• Sound like someone worth publishing
• Increase media receptivity to your announcements
• Ditch buzzwords and embrace clarity
• Make your announcement easier to scan

Speak the language of journalists

Pilar Lewis​​​​, Public Relations Associate at Marketri

"For any press release, startup or not, AP Style is crucial. It’s the standard most journalists are used to, so writing in that format shows you understand how the media works. You’re basically speaking their language. The Associated Press Stylebook covers all the little things like how to format dates, how to use titles, how to handle numbers, and those details really matter. If your release is clean and easy to pull from, it’s way more likely to be taken seriously. Reporters don’t have time to fix formatting or reword things, so making it easy on them can go a long way."

Keep the AP Stylebook subscription on your phone

Jasmine Charbonier, Content Marketing Strategist

"Let me share what I've learned from writing many press releases over my 10-year career in communications. AP Style isn't just a set of rules — it's the foundation of clear, consistent news writing. I've seen so many press releases get tossed aside because they didn't follow these guidelines.

The thing about AP Style is that it's constantly evolving. In April, they made some pretty significant updates (keeping me on my toes). One of the biggest things I emphasize to my clients is numbers — write out numbers one through nine, then use numerals for 10 & above. Though there are exceptions, like using numerals for ages, percentages & measurements. I learned this one the hard way after a client's release got rejected by WSJ.

Why AP Style matters for press releases:
From my experience working with major news outlets, I can tell you that editors won't even look twice at a release that ignores AP Style. It's kinda like speaking their language — when they see proper AP formatting, it signals you're a pro who understands their world.

I've had releases picked up by Reuters & Bloomberg simply because they were perfectly formatted. The thing is, most journalists receive 100+ pitches daily (trust me, I used to be one). They're looking for any reason to hit delete. Bad AP Style gives them that reason.

Key AP Style rules I always follow:
Here's what's worked for me consistently. Dates should never include st, nd, rd or th (write June 15, not June 15th). State names need to be spelled out when they stand alone, but abbreviated when used with a city (except for AK, HI & 8 others).

And punctuation — man, this trips up so many people. In AP Style, we don't use the Oxford comma in a simple series. Plus, periods & commas always go inside quotation marks. I once lost a major media placement because of misplaced punctuation (a mistake I'll never repeat).

Common AP Style mistakes to avoid:
After reviewing countless releases, I see the same errors pop up. People love capitalizing job titles when they shouldn't — only capitalize when they're directly before a name. And company names... don't blindly follow how the company writes it. AP has specific rules about things like Co. vs Company & Inc vs Incorporated.

The most painful lesson I learned was about time formatting. Had a release go out with "10:00 AM" instead of "10 a.m." Seems minor, but it made us look amateur to our media contacts. Now I'm religious about using lowercase a.m. & p.m. with periods.

Best practices for maintaining AP Style:
I keep the online AP Stylebook subscription on my phone — it's worth every penny. When I'm unsure about something (happens more than I'd like to admit), I can quickly look it up. Started doing this after sending out a release with "healthcare" as one word when AP Style prefers "health care" as two words.

The most valuable tip I can share: Create your own cheat sheet of frequently used terms & rules. Mine's a messy Google doc that I've been updating for years. It's saved me countless hours of rechecking the same things over & over."

Standards for how media content is written and shared

Todd Stephenson, Co-Founder at Roof Quotes

"AP, or the Associated Press, has been around since the 1800s. It started with a few New York newspapers teaming up to cover the news more efficiently and eventually grew into one of the most trusted names in journalism. They’ve got people on the ground pretty much everywhere, whether it’s politics, sports, or global events. What makes them stand out is how consistent they are with facts, speed, and keeping things neutral. Since so many news outlets rely on them, their standards tend to shape how a lot of media content is written and shared.

The AP Stylebook is like their house rules for writing. I’ve used it to clean up press releases and make sure they don’t get tossed just because of how something was phrased. It keeps things simple and easy to follow. Things like how to write dates, use titles, or even where a comma should go might seem small, but they matter. If a startup wants its release picked up without extra editing, sticking to AP style makes a big difference. It’s saved me time and helped Roof Quotes look a lot more professional out of the gate."

