Every press release ends twice. It ends as a story, with the last paragraph of the news itself — and it ends as a document, with the boilerplate, the contact block and a small typographic full stop, traditionally three hash marks: ###. Writers spend their energy on headlines and opening paragraphs, and then improvise the ending. Journalists, who read releases from both ends at once, notice: the closing section is where they look for who to call, what the company actually is, and whether the document in front of them is finished at all.

This guide covers how to end a press release properly and completely: the closing paragraph’s job, the end mark conventions and where they came from, the boilerplate and the media contact block, notes to editors, how endings change by release type and online, and the mistakes that make a finished release look like a draft. For the document as a whole, our guide on how to write a press release covers the full structure from headline down.

The Closing Paragraph: The Last Substantive Point

Before the furniture begins, the story itself needs a final paragraph, and that paragraph has a specific job: it looks forward or outward, rather than repeating the announcement. Depending on the release, it carries the forward look (what happens next, and when), the availability (the product ships, the exhibition opens, applications close on a date), or a factual call to action — where to register, where the full report can be read, when tickets go on sale. Two or three sentences is the norm.

What the closing paragraph must not do is introduce anything new. No fresh facts, no second announcement, no claim that appears nowhere else in the release — a journalist who has skimmed the middle should not be able to miss a load-bearing fact by stopping early, and an editor cutting from the bottom (which is how releases are traditionally shortened) should be able to remove the closing paragraph without damaging the news. And it should not turn into sales copy: the closing line of a news document is still news. “Now available at an incredible price — buy yours today” belongs in an advertisement, and its presence in a release tells the reader which genre you think you are writing in.

The End Marks: ###, -30- and _END_

The end mark is a centred line of symbols after the last element of the release, signalling that the document is complete — that nothing has been cut off in transmission and no further page is coming. Three forms survive. ###, three hash marks, is the most common in modern practice, inherited from newsroom copy marks. -30- is the older form, from the era of telegraph and wire copy; its precise origin is genuinely disputed — several explanations circulate in journalism folklore, and none is proven — but by the mid-twentieth century it was the standard “no more” signal on press copy. _END_ and its variants (—END—, or simply the word ENDS in some British house styles) say the same thing in plain words.

Which should you use? For almost everyone, ###: it is the form today’s journalists and wire systems most expect. But the honest answer is that the choice matters far less than the consistency. One mark, in one place, in every release your organisation sends. The end mark is the closing counterpart of the dateline that opens the document: the dateline says where the story starts, the end mark says the document is whole — two small conventions that frame everything between them.

The Boilerplate: Your “About” Paragraph

The boilerplate is the standard “About” paragraph that closes the release: a short, fixed description of the issuing organisation, headed “About [Company]” and used, word for word, at the end of every release. Its job is orientation — a reader who knows nothing about you should finish it knowing what the company is. A complete boilerplate contains: what the company does, in plain terms; the sector or market it serves; where it is based and, where relevant, where it operates; when it was founded; and one line of positioning that distinguishes it — stated factually, in terms of what it does rather than how wonderful it is. Fifty to a hundred words is the working range.

Boilerplate mistakes are maintenance failures, not writing failures. The classic is staleness: the paragraph still describing the company of three years ago — old headcount, a market it exited, an office that closed, a “new” product line now older than the journalist reading about it. Second is hype: “a leading provider of innovative solutions” says nothing and ages nothing; if a claim like “leading” is used, it should rest on something checkable. Third is length and drift: a boilerplate longer than the news it closes, or subtly different wording in every release because each writer edits it fresh. Treat the boilerplate as controlled text — one approved version, changed deliberately, reviewed whenever the company’s facts change.

The Media Contact Block

The contact block is the most operationally important lines in the ending, because it is the part journalists act on. It names a real person — name, role, organisation — with a direct email address and a phone number. A real person matters: “Media enquiries: [name]” gets called; a generic web form gets used only by journalists with no deadline. Where an agency issues the release for a client, the block says so honestly (the agency contact, on behalf of the client), because the journalist’s first question is often about who they are actually dealing with.

Two disciplines make the block work. The person named must be reachable and briefed — able to answer or chase the obvious questions the release raises, on the day it lands, not back from leave next week. And the block must be the same across releases: journalists save contacts, and a company whose releases each name a different person with a different number looks, accurately, like a company without a press office. If the named person changes, change the template, not just one document.

Notes to Editors

An optional section, headed “Notes to editors”, carries the material that helps a journalist without belonging in the story: background facts and figures with their context, definitions of technical terms, the availability of photographs and footage (and any credit or usage conditions), interview offers and who is available for them, and practical notes such as embargo timings or event logistics that repeat the advisory. Notes sit after the boilerplate and before the contact block or end mark, clearly labelled as background rather than announcement. The test for inclusion is usefulness to the reader, not importance to the sender: if it is news, it belongs in the release; if it merely helps, it belongs here; if it does neither, it belongs nowhere.

What Comes After the End Mark: Nothing

By definition, the end mark is the last line of the release. Everything that belongs to the document — closing paragraph, boilerplate, notes, contact block — sits above it. Material found below an end mark (a stray extra paragraph, a second boilerplate, draft notes, an internal sign-off that survived copying) reads as exactly what it is: an unfinished or carelessly assembled document, and it creates a real ambiguity about which text is the release. One clarification: the covering email that delivers a release is not part of the document. Your email can sign off however emails do; the release text inside it still ends with its mark.

