What Should a Business Include in a Press Kit for Journalists?
By Jordan Baker, Founder of Fair Public Relations and former UK national journalist
A good press kit should save a journalist time.
That is its job.
It is not primarily there to impress the company's board.
It does not need fifty pages of branding.
It does not need an animated presentation explaining the company's values.
And it will not turn an uninteresting pitch into a news story simply because everything is beautifully organised.
What a journalist needs is much more practical.
Who are you?
What does the company do?
Who can I speak to?
What can they credibly discuss?
Where are the photographs?
How much does the product cost?
Can I get a sample?
Where did this statistic come from?
Is this person available today?
Who owns this photograph?
How do I contact somebody if I have a question?
A useful press kit makes those answers easy to find.
At Fair Public Relations, we maintain living media resources for clients in Google Drive rather than thinking of a press kit as one static glossy PDF. Different folders can contain expert material, products, services, real-life stories, announcements, press releases, photography and other assets. Those resources change as the campaign changes.
Journalists can access relevant material when they need it.
That is much closer to how I think a modern press kit should work.
What is a press kit?
A press kit is a reusable collection of information and media assets that help journalists understand and work with a business.
The word reusable is important.
A press release generally concerns one particular story, announcement or editorial opportunity.
The press kit sits behind many possible stories.
Imagine a journalist receives a pitch from a skincare company about one new product.
The press release might explain that product.
The wider media resources could also contain founder biographies, high-resolution imagery, existing products, company facts, previous media coverage and expert credentials.
If the journalist decides the founder is more interesting than the launch, the material is already there.
That is why I would not treat a press kit as a one-off document created once and forgotten.
It should evolve.
Press kit, media kit, press release and pitch: what is the difference?
People use "press kit" and "media kit" interchangeably, and that is generally fine.
The useful distinction is between the reusable resource and the individual thing being pitched.
| Resource | Main purpose | Typical contents |
|---|---|---|
| Press or media kit | Reusable background and media assets | Company facts, bios, images, products/services, credentials, research, previous coverage, contact information |
| Press release | Explains one particular story or opportunity | Headline, facts, context, quotes, evidence, assets and media contact |
| Journalist pitch | Quickly introduces the editorial proposition | What is being offered, why it is relevant and what the journalist can do next |
| Expert profile | Makes a spokesperson easy to assess | Biography, credentials, expertise, opinions, topics, location and availability |
You do not need to send the entire press kit every time you pitch somebody.
In fact, I generally would not.
Give the journalist the most relevant material and make the wider resources easy to access if they want them.
Does every small business need a giant formal press kit?
No.
It needs to be media-ready.
That may mean having an extremely well-organised Google Drive rather than a giant "MEDIA KIT 2026 FINAL FINAL.pdf".
For some businesses, a public press page is useful.
For others, a shared folder works perfectly well.
For Fair PR clients, we use Google Drive extensively because it allows us to maintain different pieces of press material continuously.
We can have folders relating to experts.
Products.
Services.
Stories.
Announcements.
Photography.
Individual releases sit within those areas, and we keep updating them as the campaign develops.
That is more useful to us operationally than rebuilding one presentation every time the company changes something.
Start with accurate company facts
Journalists need a basic factual foundation.
The exact trading name.
What the business actually does.
Where it operates.
Who it serves.
When it started, where that is relevant.
Its website.
Any genuinely significant business background.
Media contact details.
The language should be factual.
A press kit is not improved by describing the company as "the world's most innovative, disruptive and revolutionary market-leading platform" unless you can somehow demonstrate every part of that sentence.
Usually you cannot.
A journalist wants information they can safely understand and potentially use.
Make that easy.
Do not make the boilerplate the star
Companies often spend an extraordinary amount of time perfecting a corporate paragraph that says almost nothing.
"ABC is an innovative solutions provider dedicated to transforming customer journeys through a pioneering approach to excellence."
What does it do?
Who buys it?
Where?
A much more useful description might be:
"ABC provides appointment-booking software for independent dental practices in the UK and Canada."
I understand it immediately.
The interesting story can come afterwards.
Founder biographies need to tell journalists something useful
A founder biography should not simply be a personal LinkedIn summary pasted into a PDF.
The journalist wants the relevant part.
What did this person do before?
Why are they credible?
What have they actually experienced?
What can they discuss?
Have they built businesses before?
Do they have professional qualifications?
Did something unusual lead them to start this company?
Are they available for interviews?
The answer depends on whether the founder is being presented primarily as a founder or an expert.
Those are different propositions.
