Press releases are a business's way of communicating information to the media.

Keep in mind this is not a sales pitch about how wonderful your product/serivce is. Press releases should only be used if there is news that needs to be communicated.

Now here is the fun part, you can generate news in a variety of ways -new hires, new clients, new products/services are good places to start. If the compnay just launched that is also news.

Events, conferences, trade show participation can also be turned into news worthy press releases.

Make sure the information you are sending out is about something that addresses a need or concern to customers. So if you have a new product the release should be about the "growing XXX problem" and how people can fix it (this is where you mention your new product).

After writing your release have 2-3 people review and edit/critique it. Try to have someone who is not directly involved in your business read it for clarity. If they understand it then the newspapers' readers will too.

Distribution should be to the appropriate editors. Do your homework before sending any release to editors. Make sure they write about your industry/topic. Read several issues of the publication to understand the format and content of the stories. Make sure your release fits in with what they tend to write about most.

For example if most of their health stories are about diseases and the news drugs that are prescribed for it then do not send them a release on a product that does not address a actual disease. Matter of fact make sure they mention products by brand name and not in generic terms. If you never see actual brand names then only send releases to them about trends in an industry.

I hope this helps.