What a Media Kit Should Contain

A media kit is not a brochure. It is a folder of the things a journalist would otherwise have to email you for.

Judged that way, most kits are far too long and missing the parts that matter.

What a media kit is for

When a writer decides to include you, they need a handful of specifics: the correct spelling of your name, your job title, what the company does in one sentence, a usable photograph, and one or two facts they can attribute.

If they have to chase you for those, your piece is competing with their deadline. The deadline usually wins.

So the test for every item is simple. Does this save a journalist time, or does it cost them time? Anything in the second category comes out.

What belongs in it

• A one-line description. What the company does, for whom, in plain words. This is the sentence that gets copied into the article, so write it as you would like to read it.
• Boilerplate in two lengths. Roughly 50 words and roughly 120 words, both in plain prose rather than marketing register.
• A founder bio in two lengths. Two lines and one paragraph, with the correct job title and the spelling you want in print.
• Key facts. Founding year, headquarters, team size, markets served, and any figure you are willing to see published. Only include numbers you can evidence.
• Photography. A headshot plus two or three images that are not headshots.
• Logo files. A colour and a mono version, transparent backgrounds, sensible resolution.
• Quotes ready to use. Two or three attributable lines on the subjects you actually want to be asked about.
• Selected coverage. Live links to a few pieces, not a wall of logos. Presenting those honestly is covered in how to use your as-featured-in.
• Contact details. A named person, a monitored inbox, and a realistic response time.

That is the whole thing. It fits on one page plus a folder of images.

Photographs and logos

Photography is where most kits fail, and it is the easiest fix on this page.

A journalist needs an image that works in the publication's layout. That means high resolution, decent light, and enough space around the subject to be cropped both wide and square. A dark phone snapshot cannot be used, so the piece runs with stock imagery or no image at all.

Include at least one horizontal shot and one vertical. Include something other than a face, such as the product, the workspace or the team working. And state plainly that the images are cleared for editorial use, because a writer who is unsure about rights will skip them rather than ask.

What to leave out

• Your pitch deck. It was written for investors and it reads that way.
• Unverifiable claims. Market-leading. Award-winning, without naming the award. Fastest-growing, without a source. Each one costs you a little credibility.
• Screenshots of coverage. If there is no live link, it is not evidence.
• Mission statements. Nobody has ever quoted one.
• Anything behind a form. Making a journalist complete a lead-capture form to reach your assets is a reliable way to lose the piece.
• Watermarked or locked files. An image that cannot be used may as well not exist.

How to send it

Host it as a plain page on your own site with a short, memorable URL, and link to it. Do not attach a large file to a cold email.

Keep the download folder small and obviously labelled: headshot, team, product, logo. Name files by what they contain, not by internal version numbers.

In a pitch, link the kit at the end, in one line. It is a reference, not the pitch. The pitch itself is the story, which is a different job entirely and is covered in how to write a founder story.

Keeping it current

An out-of-date kit is worse than no kit, because the error ends up in print with your name on it.

Check it whenever a title changes, a funding round closes, a headcount figure moves materially, or a coverage link dies. Twice a year as a minimum, and always before a campaign or a round of interviews. A stale figure in a kit is how a wrong number outlives the thing it described.

Digital Networking Agency builds this out with clients as part of preparing to pitch, largely because the same material answers most of what an interviewer asks later. That overlap is covered in preparing for a press interview.

Frequently asked questions

Does a small company need a media kit?

Yes, and it is quicker to build than most founders expect. One page and a folder of images is enough, and it removes the delay that loses coverage.

Should the media kit be public?

Generally yes. A public press page is easy to find, easy to link and signals that you are straightforward to work with. Keep anything genuinely confidential out of it.

How many coverage links should I include?

Three to five that are recent, live and relevant. A long list of old links reads as padding, and every dead one invites doubt about the rest.