Few phrases in communications cause more quiet confusion than “editor’s note”, because it names two different things. In publishing, an editor’s note is a short message from an editor to readers, attached to an article or an issue. In public relations, “Notes to Editors” is the background section at the end of a press release — written for journalists, and never intended to be published itself. The two share a name and a purpose (both exist to be straight with the reader), but they are written by different people, for different audiences, in different places.

People working in PR meet the term mostly in the second sense, and this guide teaches both properly: what each kind of note is for, how to write each one well, what belongs in them and what never does, and the mistakes that turn a trust-building device into a liability. The Notes to Editors sense also appears in our guide on how to end a press release, where it sits among the release’s closing elements; here it gets the full treatment, alongside its publishing namesake. For the release structure as a whole, see how to write a press release.

Two Different Things Called an Editor’s Note

The confusion is more than a vocabulary problem. Writers who meet the term first in publishing produce press-release notes that read like letters to readers — warm, discursive, and useless to a journalist on deadline. Writers who meet it first in PR produce the opposite failure: background sections so mechanical that they forget the notes still speak in the organisation’s voice and carry its credibility. Keeping the two senses separate, as this article does, is what allows each to be written well.

Sense One: The Publisher’s Note to Readers

In a newspaper, magazine or news site, an editor’s note is the publication speaking in its own voice, briefly stepping out from behind the journalism. It introduces an issue or a major story (why this subject, why now, how it was reported); it explains a change to something already published — an update, a clarification, a correction; it adds context the story itself could not carry, such as why a source is anonymous or how the reporting was funded; and it makes disclosures, for instance that the publication’s owner has an interest in a company covered. Its currency is trust: it exists so that readers never have to guess what the publication did or why.

The Letter from the Editor: The Longer Cousin

In magazines, the editor also writes the letter from the editor — the signed page near the front that welcomes readers, previews the issue’s highlights and shares something of the thinking behind them. It is related to the editor’s note but is not the same instrument: the letter is a feature, written to be read with pleasure, while the note is a notice, written to be believed. A letter can run to a page and carry personality, anecdotes and taste; a note that borrowed any of those in a correction or disclosure would fail at its job. Many publications use both, and keep the boundary clean: letters introduce and entertain; notes account.

Sense Two: Notes to Editors in a Press Release

In a press release, “Notes to Editors” is a headed section near the end of the document containing background material supplied to journalists for their use in writing the story — not as part of the story. It typically holds the facts and offers that help a journalist work: company background beyond the boilerplate, product details and specifications, which photographs and interviews are available, and handling information such as embargo terms. Journalists understand the convention: the notes are a briefing, not copy. A well-written note makes the journalist’s job easier; a badly written one — usually because it tries to be a second press release — gets skipped, or worse, quoted back as the claim it was trying to smuggle in.

How to Write an Editor’s Note (the Publishing Sense)

The governing principle is accountability: the note says, plainly, what the publication did and why. Five working rules cover most cases.

• Label it. Head the note “Editor’s note” so it is never mistaken for part of the story, and place it where readers will see it — at the top for a significant update or disclosure, at the foot for background context.
• Lead with the fact of the change. For updates and corrections, the first sentence says what changed and when: this article was updated, this figure was wrong and is now right. A correction that cannot be understood without reading the whole article twice is not a correction.
• Be specific, not defensive. Name the error or the decision precisely. Vague formulations — “an earlier version contained an inaccuracy” — protect nobody and read as evasion; the reader who spots the vagueness trusts the note less than the mistake.
• Keep the tone level. No spin, no self-congratulation, no blame directed at readers for misunderstanding. The note is a factual instrument in the publication’s most official voice.
• Keep it short. A few lines for most updates and disclosures; a short paragraph for context. If the explanation needs to be long, it probably deserves to be an article of its own, linked from a brief note.

Two habits distinguish professional handling from the rest. Never quietly rewrite history: if a published article changes in substance, the note records the change rather than letting the new version pretend to be the original. And keep the wording consistent across the publication — a house style for notes (their label, placement and tone) means readers learn once how your publication signals accountability, and recognise it every time.

How to Write Notes to Editors (the Press Release Sense)

Placement first: the section sits at the end of the release, after the boilerplate and before the media contact block and the end mark — the closing furniture covered in our guide to press release endings. It is headed “Notes to Editors”, and everything in it is written for a working journalist’s next action: filing the story faster, illustrating it, or following it up.

What belongs in it:

• Background essentials — the company or subject context a general reporter may not know: what the organisation is, the market it sits in, the one or two facts that make the announcement intelligible.
• Product and specification facts — prices, sizes, capacities, dates and technical details, stated dryly and precisely, for the journalist who needs to check or quote them.
• Image and asset availability — what photographs, footage or graphics exist, where they can be obtained, and any credit line or usage condition attached.
• Interview availability — who can be interviewed, on what subjects, and how to arrange it.
• Handling and embargo notes — embargo terms, background-only briefings, or restrictions, stated plainly in the notes so no journalist breaches them by accident.

