Press Release Contact Info, Can a Journalist Reach You?

By the PR Gun Research desk. Updated November 1, 2026.

Often they can't. In PR Gun's database, 51.5% of 129,938 press releases published January 1 to October 31, 2026 showed neither an email address nor a phone number in the published text. The gap depends on the wire. ACCESS Newswire, Newswire.com and Business Wire showed a contact route in more than 99% of releases. PR Newswire showed one in 33.1% of 82,398 releases, partly because its pages often hide emails, and 24-7 Press Release in 25.9% of 5,331.

Part of PR Gun's press release data series. See also the phone number gap and press release statistics 2026.

What does "reachable" mean in this study?

A reporter who wants to use your news usually needs one more thing. It might be a number checked, a quote clarified or an interview booked. If the release gives no way to ask, most reporters move on. Nothing bounces and no report tells you it happened.

We measured the two routes a reporter can act on right away. One is an email address that appears in the published text. The other is a phone number pattern, either a 10-digit North American number or a number with a plus sign and country code. We also flagged releases with a labeled contact heading such as "Media Contact", "Press Inquiries" or "Investor Relations".

This counts what a reader sees on the published page as we captured it. It doesn't count what the sender typed into a form that never reached the page. That matters for one wire in particular, which we explain below.

How often does a press release include contact details?

Across all 129,938 releases in the 2026 window, 24.6% showed an email address, 38.0% showed a phone number and 14.0% showed both. In total, 48.5% showed at least one route and 51.5% showed neither.

That pooled number is pulled down by PR Newswire, which carries 82,398 of the releases. The per-wire table is the fairer view. Each wire's coverage window in PR Gun's database is different, so each row shows its own dates.

Three wires sit at the top. In PR Gun's database, 99.8% of 3,251 Newswire.com releases published May 7 to October 31, 2026 showed an email address or a phone number. ACCESS Newswire (11,396 releases, July 10 to October 31) and Business Wire (2,784 releases, September 24 to October 19) were both at 99.4%.

At the bottom, 74.1% of 5,331 24-7 Press Release releases showed neither route, and so did 61.7% of 2,275 PRLog releases published September 21 to October 31, 2026.

Why does PR Newswire look so low?

In PR Gun's database, only 4.0% of 82,398 PR Newswire releases published January 5 to October 31, 2026 had an email address visible in the published text. That doesn't mean 96% of issuers gave no email. PR Newswire pages often hide or obfuscate contact emails, so the address may exist for a human reader who clicks, but not as plain text.

The phone number is a cleaner test, because it isn't hidden the same way. On PR Newswire, 31.3% of releases showed a phone number. So about two in three PR Newswire releases gave a reporter no phone route in the text, and 66.9% showed neither route that we could detect.

There's a second signal. Of the 22,332 PR Newswire releases with a contact heading, 44.8% showed no email or phone anywhere in the text that we could read. PRWeb had the same pattern. Almost every PRWeb release carried a contact heading (99.7% of 5,684), yet 40.9% of those showed no visible route. That looks like a template heading with the details left out or kept off the page.

Does it change by release type?

We sorted releases into types with headline keyword rules. Because PR Newswire's hidden emails skew the pooled view, the table below leaves PR Newswire out. That leaves 47,540 releases from the other wires.

Investor litigation notices are the most reachable. Outside PR Newswire, 98.5% of 1,385 of them showed a route, because law firms want the call. Product launches were the least reachable of the business types, with 30.3% of 5,030 showing neither route. Funding rounds did better, with 16.2% of 296 showing neither, and acquisitions were at 15.1% of 697.

The point for a writer is simple. The releases that most need a reporter to call back, like a new product from a company nobody has heard of, are the ones most often published with no way to reach anyone.

What changed since the earlier study?

The first version of this page used an earlier sample of 129,742 releases with body text, studied May 7 to August 15, 2026. It reported services by letter, not by name. In that sample, the share with a contact email ranged from 44.4% to 99.9% by service, and the share with a phone number from 34.6% to 73.9%.

The 2026 rerun isn't a like-for-like update. The earlier sample counted masked email addresses as present. This rerun counts only addresses visible in the published text, which is why the low end of the email range falls to 4.0%. The phone range moved too, from 16.4% (24-7 Press Release) to 68.8% (Newswire.com). Because the earlier letters can't be matched to named wires, we don't claim any one wire got better or worse. What held up is the main finding. Whether a reporter can reach you depends a lot on where the release was published.

How do you make sure a reporter can reach you?

• Put the contact block in the body text. Form fields are sometimes shown only on the wire's own page, or not at all. Text in the body travels with the release.
• Name one person. Give their role, direct email and direct phone number. A shared inbox tells a reporter nobody is waiting for the call.
• Write the email in plain text. Some pages hide addresses. A phone number next to it is your backup.
• Don't leave a heading empty. A "Media Contact" label with nothing under it looks worse than no label.
• Check the live page. After it goes out, open the published release and confirm the details survived.

Here's how that plays out by sender. A startup with one founder should list the founder's cell, since that's who a reporter wants. A small business can list the owner and a backup. An agency should list a person at the agency who can actually answer questions, not just relay them. A public company usually needs both a media contact and an investor relations contact, because reporters and analysts ask different things.

For the full layout of a release, see how to write a press release. For how contact rates differ by announcement, see the type studies on funding, product launch, partnership, acquisition and executive appointment releases. Related studies cover release length, what each wire carries and duplicate releases.

Frequently asked questions

Should a press release include contact information?

Yes. In PR Gun's database, 51.5% of 129,938 releases published January 1 to October 31, 2026 showed no email or phone number in the text. A reporter who can't reach you usually moves on, so a named contact with a direct email and phone number is worth the four lines.

Where does the media contact go in a press release?

Most releases put it near the end, and some put it at the top under the dateline. Either works if it's in the body text. In PR Gun's database the first phone number sat in the last quarter of the text in 72.5% of the 49,314 releases from January 1 to October 31, 2026 that had one.

Why don't PR Newswire releases show an email address?

PR Newswire pages often hide or obfuscate contact emails. In PR Gun's database only 4.0% of 82,398 PR Newswire releases had an email visible in the published text, while 31.3% showed a phone number.

Should I include a phone number or just an email?

Include both. Email is the default, but a reporter on a short deadline will often call. Across all wires in PR Gun's 2026 data, 38.0% of releases showed a phone number and only 14.0% showed both a phone and an email.

Is it safe to put a cell phone number in a press release?

It's public once published, so use a number you're happy to have indexed. Many senders use a work mobile or a direct office line. What matters is that someone answers it during the days after release.