How to Write a Group Press Release

When you send your achievements to local media, Merit will automatically sort your student by geographic area and create press releases about only the students who are local to each newspaper. While some newspapers may only be interested in one student from your list other publications may have multiple students from their coverage area.

These newspapers will receive an email that lists all of their local students in one press release. Merit calls these stories a group press release. Here's an example of what a group press release looks like:

This page will teach you the ins and outs of writing a group press release. 

Please note that Merit will automatically generate a group press release for you, but we recommend reviewing and customizing the text to ensure that your message contains all of the necessary information.

Write a Group Headline

Every newspaper that gets a press release about multiple students will see the same headline, which will also act as the subject line of the email they receive. Unlike press releases about individuals, you cannot add placeholders to your group headlines. Instead, you will want to hook your readers by pointing out that the press release is about students from their area.

There are a few things you should do with every group headline:

• Start with "Local Students". This will immediately tell reporters and editors at local news desks that your press release is important to them.
• Include your school's name or its abbreviation (Merit University or MU)
• Mention the collective honor the students earned (Dean's List)
• Keep it brief - between 50 and 100 characters
• If applicable, add the semester of the event (Fall 2026) 

Think of your group press release headline as a plural version of your individual student headline. Keep the same details that you used in your individual headline, but swap the person's name for "Local Students". 

You can use a variety of formats when writing your headline. Here are some variations of a group format dean's list headline:

• Local Students Named to Merit University Dean's List
• Local Students Make Merit University's Fall 2026 Dean's List
• Local Students Earn Dean's List Honors at Merit University 
• Local Students Receive Merit University Dean's List Honors

Please note the body of your group press release is broken up into three sections: An Opening, Repeating and Closing section. Each of these will be discussed separately on this page.

Write an Opening Section 

Your opening section is a basic introduction for your group press release story. It can contain anywhere from one sentence to multiple paragraphs of information. Typically, it's best to keep your opening short - about one paragraph is best. This lets you briefly introduce your story and immediately call attention to the students who are of interest to the paper. You can fill in any additional details later on in your press release.

Here are a few tips and tricks for writing an opening:

Get to the Point

Unlike your individual press release, you can't open your group press release by mentioning your students by name. Like your headline, every newspaper interested in multiple students will see the same opening text. 

Instead, you will need to write a brief introduction for your students. Try to limit your opening to one or two paragraphs, if possible. Don't bury your list of local students deep in the body of your press release. 

A one- or two-sentence introduction is just fine. Here are some examples:

End With a Lead-In

Regardless of however many sentences/paragraphs you have in your opening, you should always end your group press release opening with a line that serves as a lead-in to a local list of students. End this sentence with colon to clearly indicate where your list begins. Here's a few examples: 

Write a Repeating Section

After your opening, your group press release will segue into your list of students. The list of students will be created through what Merit calls the repeating section. This will be a very small block of text that will repeat multiple times for each newspaper. Each time it repeats it will insert the name and information of a new local student from your list.

For example, if a local newspaper is interested in 20 students from your list, your repeating section will repeat 20 times for that paper, once for each student. However, you will only need to write the line once.

Here are some tips for writing a repeating section:

Focus on One Student at a Time

The text in this section should look like a blurb about ONE student. This is the only part of your group press release where you can put placeholders, and all of those placeholders will come from a single student record in your spreadsheet. Think of your repeating text as one bullet in a bulleted list of students.  

Merit will automatically set you up with some basic repeating text that looks like this:

You can make changes to this auto-inserted text, but at a minimum your repeating text will always need to include the person's first name, last name and hometown. 

Avoid Unnecessary Repetition

The text in this section will form a brief list of local students and does not need to be written in full sentences. Don't include the name of your institution here or the honor the student earned (unless it's placeholder data). This will cause them to repeat unnecessarily alongside each student entry. 

Double-Check Your Placeholders

As mentioned above, Merit will automatically insert the basic placeholders for you. However, your press releases about individuals may have used additional placeholders for things like students' majors, class years, high schools, degrees, etc. 

Always check to make sure that you used the same placeholders throughout both versions of your story. Add all of the placeholders from your individual press release to your repeating section.

Here are some examples of what a repeating section could look like:

Zip Codes are Optional

Merit will automatically insert students zip codes into the repeating section for you. You can delete this placeholder at any time. It is NOT required by Merit, and is only added as a suggestion.

Write a Closing Section

Your closing section will let you wrap up your press release in any way that you like. This section will again be the same for all newspapers who receive this version of your story.

This is where the majority of your group press release text will likely fall. Add as many paragraphs of text as needed here to tell your full story. 

Insert things like honors list requirements, details about ceremonies or performances, quotes from school officials, etc. in your closing section.

Double-Check your Boilerplate

Merit will automatically add your saved boilerplate to your closing section. Review this auto-inserted text in Step 6 to make sure that you don't need to make any changes to your saved boilerplate for this press release.

Visit our Template Archive to see more samples and get ideas.