Building a Media Kit for Press and Partnership Outreach

When you reach out to a journalist or a potential partner for coverage or collaboration, you're asking them to invest time in learning about your business. Journalists are overworked. Potential partners are evaluating dozens of pitches. The barrier between "sounds interesting" and "actually covering this" is often a simple gap in available information.

A media kit—a one-page document with your key facts, story, and images—fills that gap. It's not a requirement for small businesses, but it's one of the highest-return documents you can create. A journalist who would normally respond with "Interesting, but can you send me more information about your company?" can instead proceed directly to "Yes, I can cover this."

What Goes Into a Media Kit

A media kit for a small business is usually one page (sometimes two, but one is better). It includes:

Your story in one paragraph. This isn't a mission statement. It's a concise explanation of what your company does, why it exists, and what makes it different. "We build custom websites for local service businesses" is clearer than "We deliver innovative digital solutions." The goal is for someone who's never heard of you to understand what you do in 30 seconds.

Key facts. Founding year, number of customers, geographic focus, and any other quick context that shapes how you should be understood. If you've been in business for 20 years, that's credibility. If you were founded last year but have already served 500 customers, that's momentum. Choose the facts that support your story.

Team leads or founder bio. A sentence or two on the person or people running the business. A journalist might want to quote a founder. A partner might want to understand the decision-makers. Keep it brief—name, background, one interesting detail that humanizes the business.

What makes you newsworthy or partnership-worthy. This is context for why a journalist should cover you or a partner should collaborate with you. Are you doing something new in your industry? Solving a known problem differently? Serving an underserved market? Be specific. "We're innovative" is not specific. "We're the first company in our region to offer this service" is.

Contact information. Name, email, phone. Make it easy for someone to reach you. A media kit without contact information is useless.

Images. This is the one element that trips up many small businesses, and where a media kit adds the most value. Journalists need images for articles. If you don't provide them, they either won't include images (reducing the appeal of your coverage) or they'll use generic stock photos (which diminishes the story's credibility). A media kit should include:

• A headshot of the founder or key team member (high-resolution, professional)
• A product photo or service-in-action photo (whatever best represents what you do)
• A logo
• An optional team photo

These images should be downloadable from your website, not embedded in the media kit itself. The media kit can be a PDF, but link to a folder where images live in high resolution.

How This Increases Response Rates

Here's what happens with and without a media kit:

Without: A journalist receives a pitch. It sounds potentially interesting but they don't know enough context. They have two choices: pass, or email back asking for more information. If they email, you send information, they read it, and they decide. Each step creates an opportunity for them to move on to the next story.

With: A journalist receives a pitch with a link to a one-page media kit. In the time it takes to read the pitch, they've also absorbed your story, key facts, and got a visual sense of who you are. If they're interested, they don't need to email for more details. They can immediately decide whether this fits their publication.

That's especially valuable because journalists are on deadline. Information that's easy to access and easy to understand wins. Information that requires back-and-forth often loses.

Media Kits for Different Audiences

The basic structure is the same, but emphasis shifts based on who you're reaching:

For journalists. Lead with what's newsworthy. If you have recent news—a major customer win, a new service, recognition from an industry body—lead with that. Include high-quality product photos or action shots (these are what get published). Include a quote from your founder or CEO that the journalist can use.

For potential partners. Lead with what you have in common and why collaboration benefits both parties. Emphasize customer base, geographic reach, or service offering overlap. Include any data on how similar partnerships have worked.

For investors or financial institutions. Lead with growth and traction. Include metrics that matter financially: revenue, customer growth, retention rate, or market size.

For most small businesses reaching out to journalists or local partners, the first version (journalism-focused) is the right starting point.

FAQ

Should it be a PDF or a web page? A PDF is more portable and easier to share as an attachment. A web page is easier to keep updated and gives you more control over how the information is presented. For media kits, a PDF is usually better—it's a self-contained document that travels with your pitch. But having the same information on a web page (often called "About" or "Press") is also valuable.

What if I'm a solopreneur? Include your name, a headshot, your background, and why you started the business. Then describe what you do. Single-person businesses can have media kits too. Actually include them if you're reaching out to journalists—it shows you're thinking about their needs.

What if I don't have professional photos? A professional headshot is worth the investment (usually $100-500 from a local photographer). For product photos, use your phone camera with good lighting. If you're a service business with no physical product, a photo of you working with a customer (or a close-up of work you've done) is better than nothing. Stock photos are your last resort and usually obvious.

How often should I update it? Once or twice a year is fine. Update it if major facts change: if you hit a significant milestone, if your team shifts, if your product or service offering changes. Don't update it constantly.

Should I send it with every pitch? Include a link to your media kit with most pitches. For personalized outreach to specific journalists, it makes sense. For mass mailings, it's less necessary—most won't use it. But having it available helps.

Building Yours This Week

The simplest path: Open a Google Doc or Canva template. Write one paragraph about your business. List five to seven key facts. Write one paragraph about your founder or team. List one to three reasons why your business is interesting right now. Find or take one professional photo of yourself and one that represents your work. Convert to PDF or publish to a web page.

That's a media kit. It takes a couple of hours the first time. It takes maybe 30 minutes to update. And every time someone asks, "Can you tell me more about your business?" you can send them one page that answers the question before they finish asking it.