Expert biographies should be specific
If you are positioning somebody for expert commentary, define the areas in which they are actually useful.
At Fair PR, we already do this through expert profiles, and the website's Media Expert Directory provides another public route for journalists to see people we represent and the subjects they can discuss. The current directory model includes professional biographies, credentials, key areas of expertise, locations, websites and media availability.
I like that because a journalist can find somebody at any time, including outside the exact moment we happen to be pitching them.
But a directory is not a replacement for outreach.
It is supporting infrastructure.
The same applies to the press kit generally.
Previous press coverage belongs in the kit
Yes, I think it is useful.
Previous media coverage can quickly show that there has already been journalist interest in the company or spokesperson.
For an expert, it demonstrates that they have operated in the media before.
For a founder, it can give a journalist an idea of previous subjects they have discussed.
It also gives the PR team another credible resource to point to.
I would keep it selective.
There is little value in presenting a journalist with a wall containing 300 logos and no indication of what any of the coverage actually involved.
Choose examples that show something meaningful.
A national interview.
A strong specialist article.
A product feature.
A previous expert quotation.
A relevant podcast.
Make it possible to click through and understand the context.
Previous coverage can also strengthen the wider online footprint
Published articles create independent third-party references associated with a company, founder or expert.
That can be useful beyond the original readership.
It can strengthen what somebody finds when they search for the person.
It can provide external sources that search engines and other information systems may encounter.
I would still be cautious about saying that adding previous coverage to a press page means Google will rank you higher or an AI system will cite you.
Those outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
But making credible, accurate media history easy to discover is sensible for journalists and useful more broadly.
Photography is one of the most important parts of the kit
Businesses consistently underestimate this.
Journalists often need imagery immediately.
If the story is ready but the photograph is poor, missing or impossible to use, the entire opportunity becomes more difficult.
For a founder or expert, have strong professional headshots.
Not one.
Several.
Different crops and orientations can help.
Depending on the company, lifestyle photography may be useful too.
Someone working.
The team.
The office.
A workshop.
A relevant environment.
For a product brand, I normally want good packshots and good lifestyle photographs.
Packshots or cut-out images make it much easier for shopping and product journalists to place items into layouts.
Lifestyle imagery gives editors another visual option.
Image files should be understandable
A journalist should not open a folder containing:
`IMG_7821.jpg`
`final2.jpg`
`DSC00984-edit-new-FINAL.jpg`
and have to guess who is in every photograph.
Use sensible file names.
Include the person's name.
Include the product.
Have captions where necessary.
State photography credits clearly.
If usage is restricted, communicate that.
If you do not own the rights needed to provide the photograph for editorial use, do not casually tell the journalist they can publish it.
Copyright, privacy and licensing can become complex, so anything uncertain should be checked properly rather than guessed at.
A product press kit needs practical product information
If you are selling a physical product, think like the journalist putting together a roundup.
They may need:
Product name
Price
Variants
Sizes or dimensions where relevant
Availability
Stockists
Product-page link
What makes it meaningfully different
Good product images
Sample availability
Relevant claims and their evidence
If you are expecting reviews, make the sample process simple.
Do not pitch a journalist something that has been out of stock for three months.
A service press kit is different
For services, the practical information changes.
What does the service involve?
Where is it offered?
Who is eligible?
What does it cost?
Who delivers it?
What qualifications or professional credentials matter?
Can a journalist experience it?
How does booking work?
What can and cannot reasonably be promised?
A hotel and a solicitor should clearly not have identical media kits.
The resources should follow the editorial opportunities around the actual business.
Research and statistics need supporting information
If a business wants to use data publicly, put the methodology somewhere accessible.
Journalists may not need every detail in the opening pitch.
But if somebody asks:
"How many people did you survey?"
you should know.
If the data comes from your own platform, explain that.
If it covers a particular period, state it.
If users are anonymous, explain the relevant context without disclosing confidential information.
If the finding only relates to your own customers, do not quietly present it as a nationally representative result.
Credibility can disappear very quickly when a dramatic statistic turns out to have almost no support behind it.
Should a press kit contain approved quotations?
It can.
A few useful attributable quotes may help with recurring company information or an announcement.
But I would not try to anticipate every question a journalist might ever ask.
Expert commentary works best when it answers the actual story.
A generic folder containing 100 pre-approved motivational statements is much less useful than having a credible expert who can respond when somebody asks something relevant.
The press kit should therefore also make clear what subjects the person can discuss.
That is often more valuable than the quotes themselves.
