What Is a Press Kit?

"Press kit" dates from the late 1960s. Merriam-Webster gives 1968 as the first known use; the Random House dictionary places the word origin between 1965 and 1970. Collins defines it as "a set of documents, usually containing useful facts and figures, given to journalists by a company prior to a product release, news conference, etc". The Cambridge Business English Dictionary lists "press pack" as a variant.

Communication research has a name for what a press kit contains: an information subsidy. The press office makes information available to journalists at low cost and effort for them. According to the Spanish researcher Jordi Xifra (2011), Oscar H. Gandy coined the term in 1982; Xifra's own reference list cites a Gandy text from 1981.

Other languages took different routes. German uses "Pressemappe", first shown in the DWDS dictionary in a quote from Die Zeit of 26 May 1967, and the word has a second meaning there: a collection of published press coverage. Spanish says "dossier de prensa", although the Royal Spanish Academy recommends the adapted spelling "dosier".

Source: Syracuse University Libraries, Television Press Kit Collection; Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, essay of 2010; Internet Archive, Sneakers Promotional Floppy; Xifra (2011) (accessed 09.11.2026).

Syracuse describes a typical TV press kit: still shots from the show, a page with sketches and brief bios of the main characters, a summary of the show's themes and sample posters, all in an illustrated custom folder. The Kansas essay calls the end of paper kits the passing of "the age of the elaborately designed and packaged press kit".

A press kit supports the press release. The release tells one story; the kit gives the background a journalist needs to write it: who the company is, what its numbers are, who is speaking and which images may be used.

English Wikipedia notes that "there is no universal guide" to what belongs in a press kit. Archives and studies name these parts:

Source: Faucette, University of Kansas (2010); Xifra (2011); Wikipedia, "Press kit" and "Pressemappe" (accessed 09.11.2026).

Images get used. According to Cision's State of the Media 2024 report (3,016 respondents in 19 countries, surveyed in January and February 2024), 72 % of journalists had used images supplied by PR professionals in the previous year.

Source: Wikipedia, "Press kit" and "Pressemappe"; University of Kansas (2010); NASA, Artemis II Resources for Media (accessed 09.11.2026).

German Wikipedia describes the EPK as a digital press kit that adds image, audio and video material to the text. For music, English Wikipedia lists the parts of a band press kit: a band biography, a CD or video, photos, press reviews, notable achievements, contacts for the label, manager or publicist with social media links, a discography and, for a music venue, an equipment list. Bands use them when launching an album or playing a special event.

A historical example: in 1992 Universal Pictures issued a "computer press kit" on floppy disk for the film "Sneakers". According to the Internet Archive record, it was a DOS program with cast bios, the plot and production information, meant only for the press and sent together with printed material.

A current US example is NASA's Artemis II Resources for Media page (accessed 09.11.2026). It works as a press kit for the mission and groups its material into blocks:

• interview requests for the crew;
• a digital press kit with the Artemis II Press Kit document;
• multimedia: mission photographs, behind-the-scenes videos and podcasts;
• mission resources: an overview, a launch timeline, animations, B-roll and a reference guide;
• crew resources: a biography and a resource reel for each of the four astronauts;
• a list of media briefings.

A press kit has no success metric of its own. What you can count:

• downloads of the PDF or ZIP and visits to the newsroom, using the website's analytics;
• questions and interview requests that reach the media contact;
• coverage that uses figures, quotes or images from the kit, with credit.

Surveys show what journalists ask for. In news aktuell's Medien-Trendmonitor 2025 (1,011 journalists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, online, 6 May to 10 June 2025), the top wishes were transparent, fact-based communication (53 %) and data and studies (42 %). More multimedia material came last, at 9 %. Both Cision and news aktuell sell press release distribution.

Source: own summary based on University of Kansas (2010) and Xifra (2011).

Source: Wikipedia, "Press kit" (advertising media kit); DWDS, "Pressemappe" (accessed 09.11.2026).

English Wikipedia says that "a PR media kit should not be confused with an advertising media kit developed by a newspaper or magazine for distribution to prospective advertisers". An advertising media kit describes the publication's editorial philosophy, its audience, a rate card and upcoming special features. If someone asks you for a media kit, check which one they mean.

Source: vendor websites, in alphabetical order and without ranking (accessed 09.11.2026).

Gifts are the sensitive part. The PRSA Code of Ethics asks members to make sure that gifts are "nominal, legal, and infrequent". It also lists, as an example of improper conduct, a member who finds inaccurate information in a website or media kit and does not correct it. Journalists' codes set similar limits. In Germany, guideline 15.1 of the Pressekodex calls promotional items and other low-value objects acceptable; in Spain, the FAPE code adopted in 2026 limits promotional gifts to what strict courtesy allows.

The second limit is what journalists actually use. In Cision's 2024 survey, 68 % rated press releases as especially useful for creating content, against 33 % for a company newsroom or press area.

• Decide what the kit is for: a launch, a trade show, earnings or a company profile.
• Write the press release, a fact sheet with figures and a date, and short bios of the people who will talk to the media.
• Pick a few strong images, with credits and terms of use.
• Give the name, role, phone and email of the media contact.
• Put the kit in your online newsroom and link to it in your email, with the file size of each download.

• Date every document and every file name.
• Offer images at print resolution and in a light web version.
• If there is an embargo, give the date, time and time zone.
• Keep figures in the kit identical to those in the release.

• Emailing a huge ZIP that nobody asked for.
• Images without credits or usage rights.
• An empty media contact, or an inbox nobody reads.
• Leaving old kits online without a visible date.
• Sending an advertising rate card when a journalist asked for a media kit.

This entry was written in November 2026 with AI assistance. It started from an analysis of the top search results in the US, Germany and Spain, in order to add what they leave out: the origin of the term from dictionaries, the history from university archives, the difference from an advertising media kit and what the ethics codes say about gifts. The examples are materials published by their own authors. It was reviewed before publication and contains no client data.