What Goes in a Press Kit

A press kit, also called a media kit, is a standing page of background material about your company that a reporter, partner or investor can use without contacting you first. It differs from a press release, which announces one specific piece of news, by covering the company as a whole: what it does, who runs it, and what it looks like.

What belongs in a press kit

A complete press kit usually includes a short company overview or fact sheet, biographies of key people, a logo package, product or executive photos with usage notes, recent press releases, and a media contact. Not every kit needs all of these from day one; a company with no press coverage yet can start with a fact sheet, a logo and a contact, then add releases as they are written.

The fact sheet

A fact sheet is a short document, often one page, listing the essentials: what the company does, when it was founded, where it is based, roughly how large it is, and any notable facts a reporter would want without digging. Keep it to facts you can verify, not marketing language. If a number changes, such as headcount or number of customers, update the fact sheet rather than leaving an old figure in place.

Bios

Include a short biography for each person a reporter is likely to quote or write about, usually the chief executive and any other public-facing leaders. A useful bio states the person’s role, relevant background and how long they have been with the company, in a few sentences, not a full career history. Keep these current; an outdated title or a bio for someone who has left the company is one of the most common press kit mistakes.

Logos and images, with usage notes

Provide the logo in more than one format, typically a version with a transparent background and a version on a plain background, so it can be placed on different colors without extra editing. Add a short usage note: minimum size, clear space around the mark, and whether the logo may be recolored or altered. For product or executive photos, provide a resolution suitable for print as well as web use, and caption each image plainly, for example “product photo of the Northwind Robotics warehouse robot” as an illustration of the kind of caption that helps.

Recent releases and contact

Link to your most recent press releases so a visitor can see what the company has announced recently, and repeat the contact block from your releases: a name, an email address and a phone number for media questions. See the boilerplate guide for how to write the short company description that appears both in releases and in the kit.

How it relates to a single release

A press release is written and sent once, tied to a specific piece of news; a press kit sits on your site permanently and supports whatever release you send next. When you write a release, as covered in how to write a press release, you can often reuse the boilerplate and contact details directly from the press kit rather than rewriting them each time. The kit is the reference; the release is the announcement.

Hosting the kit

Put the press kit on your own website, at a page that is easy to find and easy to remember, such as a “Press” or “Media” link in your site footer or navigation. Hosting it yourself means it stays available as long as your site does, and you can update it the moment a fact changes, rather than depending on a document sent by email that quickly goes out of date. When you distribute a release, whether by direct outreach or a distribution service, the pitch or the release itself can simply link to this page for anyone who wants more background.