How do you balance promotional content with newsworthiness to ensure a press release doesn't feel overly commercial?

Storytelling is the key, even in PR writing. When creating a commercial press release, it's important to approach it from a "story" angle to avoid making it sales-like and add some value to the readers. You want to engage the audience and prompt them to take further action rather than make a pitch. This way, it will feel more organic and genuine.

I know its hard to come to a balance especially when you know your product will revolutionize the world but its best to follow these few steps:

To keep a press release from sounding like a "buy this now!" billboard, think of it as telling an interesting story at a party—not cornering people to sell them something! Focus on why this product or event matters to the world (or at least to people outside your office). Use facts, a sprinkle of impact, and save the self-promotion for the final bow, so it feels like news, not an infomercial. This way, you’re giving reporters a story they’d actually want to cover—without them looking for the nearest exit!

Ultimately, a press release should be about something that a journalist knows will interest their readers. Not the fact that you've just launched a new website - unless it contains something that will help, intrigue or interest a journalist's reader. Therefore, there is no need for a balance between promotional and newsworthiness. It's only ever about whether journalists can use your PR piece for their readers.

A press release cannot be overly promotional, at least not in its headline and "lede" paragraph. In the same way that a skilled marketer makes the product about the customer's needs, a good PR person will flip the promotional angle around to make it interesting to a reporter, e.g., if you're selling the world's best camping tent, the press release might talk about what campers need in a tent.