Expert subject areas should be narrow enough to mean something
"Business expert."
"Technology expert."
"Wellness expert."
Those descriptions are broad.
Try:
"Founder who can discuss AI recruitment, senior technology hiring and skills shortages."
Or:
"Clinical psychologist available to discuss workplace anxiety, relationships and behavioural patterns."
Or:
"Interior designer specialising in kitchens, bathrooms, colour and small-space design."
Now the journalist can recognise a potential fit.
How should a press kit be stored?
The best system is the one journalists can access quickly.
For Fair PR, Google Drive works well.
It is easy to update.
We can provide direct access to relevant material.
Documents can contain additional links without turning the original email into a wall of URLs.
Photography can sit in organised folders.
And the same material remains available when the campaign develops.
A good public website media area can work too.
I generally like resources that do not force somebody through complicated login processes.
Journalists work quickly.
Every unnecessary step creates friction.
Why I do not love enormous PDF media kits
There is nothing inherently wrong with PDFs.
Sometimes they are useful.
But businesses often turn a press kit into a brochure because the PDF format encourages design.
The result is fifty pages of marketing.
A journalist then has to scroll around trying to find the founder's surname or the price of the product.
That is backwards.
Design should help organise the information.
It should not become the information.
This fits with how we approach press releases too. Fair generally uses short covering emails and accessible linked press material rather than relying on huge attachments.
What should you leave out?
Anything confidential.
Anything you cannot substantiate.
Anything irrelevant.
Huge amounts of customer information.
Internal strategy documents.
Unverified statistics.
Every award the business has ever received.
A 70-page investor deck.
Hundreds of near-identical photographs.
Lengthy testimonials where they add nothing to the media proposition.
The press kit should make a journalist's job easier.
If adding something makes it harder to find the useful parts, question why it is there.
A practical Fair-style press-kit structure
I would organise the top-level folders around the types of content journalists might use.
For example:
MEDIA / PRESS
01 - EXPERTS
Jordan Smith - Expert Profile
Jordan Smith - Headshots
Jordan Smith - Previous Coverage
02 - PRODUCTS
Product A
Product Information
Press Releases
Packshots
Lifestyle Images
Sample Information
03 - SERVICES
Service Overview
Pricing and Availability
Relevant Credentials
Press Releases
Images
04 - REAL-LIFE STORIES
Story A
Story Brief
Interview Notes
Supporting Images
Supporting Evidence
05 - BUSINESS NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announcement A
Announcement B
06 - PHOTOGRAPHY
Founders
Team
Workplace
Lifestyle
Products
07 - RESEARCH & DATA
Survey Results
Methodology
Source Notes
08 - PREVIOUS MEDIA COVERAGE
09 - COMPANY FACTS & MEDIA CONTACT
That is not a universal template.
It reflects how I like to think about PR campaigns: organise things around what journalists can actually use.
What might a one-page company fact sheet contain?
Consider a fictional company called GreenFold.
The fact sheet could include:
Business: GreenFold Ltd
What it does: Subscription-based reusable packaging service for independent ecommerce retailers.
Founded: 2024
Based: Manchester, UK
Markets: UK
Founder: Rebecca Jones
Customers: Independent ecommerce businesses
Core service: Reusable postal packaging collected and recirculated through participating retailers
Founder media topics: ecommerce, packaging, small-business logistics, sustainable retail operations
Media materials available: founder interview, operational data, product photography, packaging samples
Media contact: [named PR contact]
That is enough to orient somebody.
We do not need three paragraphs describing GreenFold's passionate commitment to redefining the future.
How does the kit change for a technology company?
A technology company might prioritise:
Founder and technical spokesperson profiles
Clearly defined expertise
Product explanation
Useful screenshots where appropriate
Original data
Methodology
Previous commentary
Technical background for specialist journalists
Simplified explanations for mainstream journalists
It may have very little need for lifestyle photography compared with a consumer brand.
How does it change for a consumer product?
Product photography becomes much more important.
So does pricing.
Stock.
Samples.
Packshots.
Variants.
Stockists.
Review information.
The founder story may still matter, but the product itself needs to be incredibly easy to assess.
What about a consumer service business?
The kit might need:
Service description
Location
Pricing
Professional credentials
Access or review arrangements
Founder and practitioner biographies
Venue or service imagery
Customer-story assets where appropriate
Media availability
The information changes because the journalist's possible interaction with the business changes.
What happens when a journalist needs something you do not have?
Get it.
Quickly.
A press kit is not supposed to eliminate human communication.
If a journalist asks for another image, find it.
