The Short Answer

Journalists need to reach a person quickly, find someone qualified to speak, cite a dated statement, check a figure, use an image legally and ask for a case study without putting anyone at risk. A press page does those six jobs or it is a list of old announcements. None of it is a legal duty. All of it needs an owner.

A press page is judged at nine on a Sunday evening. Most are built for eleven on a Tuesday morning.

The section checklist gives each part its own row. The parts only work as one section, kept current by one person who answers for all of it.

Why Journalists Use It

The surveys say PR material feeds a large share of journalism. In Muck Rack's 2026 State of Journalism survey of 897 journalists, primarily based in the United States, 86% said at least some of their stories originate from PR pitches. The same survey lists access to relevant sources, original research or data and high-resolution images among the most valuable parts of a pitch. Cision's 2026 State of the Media survey of 1,899 journalists across North America, EMEA and APAC found 66% rely on PR-provided content for story ideas, and named original research, expert access and embargoed information as what they value.

Every item on those lists is something a website can hold before anyone asks. A pitch arrives in an inbox and is gone by the afternoon. The press page is what is still there when someone wants to check it.

A Contact That Answers Out of Hours

The contact block needs a press email, a daytime number, an out-of-hours number if you have one and a plain statement of when each is answered. News does not keep office hours, and neither do humanitarian emergencies in other time zones.

Two public examples show the pattern. The British Heart Foundation's press office page says its line is open 24/7, that the number is only for media enquiries and that emails are answered in office hours. The RSPCA's media contacts are listed by region and put a duty press officer on 24/7 for time-sensitive and urgent media enquiries, under a heading that says "journalists only". Both tell a journalist which channel to use and what to expect from it.

If you cannot staff a duty line, say so and say when email is read. An honest answer is more useful than a number that rings out. An out-of-hours line is a rota, not a page, and the page is only as good as the rota behind it.

For an international NGO, the regional pattern matters more. A journalist covering a flood needs the press contact nearest the flood, in a language they share, so list contacts by region where you have them. What the site must say in the first hours of a crisis is a separate job, covered in what your nonprofit website should say during a crisis.

Spokespeople by Expertise

Most spokespeople pages follow the organisation chart. Journalists search by subject. The British Red Cross spokespeople page opens with the subjects it can cover (among them health and social care, crisis response and refugees and asylum seekers) and gives each person's role and background. The next step is an index a journalist can filter: subject, languages, where the person is based and whether they are available for broadcast.

International NGOs have a further question: whose voice the page offers. Charter4Change is a voluntary charter, and under its commitment 8 signatories say they will promote the role of local actors in media work and "include them as spokespersons when security considerations permit". For a signatory, a spokespeople page made up entirely of head-office staff is a commitment the website visibly does not keep.

The security condition is the website's problem as much as the press team's. A partner profile names a person, an organisation and often a place. That judgement is made before the profile is published, with the person's agreement, and reviewed when the situation changes. Where naming someone would put them at risk, the page can say that partner spokespeople are available on request.

Releases That Can Be Cited

The release archive is the part journalists rely on most. In Cision's 2025 survey of more than 3,000 journalists across 19 markets, 72% called press releases the most useful resource PR teams can offer.

Each release needs a date, its embargo status, notes to editors and a named contact. The notes carry what a journalist will otherwise ring to ask: who you are, your charity number, the source of any figure and where to find images. The archive needs to be dated and searchable. The British Red Cross press releases are both, with a keyword search.

Position statements belong beside the releases, each dated, with a note of what changed and when. A dated statement is one a journalist can quote without ringing to check it still stands. If you run an embargoed media list, the sign-up collects personal data and needs privacy information at the point of collection. A short corrections route, saying how to ask and how fast you reply, completes the set.

Facts With a Date and a Source

The same Cision 2026 survey named accuracy, fact-checking and combating misinformation as the biggest challenge journalists face. A facts page either helps with that or adds to it.

Every figure on the page needs four things beside it: what it measures, the period it covers, its source with a link, and the date it was added. A figure without a year gets quoted the year after next as if it were current. The British Heart Foundation's facts and figures page states the month it was last reviewed and asks journalists to check for updates, which is the page-level half of the rule. The other half is a date and a source on each figure.

The facts page must also agree with every other page that uses the same numbers. Spending figures come from the accounts your trustees approved, the same source as your where your money goes page. Two pages quoting two versions of one figure is a story in itself.

Images Journalists Can Use

A photo library is where consent is most easily lost. An image downloaded without its conditions becomes a consent given once and reused anywhere. Each image needs a caption, a credit and its usage limits beside the download: who may use it, for what and until when. The consent and dignity questions behind those limits are in image strategy for nonprofit websites. Logo files and the rules for using them belong in the same place, and logo standards for charities covers what the kit should hold.

Signatories to the Dóchas Guide to Ethical Communications agree to show its commitments on their homepage or About page and to give prominent information on feedback and complaints. The newsroom should link to that policy from the library, so a journalist can see the standard the images were made to.

Case Studies on Your Terms

Journalists ask for people with lived experience. The request is where a press page most needs its conditions stated before anyone asks. Informed consent is one of the four commitments in the Dóchas Guide: content obtained "with the full understanding, participation and permission of those featured", or of a parent or guardian for a child.

The page should carry a request form, the lead time you need and the conditions your safeguarding lead has set: rules for children and people at risk, whether a support worker attends and what the person can withdraw. YoungMinds' media centre answers the question in its FAQ and says it assesses each request, including whether taking part is "likely to be beneficial for the person being interviewed". Publishing that test tells a journalist the answer may be no, and why, before they have built a piece around a yes.

The consent process itself is not the website's to design. What the page must do is state it plainly, and route requests to the people who apply it. The detail for young people is in safeguarding in digital communications.

One Section, One Owner

Each part has a natural keeper: the press office for contacts and releases, each spokesperson for their own profile, finance or research for the facts, whoever holds consent records for the images, the safeguarding lead for case studies. The section still needs one owner who answers for the whole of it.

That owner keeps a short list of checks. Ring the out-of-hours number from outside the building. Remove spokespeople who have left. Re-date or retire every figure when new accounts or research arrive. Pull images whose consent has expired. Confirm that the case-study conditions still match the safeguarding policy. I would put the section on the same review cycle as the rest of the site's governed content, rather than leaving it to whoever last sent a release.

A press page is a promise to a stranger on deadline that what they find is current, usable and safe to print. Kept current, it gets you quoted. Left alone, it gets you misquoted.

Further Reading

What This Post Does Not Cover

This is about the website: what the press section publishes, where and who keeps it true. It is not media strategy, and it is not safeguarding or data protection advice; the conditions for case studies and the consent behind images belong with your safeguarding lead, your data protection lead and your own advisers. The surveys cited are of journalists in general, weighted to the United States in Muck Rack's case, not of journalists covering charities. I loaded every example named here on 30 September 2026 and describe only what its page said that day, not how the organisation handles requests in practice.