Press kit: definition, contents and checklist

A reporter writing about a company needs reliable facts, a usable photo and someone who will answer questions, often within the hour. A press kit puts all of that in one place. It used to be a printed folder handed out at press conferences. Today it is usually a download page on the company website or a link in an email to the newsroom. In music, film and games the same idea is often called an electronic press kit, or EPK.

What goes into a press kit

The contents vary with the occasion, but the core stays the same:

• The current press release. It carries the news the kit is built around.
• Fact sheet. One page of key facts: year founded, headquarters, locations, headcount, revenue where published, and products.
• Boilerplate. The short standard paragraph about the organisation, worded exactly as in every release.
• Bios. Short biographies of executives and spokespeople, each with title, a few lines of background and a headshot.
• Images and logos. Photos in print and web resolution, logos as vector files. A 300 dpi setting alone does not make a file printable: it needs enough pixels for the intended print size, roughly 2,480 x 3,508 pixels for a full A4 page at 300 dpi. Give every image a caption and alt text.
• Media contact. Name, phone number and email of someone who will actually pick up.

Depending on the story you can add backgrounders, charts, data sheets, video or earlier releases. PRSA's guidance on online newsrooms lists similar building blocks: press releases, fact sheets, infographics, bios, photos and b-roll video, and suggests downloadable story packages that combine a release, a backgrounder, bios, photos, video and contact details.

When you need one

• Press conference. The kit is available on site and online at the same time, so outlets that could not attend have everything too.
• Trade fair. Add the stand number, slots for press meetings and a mobile number for the days of the show.
• Product launch. Product photos, data sheet, price and availability come first. If the kit goes out before the announcement, mark a clear embargo.
• Online newsroom. A permanent base kit with fact sheet, boilerplate, bios, logos and images that journalists can find at any time, with or without a news hook.

Print or digital

Printed kits still appear at events, usually with a link or QR code to the images. Day to day, the digital kit is the norm. Send a link rather than heavy attachments: PRSA points out that large attachments may get caught in spam filters, while a link is easy for a reporter to share with colleagues. Publish texts as editable text on the page as well as PDFs, so journalists can copy facts without retyping them.

Example checklist for a trade fair

The example below is invented. The company does not exist.

Exampleton Bikes Ltd is presenting a cargo bike with a swappable battery at a cycling trade fair. Its digital press kit contains:

1. Press release on the new model, as text on the page and as a PDF
2. Fact sheet for Exampleton Bikes, marked "Last updated: October 2026"
3. Boilerplate
4. Short bio of Jane Example, managing director, with headshot
5. Six product shots and two in-use photos, each in print and web resolution, with caption, alt text and photographer credit
6. Logo as SVG and PNG
7. Technical data sheet for the bike
8. Stand number and bookable slots for press meetings
9. Media contact with a mobile number for the days of the fair
10. Accessible downloads: descriptive link text, file type and size next to each link, and texts as web pages rather than only as PDFs

Image rights and captions

Before a photo goes into the kit, make sure you are allowed to let media outlets publish it. Your agreement with the photographer has to cover that use. State the terms next to the download, for example "for editorial coverage of Exampleton Bikes".

Credit the photographer on every image. The Berne Convention recognises the author's moral right to claim authorship of a work, and national laws build on it. In the UK, for example, section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act gives authors a right to be identified once they have asserted it. The simplest approach is to supply the credit ready to use, such as "Photo: John Sample / Exampleton Bikes", in the caption and in the file name or metadata.

Photos of people raise a second question: whether the people shown agreed to publication. The rules differ by country, so get written consent from employees who appear in press photos.

A good caption says who or what is shown, where and when the photo was taken, and gives the credit.

Keeping it current

An outdated press kit does more harm than a missing one, because journalists reuse the figures. Put a "last updated" date on the fact sheet. Review the kit after every leadership change, new results and any rebrand. Remove bios of people who have left and photos whose usage rights have expired. Move older releases to an archive instead of leaving them on the front page.

How aclipp helps

The press kit usually lives in your own newsroom. aclipp media monitoring, with global online monitoring across more than 150 million sources, then shows which outlets picked the story up, and reporting summarises the results.