If they need the founder today, establish whether the founder is free.
If they ask where a figure came from, check the source.
If they need a high-resolution landscape image and you only have portrait photographs, see whether one exists or can reasonably be produced.
The press kit should remove predictable friction.
It cannot anticipate everything.
Journalists asking questions is a good thing
Do not become irritated because the journalist did not simply use the materials exactly as supplied.
They are doing journalism.
They may want to verify.
They may need another opinion.
They may challenge a statistic.
They could decide the original story is not the interesting part and go in a different direction.
That is normal.
A press kit provides the building blocks.
It does not control the final building.
How often should you update a press kit?
Continuously where necessary.
A product goes out of stock.
Update it.
A founder changes title.
Update it.
A doctor obtains a relevant new professional credential.
Update it.
A spokesperson leaves.
Remove them.
Prices change.
Update them.
New photography becomes available.
Add it.
A business has an excellent new piece of media coverage.
Add it to the appropriate section.
This is why I prefer living media resources to a document somebody creates in January and discovers eighteen months later still contains the old managing director and an obsolete price list.
When can a PR agency help with a press kit?
Folder organisation is not really the valuable part.
Anybody can create folders.
The judgement comes from knowing what should go in them.
Which founder credentials matter?
Which photographs are actually useful to a newspaper?
Which previous articles strengthen the media profile?
What claims need evidence?
Which product information is missing?
What should the expert be positioned around?
Which customer story is safe and strong enough to pitch?
What information will the journalist probably ask for next?
That is where a PR agency should add value.
The press kit is the infrastructure supporting the campaign.
It is not the campaign itself.
Does a brilliant press kit make journalists cover you?
No.
It makes it easier for them to cover you when there is something worth covering.
That difference matters.
You can have the most beautifully organised media library in the world and still have no story.
A badly organised company with an extraordinary story can still get coverage.
But if two potential sources are equally useful and one can immediately provide accurate facts, strong photography, evidence and a credible spokesperson while the other needs two days to locate a headshot, I know which one is easier to work with.
Good preparation removes avoidable barriers.
That is why press kits matter.
Press-kit checklist
Before approaching journalists, I would want to know that the business can quickly provide:
accurate company facts and media contact details;
relevant founder and spokesperson biographies;
clear areas of expertise;
professional headshots;
relevant company, workplace and lifestyle photography;
packshots and product information where applicable;
service information and access arrangements where applicable;
supporting evidence for significant claims;
methodology for original research or statistics;
a small selection of useful previous coverage;
current pricing and availability;
image captions and credits;
interview availability;
relevant press releases and story material.
You may not need every one of those items.
The point is readiness.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a press kit and a press release?
A press release relates to a specific story or opportunity. A press kit is the reusable collection of company facts, biographies, imagery, evidence and other resources that can support many different media opportunities.
Do small businesses really need a press kit?
They need organised media resources. That can be a simple shared folder rather than an elaborate branded presentation.
Should a press kit be a PDF or an online folder?
Either can work, but I generally prefer accessible, easily updated online material. Fair PR commonly uses Google Drive for living press resources.
What photographs should a press kit contain?
It depends on the business. Useful assets can include founder headshots, expert portraits, team and workplace photography, product packshots, lifestyle images and relevant service or venue imagery.
How many pages should a press kit be?
There is no useful universal page count. A journalist should be able to find the information they need quickly. That matters more than length.
Should a company include previous media coverage?
Yes, selectively. Strong examples can show previous journalist interest and give context around the spokesperson or business.
Can you make a press kit yourself?
Absolutely. The main challenge is not creating the folder. It is deciding which information and assets journalists genuinely need and keeping everything current.
Does having a press kit make journalists more likely to cover you?
Not by itself. It removes practical friction once there is a worthwhile editorial opportunity.
Need Help Getting Your Business Media-Ready?
At Fair Public Relations, we build press materials around the opportunities we are actually pursuing.
That can include expert profiles, press releases, company information, photography, product material, supporting evidence, customer stories and accessible journalist resources.
We then use those assets as part of the wider job: finding genuine stories, developing the right angle and putting useful material in front of relevant journalists.
A press kit should make good PR easier.
It should never be mistaken for the reason the journalist is interested in the first place.
Written by Jordan Baker
Founder of Fair Public Relations and former UK national journalist
Jordan Baker is the founder of Fair Public Relations and a former UK national journalist with more than a decade of experience in journalism and PR. He writes about press materials, journalist outreach, expert positioning, media relations and the practical work that sits behind earned-media campaigns.