AP-compliant press releases are a sign of consideration

Liam Perkins, Digital Marketing Manager at Privr

"The Associated Press (AP) is a global news agency founded in 1846, renowned for setting the standard in journalistic integrity and clarity. Its AP Stylebook serves as the definitive guide for news writing, ensuring consistency across media outlets, from The New York Times to local blogs. For startups, AP Style isn’t just about rules, it’s about speaking the media’s language.

Key AP Style Highlights
Two non-negotiables:

1) Title capitalization (e.g., “CEO Jane Doe” capitalized before the name, lowercase after: “Jane Doe, chief executive officer”).

2) Numerals (spell out one through nine, use figures for 10+). These nuances prevent distractions, letting your message shine. For example, “The startup raised $5M” (not “five million”) aligns with AP’s crisp, data-forward tone.

Why Startups Should Care
Journalists receive numerous pitches daily, making AP-compliant press releases a sign of professionalism and consideration for their workflow. Our LGBTQ+ dating app's launch release adhered to AP guidelines, correctly highlighting user growth ("10K sign-ups in 3 months") and CEO titles, which helped us gain media coverage. Following AP style isn't restrictive, it's a shortcut to establishing credibility."

Provide publish-ready writing

Danilo Coviello, Founding Partner at Espresso Translations

"I am pretty obsessive about clean, publish-ready writing, especially in press releases, and AP style has saved me more times than I can count. The Associated Press has been around since the 1800s and feeds stories to over half the planet daily. People tend to overlook the fact that numerous professional business writing conventions originate from the guidelines of AP.I have translated press kits where the original English was a mess: stacked commas, inconsistent punctuation, padded phrases. Fixing that with AP structure made the translations faster and more accurate across six languages. No fluff, no confusion. That kind of consistency keeps things moving, especially when deadlines are tight.

For startups trying to get picked up, it is non-negotiable. I’ve worked with early-stage teams in B2B tech who could not get a single reply. We streamlined their extended and tangled releases into The Associated Press style which uses basic data structures together with precise headlines and brief textual content. One SaaS client went from zero coverage to landing a two-paragraph blurb in VentureBeat in under a week. It wasn’t the story that changed. It was how we told it. AP style gives your pitch the best shot at being copy-paste ready, and that’s what editors want."

Articulate actual news

Spencer Romenco, Chief Growth Strategist at Growth Spurt

"Among the oldest and most trustworthy news outlets worldwide, the Associated Press ranks. The stylebook gives simple rules for writing that is clear, neat, and easy to follow. I use it to help me write a press copy that avoids mistakes, like saying “10 AM in the morning” or randomly capitalizing job titles.

The AP Stylebook keeps it straightforward. I have seen press releases from startups filled with phrases like “world’s first AI-powered platform” or “game-changing SaaS breakthrough,” and none of it went through an editor. That kind of talk seems needy, not like actual news.

Moreover, I follow AP Style to ensure that what founders say is straightforward and truthful. It’s more effective to say “our tool helps schedule meetings faster” than to say “our platform revolutionizes time management.” It looks simple, but that change gets more media buzz because it seems real."

How journalists expect announcements to be structured

Hone John Tito, Co-Founder at Game Host Bros

"I am constantly cleaning up press releases for our team or partners who try to get media attention and end up sounding like a blog post. That’s where AP matters. The Associated Press is the largest news agency in the world, with over 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters using its content. Their Stylebook isn’t just guidelines. It’s how the majority of journalists expect writing to be structured. If you're not following it, you're just making it harder for editors to take you seriously. The rules aren’t random either. Like writing out numbers one through nine or only capitalizing job titles when they come before a name — those rules exist because they speed up editing and scanning. Most writers mess this up and it instantly kills your pitch.

If you're a startup trying to break through the noise, AP style isn’t optional. Most editors see 300 press releases a day. If you don’t write in a way they can copy-paste into their system without touching it, your announcement probably goes straight to trash. When we sent out our Game Host Bros funding release in clean AP format, we got replies from outlets that had ignored us for months. Just because it looked press-ready. That's how tight writing earns attention."

Mirror the way newsrooms write

Denise Murray, Head of PR at Microdose Mushrooms

"The AP, or Associated Press, has been around forever. They’re one of the oldest news agencies out there, and their Stylebook is what most North American editors use to keep everything consistent. It covers how to handle grammar, quotes, titles, numbers, punctuation, you name it. It’s not creative. It’s clean and built for clarity. And that’s exactly why it works.

