A press kit is a single, public page where a journalist can verify your facts and download your assets without emailing you first. At minimum it holds your boilerplate, founding details, spokesperson names and titles, headshots, logos, product images, past coverage, and a named press contact. Its only job is to remove friction between interest and publication.
That framing matters, because most press kits are built as brand showcases and fail as reference tools. A reporter arriving on your press page is usually mid-draft and under deadline. They want three things fast: is this company what it claims to be, who can I quote, and can I publish an image legally. Everything else is decoration.
What Is a Press Kit Actually For?
Think of it as the answer to every question a journalist would otherwise have to ask you by email — pre-answered, at a stable URL, available at 11pm when you're asleep.
That has two practical consequences. First, a press kit does not generate coverage. It converts existing interest into a finished story with fewer stalls. If nobody is interested yet, the fix is a better angle and better outreach, not a prettier press page — start with finding a newsworthy angle and the pitching guide instead.
Second, its audience is not customers. Marketing pages persuade; press kits verify. The moment yours starts selling, a reporter stops treating it as a source of facts — which means checking everything elsewhere, or dropping you from the piece.
What Belongs in a Press Kit?
Seven things carry nearly all the weight. Everything else is optional.
1. Company facts. Legal and trading name, founding year, headquarters location, what you do in one plain sentence, and — only if you publish them — headcount or funding. Never post a figure you can't stand behind.
2. Boilerplate. The two-to-three-sentence neutral description reporters paste to identify you. Write it once, keep it identical everywhere, and match it to the version in your releases. The press release guide covers how to write one that isn't a paragraph of adjectives.
3. Spokespeople. For each: full name, exact title, a short bio focused on relevant expertise, and a high-resolution headshot. Names and titles must be spelled the way you want them printed, because that's how they'll be printed.
4. Logos. Primary and secondary marks in vector (SVG or EPS) and raster (transparent PNG), light and dark. Bundle them in one ZIP.
5. Product and context images. Screenshots, product shots, team photos — high resolution, each with a caption and credit line. Uncaptioned images are often unusable.
6. Past coverage. A short, honest list of where you've been covered — outlet, headline, date. Three real links beat twenty padded ones; our media relations guide sets the bar for what counts.
7. A named press contact. A human name, a title, a monitored email address, and a realistic response window. "info@" mailboxes are where press enquiries go to die.
What Should You Leave Out?
Cutting is as important as adding. These four things reliably hurt.
Gated downloads. Requiring a form to get a logo is the fastest way to lose a mention. Nobody fills in a lead-capture form on deadline.
Marketing copy. Feature lists, testimonials, pricing tables, and calls to action belong on your product pages. In a press kit they dilute the facts and signal that this page is promotional.
Unverifiable claims. "Leading," "award-winning," and "#1" are either checkable or they aren't. If a reporter checks and can't confirm it, the credibility of the whole page takes the hit.
Stale content. A headshot of a departed executive, or a "latest news" section that stops two years ago, tells a journalist the company isn't paying attention. An out-of-date press kit is worse than none, because it actively misinforms.
How Should a Press Kit Be Structured?
Use this as a build checklist. Format column tells you the shape each item should take; priority tells you what to ship first.
| Element | Format | Priority | Update cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boilerplate | 2–3 sentences, plain text, copyable | Essential | On material change |
| Company facts | Short labelled list | Essential | Quarterly |
| Press contact | Name, title, monitored email | Essential | When the role changes |
| Spokesperson bios | 40–80 words each + title | Essential | When roles change |
| Headshots | High-res JPG/PNG, direct download | Essential | Annually |
| Logo pack | SVG + PNG, light/dark, one ZIP | Essential | On rebrand |
| Product images | High-res, captioned, credited | High | Per launch |
| Recent announcements | Dated, linked release archive | High | Per release |
| Past coverage | Outlet, headline, date, link | Medium | Quarterly |
| Fact sheet PDF | One page, mirrors the web content | Optional | With the page |
| Video / b-roll | Downloadable, licence stated | Optional | As produced |
Two structural rules matter more than the list. Give it a permanent, guessable URL — /press or /newsroom — linked in your site footer, so a reporter landing anywhere on your site can find it without asking. And make it a web page first: shared drives and PDFs break, expire, and can't be scanned in ten seconds. A one-page fact sheet is a fine supplement, a poor primary.
How Does a Press Kit Fit Into Outreach?
It sits after the hook, not instead of it. A pitch earns attention; the press kit sustains it. In practice that means one line near the end of your email — a plain link to your press page — rather than attachments that trip spam filters or a wall of assets nobody asked for. The pitching guide covers the email itself.
It also carries weight in reactive PR. When you respond to a journalist's source request, reporters often need a bio, a correct title, and a usable headshot within the hour. Having those at a link you can paste turns a scramble into a ten-second reply — and being easy to work with is exactly what gets you asked again.
Then there's the traffic you never see. Reporters research companies before deciding whether to include them, and a current press page can pull you into a piece you were never pitched for — simply because verifying you was easy and verifying a competitor wasn't.
How Do You Keep It From Going Stale?
Assign one owner and one recurring review — quarterly is enough for most companies. Check four things: are the facts still true, is the press contact still employed and monitoring that inbox, do all asset downloads still work, and does the coverage list still lead with your strongest recent hits?
Then attach two triggers to your workflow: publish an announcement, add it to the newsroom archive that day; land coverage, add it to the coverage list that week. Both take two minutes immediately, and both rot if batched for "later."
FAQ
Is a press kit the same as a media kit?
Usually not, though people use the terms loosely. A press kit serves journalists and holds facts, bios, and assets. A media kit is typically an advertising document — audience demographics, ad formats, and rates — aimed at advertisers and sponsors. If you publish both, keep them on separate pages so neither audience gets the wrong one.
Do small companies and startups need a press kit?
Yes, and it costs them less than anyone. Small companies get asked to prove they're real more often, not less. A single page with your boilerplate, founder bio, headshot, logo pack, and a named contact takes an afternoon and removes the most common reason a reporter drops an unfamiliar company mid-draft.
Should the press kit be a page or a downloadable file?
Lead with a web page at a permanent URL. It's linkable, scannable, indexable, and easy to update. Offer a one-page fact sheet PDF and a logo ZIP as downloads alongside it, but don't make the download the only route in — and never put it behind a form.
What should I do if we have no press coverage yet?
Leave the coverage section off entirely rather than padding it with directory listings or your own blog posts. An empty section reads as new; a padded one reads as misleading. Ship the rest — facts, boilerplate, bios, assets, contact — and add coverage as it lands.
How often should a press kit be updated?
Review it quarterly, and update it immediately on any material change: a new spokesperson, a rebrand, a change in company facts, or a departure in the press contact role. Add each new announcement and each new piece of coverage as it happens rather than in a batch.
Build it once, then keep the door open
A press kit is unglamorous infrastructure. It won't win a story on its own, and it's no substitute for a real angle or a well-aimed pitch. What it does is ensure that when a journalist is already interested, nothing between their interest and their deadline is your fault — no unanswered email, no missing headshot, no title spelled wrong in print.
Build the seven essentials, put them at /press, name a real contact, and review it quarterly. Then get back to the part that actually earns coverage: a story worth telling, sent to the right reporter. When you're ready for that half, find the right journalists and open press opportunities on PR Rush.
