Preformulation in press releases

Press releases are typically preformulated. This is what we mean by 'preformulation':

not just that, in some general sense, press releases meet the journalists' requirements, but that the way press releases are formulated actually anticipates the way news reports are formulated. Through such preformulation, writers of press releases provide journalists with source texts which are prefabricated in an appropriate style and therefore require minimal reworking.

Preformulation is reflected in the structure, the style and releases and in the way writers of press releases refer to the organizations they represent. We'll also focus on a special feature of press releases, viz. quotes.