One of the biggest things that trips people up is capitalization. I’ve seen startups send out releases where every job title, department, and product name is capitalized. That makes it look messy and hard to read. AP Style keeps titles lowercase unless they’re right in front of a person’s name. It seems like a small thing, but it changes the tone completely. The release starts to feel readable, not promotional.

Then there’s the language. A lot of brands get too deep into their own terms. They’ll drop internal acronyms or technical product phrases without explaining them. When we’re writing something about psilocybin, we take a step back and ask, would someone outside our space get this? If the answer is no, we rework it. AP Style pushes you to write clearly, not cleverly. It makes the message land faster.

We follow a structure that mirrors the way newsrooms write. Clean lead, short paragraphs, real quotes, and no overexplaining. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for an editor to copy and paste without needing to reword anything. We’ve had outlets run our releases almost word for word because they didn’t need to touch a thing. That only happens when the format is right and the tone matches what journalists expect.

If someone’s running a startup and trying to get press, writing like this gives them a real shot. It’s not flashy, but it removes every excuse for an editor to skip it. That alone puts you ahead of most. Let me know if you want a look at how we structure ours. Happy to share the real stuff."

Don't write the way you pitch, write the way editors read.

Katie Breaker, Sales & Marketing Director at BirdieBall Golf

"The Associated Press has been around forever. They’re behind a huge chunk of what ends up in newsfeeds, newspapers, and online publications every day. The AP Stylebook keeps everything consistent. It’s not about perfect grammar or nitpicking. It’s about making sure an editor can grab your copy and publish it without having to rework anything. That’s the only way to get picked up at scale.

We write a lot of product-focused press releases at BirdieBall. They include numbers, specs, customer data, and real performance insights. AP Style forces us to clean that up and keep it simple. We follow the rules on numbers, punctuation, quotes, and formatting. It might sound small, but it makes the entire message easier to process. Editors are working fast. If your copy doesn’t slow them down, it has a better shot at getting used.

Startups mess this up all the time. They write the way they pitch, not the way editors read. They fill press releases with storytelling and hype, then wonder why nobody bites. Press releases need to be read like actual news, not a company blog post. Using AP Style keeps everything tight and readable. It signals that you know what you're doing, even if your brand is new. That’s huge if you’re trying to land your first media placement.

Every time we’ve gotten coverage in a golf mag, a local paper, or an online sports roundup, it’s been because we gave them something they could actually use. The structure mattered as much as the story. If you’re trying to get attention without a media budget, the AP Stylebook is the one thing that puts you on even ground with much bigger brands."

Lead with facts, then context

Steve Nixon, Founder at Freejazzlessons.com

"The Associated Press is one of the oldest and most trusted names in news. They’re behind a huge percentage of the content you see every day in newspapers and across the web. Their stylebook isn’t some grammar checklist. It’s the system that lets thousands of editors and writers stay on the same page. Once I started using it, I understood why our old press releases kept falling flat. They weren’t wrong, they were just unfamiliar to the people who had to read them fast.

One thing that hit me right away was how clean everything needed to be. No extra commas. No inflated titles. We had to write “jazz pianist Steve Nixon” not “internationally acclaimed jazz legend Steve Nixon.” That stung a little, but it worked. It made the writing tighter and more believable. Even little things like removing the “th” from dates made a difference. You don’t write “August 5th,” you write “Aug. 5.” When editors see those details handled right, they know you get it.

What helped most was the structure. You lead with the news. No warm-up. No brand intro. Just the facts in the first sentence. Then the quote. Then the context. Once we rewrote our press releases this way, editors actually replied. Some published our copy word-for-word. That never happened when we were sending more polished, branded pieces that sounded like ads. AP style made us readable in their world, not just ours.

If you’re a startup trying to get your first few pieces of coverage, this matters. Editors are flooded with pitches every day. If your writing feels familiar, you’ve already done half their job for them. That goes a long way. We’ve never had a PR firm, but we’ve landed features and interviews just by writing like we belonged in the inbox."

Sound like someone worth publishing

Riley Westbrook, Co-Founder at Valor Coffee

"Over the years, I’ve written everything from press releases to job postings to product blurbs, and one thing I kept coming back to was AP Style.

