Press Kit

I unearthed a pile of old portfolios and found work I'd done 150 years ago (in the 80s.) In it are samples of my work -- article clips, newsletters, bylines, brochures -- and an "old" press kit.

Back in the day, press kit contents were housed in lovely, embossed, die-cut pocket folders with 8x10 black and white glossy photographs and a well-chosen selection of printed documents: press release(s), fact sheet, company overview, FAQs and other printed information that I, as the PR rep, believed were good and useful resources for my media contacts.

We used to send these press kit folders via U.S. mail to all the pertinent media outlets, at great cost when you consider printing, postage, 10 x 13 envelopes and labor. At the receiving end were reporters, editors and producers with stacks and stacks of folders received from the hundreds of people and organizations who were promoting something, each of these stuffed with paper and photographs, many of which ended up in the circular file.

As far as I know, almost no one uses these kinds of printed press kits anymore. Today, the press kit is fully electronic, downloadable from the web site as PDFs or Word docs. Since most media correspondence is now done via email, the media are fully accustomed to receiving press kit documents as attachments. That's great for us -- the economies created by the digital age are substantial when it comes to the practice of public relations.