Press kit checklist: eight assets a product press kit needs

A press kit checklist covers eight assets: a one-paragraph boilerplate, product facts, founder bios, logo files, screenshots, a recent press release, contact details, and one download page that keeps them together. The test is not whether the folder looks complete. It is whether a journalist can publish a correct sentence about you without sending a follow-up question.

This chapter is for the moment before you publish the press page, not after a reporter asks for it. It produces a folder another person can use without your help, and a dated record of what was true when you shipped it.

What belongs in a product press kit

Eight assets cover the questions a writer asks first: who you are, what the product does, who runs it, what it looks like, what changed, and whom to contact. Each asset has one job. If an asset answers two different questions, split it.

The download page is the asset people forget to count. A folder sent as an email attachment goes stale the moment one file changes. A page can carry a version date and replace a file without changing the URL a writer already saved.

The eight-item press kit checklist

Run this list as a pass-or-fix check, in order. Each row has one pass condition, so a second person can repeat the review without asking what “looks fine” means. We use this order as of 30 October 2026.

The first row is the one that fails quietly. A boilerplate is copied from page to page, so an old number can survive in six places before anyone notices. Read it as a claim, not as background text.

How to assemble the press kit in six steps

Do the steps in order. The first two decide whether the rest is worth writing; the last two decide whether it survives the next product change.

1. Write the boilerplate first. Finish when one paragraph names the company, the product, the audience and the outcome, and every sentence can be checked against a public page.
2. Collect the facts from the live site. Copy the price, platform, audience and current release date from the pages a reader would see. Finish when the kit and the site agree line by line.
3. Ask each founder for one verifiable detail. A previous product, a relevant job, a public talk. Finish when a stranger could confirm the detail without your help.
4. Export the visual assets at the sizes a publication needs. Finish when the logo works on light and dark backgrounds and every screenshot is current.
5. Put the files on one page with a visible date. Finish when the page opens without a login and every download returns a file, not an error page.
6. Read the kit as a reporter would. Start at the download page and try to write two sentences about the product. Finish when you need no other tab.

Step six is the only real test. A press kit is not finished when the folder is full. It is finished when someone else can use it without asking you what a file means. Keep the press kit checklist short enough to rerun in one sitting. A list you avoid is worse than a shorter list you actually use.

Write the boilerplate before the folder

The boilerplate is the one block that travels outside the kit. A writer may quote it whole, paste one sentence, or use it as the base for a caption. Write it as a standalone paragraph, not as a list of features.

Company name makes [product] for [specific audience].
It helps them [one outcome] without [the usual trade-off].
Founded in [year], the company is based in [place] and
currently [one checkable fact: stage, customer count, release].
Media contact: [name], [email].

That template is deliberately plain. Google’s guidance on helpful content, checked 30 October 2026, asks whether readers can tell who created a page and whether the content shows first-hand knowledge. A boilerplate that names a real team and a checkable fact answers the first question before a reporter has to ask it. The page was last updated 5 October 2026.

Keep one canonical version. If the sales deck, the website and the press kit each carry a different founding year, a writer will pick the one that is easiest to find and you will spend the next week correcting it.

Where a press kit goes stale

Press kits decay in four predictable places. None of them looks broken on the day you publish, and all of them are cheap to prevent with a date and a named owner.

• The boilerplate keeps a funding round that closed two years ago.
• The logo folder contains a mark the brand team retired.
• The screenshots show a dashboard that no longer exists.
• The contact address belongs to someone who left the company.

Put a “last reviewed” date at the top of the download page and one person’s name next to it. A date without an owner becomes decoration. An owner without a date becomes a memory.

When a press kit is not worth building

Two cases are common enough to name. If you have no product, no launch and no public story yet, a press kit is a folder of adjectives. Build a clear product page and an about page first. The second case is a product with no media contact: a kit that ends in a support form is a dead end for a writer on deadline.

We do not know how many journalists will open a press kit, and this checklist does not measure coverage. It also cannot promise that a publication will use your boilerplate or your screenshots. What it can do is remove the questions that stop a correct sentence from being written.

Common questions

Should the press kit live on its own URL?

Yes, if you can keep one URL stable. A dedicated page is easier to link from a press release and easier to date than a shared drive. If your site already has a newsroom page, put the kit there instead of creating a second home.

How many screenshots should a product press kit include?

Three is usually enough: one overview, one core workflow, one result. More than five turns the folder into a gallery and makes the current UI harder to identify. Every screenshot should show the product, not a marketing slide.

Should the boilerplate be the same as the about page?

No. The about page can carry history and voice; the boilerplate has to survive being quoted out of context. Keep the facts identical and the wording shorter. The about page guide covers the longer version.

Do I need a press release in every press kit?

Only if there is a dated announcement. A kit for a product that launched last year can point to the launch release and say so. A folder with three undated releases is harder to use than one dated release and a clear “latest news” line.

Where does this fit in the promotion workflow?

After the product page and the press release, and before you pitch a writer or submit to a launch platform. The testimonial guide supplies the proof line; the press kit supplies the facts around it. The content creation workflow keeps those assets in one place, with the date and the owner attached.

A press kit is a small public record. Write the facts once, date them, and give them a home that a stranger can use. That is the whole checklist.