And what never belongs in it: the news itself (if it matters, it goes in the release, where it will be read as news); new claims the body did not make, especially claims the body could not have evidenced; sales language and promotional adjectives; and anything that contradicts the release above it. Length is a discipline too — a handful of short paragraphs or bullets at most, comfortably shorter than the release they support. The notes are scaffolding, not a second building.

It helps to picture how the notes are consumed. A journalist on deadline reads the headline and opening paragraphs, then jumps to the notes for the three things the story did not give them: the background fact, the spelling or specification they must not get wrong, and whether there is a picture. Notes written in that reading order — background first, facts next, assets and access last — get used. Notes written as a miniature annual report get skimmed once and ignored in every future release from the same sender, which is why the section’s reputation compounds: each set of notes trains its readers how much to trust the next one.

Worked Examples (Fictional)

Fictional examples. Both notes below are invented — the publication, the company and the people — to show each sense in working form.

Example A — a publisher’s correction note:

Editor’s note: This article was updated on 12 May to correct the size of the Northgate housing development. The original version stated 240 homes; the approved scheme is 204. The density figures in the sixth paragraph have been corrected accordingly. We regret the error.

Four sentences doing the whole job: the change is labelled, dated, specified (which figure, old and new), located in the article, and owned without qualification or excuse.

Example B — Notes to Editors in a press release:

• Aldergrove Foods (fictional), founded in 2009, produces oat-based drinks at its Bristol plant and supplies UK supermarkets and cafes.
• The new line is made without added sugar; full nutritional information is available on request.
• Photographs of the product and the production line are available from the media contact below; please credit Aldergrove Foods.
• Founder interviews are available on Tuesday and Wednesday; bids via the media contact.

Background, a checkable fact, assets with their condition, and access with its route — nothing in the notes announces anything, and a journalist can act on every line.

Common Mistakes

• Dumping the real news into the notes. The most common of all: the key fact, quote or figure sits in Notes to Editors, where it is background by convention and may never be printed. News belongs in the release; the notes serve it.
• Notes longer than the release. A page of notes under half a page of announcement tells the journalist the sender could not decide what the story was. Cut the notes to what a stranger needs to file the story.
• Promotional adjectives. “Groundbreaking”, “industry-leading” and their cousins in the notes are marketing copy in a briefing document. Journalists discount the whole section accordingly.
• Smuggling unevidenced claims. The stronger claim, quietly placed in the notes because it could not survive in the body. Journalists who use notes check them the same way; a claim caught smuggling costs the release its credibility.
• The silent substantive edit (publishing sense). Changing what an article says after publication and letting the note, if any, describe it as a “clarification”. Readers and other outlets compare versions; the honest label is the cheap option.
• Notes that contradict the release. Different dates, different figures, different titles between the body and the notes — usually two drafts stitched together. One of them is wrong, and the journalist cannot tell which.

FAQs

Is an editor’s note the same as an editorial?

No. An editorial is an opinion article expressing the publication’s institutional view on an issue. An editor’s note is a functional message about the publication itself — an update, a correction, context or a disclosure. They share an institutional voice and nothing else; confusing the two leads PR writers to draft notes that argue, and editors to draft editorials that bookkeep.

Do journalists print Notes to Editors?

They are not meant to be printed verbatim — they are background and handling information. Journalists use the facts in them (checking them as they would any claim) and act on the offers in them. Write every line assuming it will be read critically and used selectively, never copied wholesale.

Where do Notes to Editors go in a press release?

At the end of the document: after the story text and the boilerplate, before the media contact block and the end mark, under their own heading. The position is part of the convention — journalists look for them there, and placing them mid-release breaks the story’s flow for no benefit.

Should Notes to Editors repeat the boilerplate?

No — they complement it. The boilerplate is the fixed, general description of the organisation; the notes are specific to this announcement: this product’s facts, this event’s logistics, this story’s background. Repeating the boilerplate inside the notes wastes the journalist’s scan and suggests the section was padded rather than written. If a boilerplate fact is genuinely needed in the notes, state it once, in its specific form.

How long should an editor’s note be?

In the publishing sense, as short as the fact allows: a few lines for an update or disclosure, a paragraph at most for context. In the press release sense, a few short paragraphs or bullets covering background, assets and access — always shorter than the release itself. Length is a signal in both senses: a note that runs long is usually a note doing a job that belongs elsewhere.

Conclusion

The editor’s note, in both its senses, is a small text with a single purpose: to be straight with the person reading. The publisher’s note does it by owning updates, corrections and disclosures in plain language, at a length the fact deserves. The press release’s Notes to Editors does it by giving journalists honest, checkable background and practical help — and by refusing to become a hiding place for news, hype or claims that could not stand in the open. Keep the two senses distinct, keep both short, and keep everything in them true and consistent with the document they serve, and the humblest section in the release becomes what it is meant to be: evidence that the sender can be trusted with the bigger sections too.