The AP, or Associated Press, has been doing news for a long time. They’ve got people in just about every part of the world, and their Stylebook is how they keep their writing consistent across the board. Most editors still use it as the standard, and that makes it pretty useful if you're trying to write something that might end up in front of one of those editors. I didn’t get into it because I wanted to sound like a journalist. I got into it because I wanted to sound like someone worth publishing.

The small stuff inside the Stylebook is what makes it work. Numbers are handled in a clean, consistent way. Job titles follow rules that cut out the fluff. Dates, names, states, all of it has a format that makes your writing smoother without you even noticing it. I’ve sent out café opening announcements written in full AP Style, and they’ve been picked up almost exactly as written. When something reads clean and looks familiar to an editor, it gets a second look. That part matters when you don’t have someone pitching for you.

Startups make the mistake of treating press releases like ads. They fill them with buzzwords, cram in way too many adjectives, and forget that editors don’t have time to untangle any of it. AP Style forces you to say what happened, when it happened, and why it matters without dressing it up. That structure gave us a way to write that felt honest, clear, and worth reading."

Increase media receptivity to your announcements

Steven Hahn, Digital Marketing Specialist at Online Optimism

"The Associated Press (AP) is a nonprofit news cooperative that maintains strict standards of journalistic integrity and fact-based reporting which have become the foundation for news writing across the industry. It operates as a global news network with journalists in more than 250 locations worldwide, providing content to more than 15,000 news outlets.

The style guide's stance on abbreviations and acronyms balances clarity with brevity in ways unique to news writing. Organizations should be spelled out on first reference with the acronym in parentheses if it will be used again. Subsequent references can use the acronym without explanation. Some universally recognized abbreviations like "FBI" and "NASA" need no explanation on first reference. AP Style generally avoids using periods in abbreviations unless doing so would create confusion with a word.

The AP Stylebook's guidance on headline capitalization—only capitalizing the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon—creates visually distinct headlines that separate journalistic content from marketing materials.

Press releases written in AP Style demonstrate that your startup values accuracy, clarity, and brevity—qualities that align with journalistic standards and increase media receptivity to your announcements. Also, learning AP Style conventions for data presentation helps startups communicate metrics, research findings, and market analyses in formats that maintain accuracy through the publication process."

Ditch buzzwords and embrace clarity

Sienna Hart, SMM & VP of Sales at Chatrandom

"Two underrated gems from the Stylebook? 1. Title capitalization nuances: AP lowercases job titles unless they precede a name (e.g., “CEO Jane Doe” vs “Jane Doe, chief executive officer”). This subtlety keeps press releases sleek and avoids clunky overcapitalization. 2. The “they” revolution: AP endorses singular “they” for inclusivity, a win for startups targeting Gen Z’s values.

Why does this matter for press releases? Journalists live by AP Style. If your startup’s release refers to “e-commerce” (with a hyphen) or uses “$1.5M” instead of “1.5 million dollars,” it signals you speak their language, boosting pickup odds. We a/b tested AP-compliant vs. casual releases... The former got 3x more media mentions.

Interestingly, AP’s stance on avoiding jargon (“utilize” → “use”) forces startups to ditch buzzwords and embrace clarity."

Make your announcement easier to scan

Mimi Nguyen, Founder at Cafely

"The AP is arguably the most recognizable news outlet in the world; they’ve been reporting news as early as the 1840s and they stand as one of the most respected providers of news in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. You can find their stories in newspapers, across websites, even on TV broadcasts globally. They have a solid reputation of being straightforward and factual, which has led them to creating what’s now known as the AP Stylebook—basically every journalist’s bible for writing rules.

What really makes the AP Stylebook so valuable is how it keeps writing clean and readable. Some of their trademark rules include writing out numbers below 10 while using numerals for 10 and above, so you’d write one, two, until nine, then 10 upwards. There’s also their rule of shortening months with specific dates, so you’d write "Sept. 15" instead of wording out "September".

These details may seem unimportant or trivial, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. They really make a difference especially if you want your article to be easier to scan and have that polished and professional look.

When you're running a startup and sending out press releases, following the AP Style can actually work in your favor; news reporters have become so accustomed to this format that if your release already matches what they would write, they're much more likely to use it. I've watched this play out myself—press releases that stick to AP guidelines get published more frequently without changes."

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