Why a media kit earns you better coverage

Most small business owners only think about their press materials when a journalist is already on deadline. That is the worst possible moment to be hunting for a decent headshot or working out your exact staff numbers. A media kit — sometimes called a press kit — is simply a single, well-organised place where a journalist can find everything they need to write about you accurately and quickly.

Think of it as removing friction. A reporter on a tight deadline will usually choose the business that is easiest to write about. If your kit answers the obvious questions before they are asked, you are far more likely to be featured, and far less likely to be misquoted.

The essentials: a fact sheet that does the heavy lifting

Start with a one-page facts document. Keep it plain, scannable and free of marketing language. Journalists need verified details, not adjectives. Include:

• Full legal trading name, plus any trading name you actually use day to day.
• Date founded and a one-line description of what the business does.
• Location of your registered office and any other sites, with postcodes.
• Number of employees, and whether that includes freelancers or contractors.
• Key figures you are happy to see in print — annual turnover band, customers served, units sold, growth percentage. Be precise and be ready to stand behind it.
• Notable milestones: awards, funding rounds, patents, partnerships, notable clients you have permission to name.
• Correct pronunciation of your name and any founder names. This small detail prevents embarrassing errors on radio and podcasts.
• Contact details, including a mobile number and an out-of-hours contact for urgent requests.

Add a line at the bottom stating when the document was last updated. A fact sheet dated three years ago is worse than none at all.

Your short biography — and how short is short

Write two versions of your biography: a 50-word version and a 100-word version. Many publications have a fixed slot for a founder bio, and handing over the right length saves an editor from cutting your carefully crafted paragraphs.

Keep it factual and human. A useful structure is: what you do now, what you did before, one detail that makes you memorable, and a single line of personal colour. For example, a founder might be described as having spent a decade in retail logistics before launching a packaging business from a garage in Leeds. That tells a journalist more than three sentences of mission statement.

Write in the third person. Avoid superlatives such as "visionary" or "award-winning" unless the award is named. If you have team members who are likely to be quoted or interviewed, include short bios for them too, along with their job titles as they should appear in print.

Images journalists can actually use

Poor images kill coverage. A screenshot from a phone, a logo pulled off your website header or a photo with a watermark will often be rejected outright. Supply the following:

• Headshots at a minimum of 300dpi, in both portrait and landscape crops. Name the files clearly, such as jane-smith-headshot-2024.jpg.
• Product or premises photography in high resolution, with a plain background where possible.
• Your logo as a PNG with a transparent background, plus a vector version such as SVG or EPS for print use.
• Brand colours listed as hex and RGB codes, in case a designer needs to match them.
• Team or workplace shots that show real people doing real work — these are far more likely to be used than stock imagery.

Confirm in writing that you own the images or hold a licence permitting press use. If a photographer needs a credit line, state exactly how it should read. It is also worth noting any images that must not be used, such as older headshots you have since replaced.

Make it easy to find and easy to update

Host your media kit on a clearly labelled page on your website, ideally at an address like yourdomain.co.uk/press. If that is not practical, use a single shared folder and give journalists view access rather than asking them to request files.

Keep the structure predictable: a main folder with subfolders for facts, bios, images and previous coverage. Name every file sensibly so it still makes sense when it lands in someone's downloads folder.

Review the whole kit every six months, and again before any major launch. Check that phone numbers still work, that staff numbers are current and that your best photograph is not a picture from four years ago.

Small touches that make a real difference

Include two or three ready-made quotes that a journalist could use directly, clearly labelled as approved for use. Add a short section of frequently asked questions with straightforward answers — these often become the spine of a feature.

Finally, tell people the kit exists. Mention it in your email signature, add a line to the bottom of every press release, and point to it when you pitch. The businesses that get covered consistently are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets; they are the ones that make a journalist's job simple. A tidy, honest, up-to-date media kit does exactly that.