Endings for Different Release Types

The standard ending — closing paragraph, boilerplate, contact, end mark — fits the ordinary announcement. Variations exist. Statements (a response to an incident or a story) are usually shorter at the end: the statement text, an attribution line naming the spokesperson, and the contact block; a full boilerplate may be attached or omitted depending on the gravity of the occasion, but the contact is never omitted, because a statement’s whole purpose is to be engaged with. Advisories are a different genre altogether — an invitation rather than a story — and they end by signposting: RSVP and contact details, plus a line where useful that a release will follow on the day, as our guide to the media advisory explains. Results and regulatory releases often carry longer notes sections — basis of preparation, definitions, forward-looking-statement language — which sit in the notes position and are part of the document’s compliance, not decoration.

Endings in the Digital Era

Most releases are now read on web pages and newsroom platforms rather than on paper, and the ending survives the move — for a practical reason. Journalists lift text: the boilerplate is copied into articles as the standard description of your company, and the contact block is copied into address books. Web publication does not retire either; it amplifies them, because your boilerplate is now the description of record everywhere it is pasted. Links belong in this picture, handled sensibly: a boilerplate may carry one link — typically the company name or a reference to its site — which is genuinely useful. A boilerplate carrying five links with optimised anchor text is link-building wearing a press release’s clothes, and platforms and journalists treat it accordingly. Keep the web version, the wire version and the PDF version identical in substance; the ending a journalist finds should be the ending you approved.

A Worked Example Ending (Fictional)

Fictional example. The company and person below are invented. This is the final section of a release announcing a design studio opening — story paragraphs above, ending here:

The studio opens to trade visitors on Monday 6 May, with public open days the following weekend. Architects and retailers can book appointments through the company’s website from today.

About Fernholt Lighting (fictional): Fernholt Lighting is a manufacturer of architectural and residential lighting, founded in 1998 and based in Leeds, where it designs and assembles its ranges. Its products are sold through independent retailers and specified by architects across the UK and Ireland.

Media contact: Priya Shah, communications manager, Fernholt Lighting — [email protected] — 0113 000 0000.

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Four components, in order: a closing paragraph that looks forward and carries the factual next step; a boilerplate covering what, where and since when in two sentences; a named contact with direct details; and a single end mark as the document’s final line.

The Closing Checklist

• The closing paragraph looks forward or gives the next step — and introduces no new facts or claims.
• The boilerplate is the current approved version, checked against the company’s facts this quarter.
• The boilerplate agrees with the release above it — same names, same numbers, same company description.
• The contact block names a real, briefed person with a direct email and phone number.
• Notes to editors, if present, contain only background and practical help — no smuggled news.
• Exactly one end mark is used, in the house form, as the document’s final line.
• Nothing appears below the end mark.
• Any call to action in the closing is factual (dates, registration, availability) — not sales language.

Common Mistakes

• Multiple end marks. ### and -30- stacked together, or an end mark after the boilerplate and another at the very end. Pick the house form and use it once; two marks read as a document assembled from two templates — which is usually exactly what happened.
• Sales language as the last line. The release closes with “Don’t miss out — order now!” and stops being a news document in its final sentence. Journalists judge genre quickly, and the last line is where the judgement lands.
• A boilerplate that contradicts the release. The release announces an acquisition, a rebrand or a new chief executive; the boilerplate below describes the company as it was before all three. The contradiction is visible to every reader and undermines the announcement it closes.
• A missing or dead contact. No contact block at all, or the named person has left, or the number is a switchboard that closes at five. The ending’s most useful element is the one most often out of date.
• New information in the closing. A date, a price or a second announcement surfacing for the first time in the final paragraph — where editors cutting from the bottom, and readers skimming, will lose it.
• The boilerplate that ate the release. Two hundred words of company history under a hundred and fifty words of news. The proportions announce the sender’s priorities, and they are the wrong ones.

FAQs

Is the end mark still necessary online?

Strictly, no system requires it — but releases still travel as documents: forwarded, downloaded, pasted into newsroom systems, filed as PDFs. In every one of those journeys the end mark is the signal that the text is complete. It costs one line and settles a real question, so most professional practice keeps it.

Which end mark is correct — ### or -30-?

Both are recognised; neither is wrong. ### is the more common contemporary choice and the safer default with modern wires and journalists. -30- remains in use at some long-established organisations and publications. What reads as an error is not either mark — it is inconsistency, or both at once.

Where exactly does the boilerplate go?

After the final story paragraph and before the end mark: closing paragraph, then “About” boilerplate, then notes to editors if used, then the media contact block, then the end mark as the last line. Some house styles place the contact above the boilerplate; either order works if it is the same in every release.

Can the closing paragraph include a call to action?

Yes — a factual one. Dates, deadlines, registration routes and availability are legitimate closing content because they are information the reader needs next. What does not belong is sales pressure: urgency, superlatives and purchase language convert the ending, and by association the release, into an advertisement.

Conclusion

A press release ends properly when its ending is maintained like equipment rather than improvised like small talk: a closing paragraph that looks forward without smuggling in new facts, a boilerplate that is current, checked and the same as last time, a contact who is real and reachable, notes that help without hiding news, and one end mark with nothing after it. None of these elements is difficult. All of them together tell a journalist, in the last ten seconds of reading, that the organisation behind the document is careful — which is, in the end, what the ending is for.