Outsourcing press inquiry handling in the Netherlands in 2026: what a contract has to name

By Bas Kuiper · Refreshed 30 August 2026 · 6 min read

What does a contract for press inquiry handling in the Netherlands need to specify?

A written agreement for outsourcing press inquiry handling covers five items at a minimum. The first item is the exact set of media outlets the provider will monitor or respond to. The second is the promised response time for each type of request.

The third is where the data is stored and processed. The fourth is which software or platform the provider uses to track and archive questions. The fifth and most negotiable item is the total fee and what it includes, whether per month, per year, or per release.

PR-Dashboard sells a separate module called Persvragen specifically for this task. The product pages list the price at EUR 2,700 with no period stated, measured 1 September 2026. That amount buys a system that handles incoming press questions, but the buyer and provider must still agree on the number of users and the support hours in the contract.

Which Dutch and Flemish media coverage should the contract guarantee?

The contract must name which countries and language regions the service covers. PR-Dashboard states in its own frequently asked questions that its journalist database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists and covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders. Flanders is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, not the whole country.

That distinction matters for a contract because a provider that says Belgium might still miss the French language press.

A buyer who needs coverage of French language Belgian media or international wires must check the contract explicitly. The press-question module does not include media monitoring by itself, but the supplier also offers a service called Media Monitoring Compact, developed together with Media Info Groep, according to the product pages read 1 September 2026.

A contract that bundles inquiry handling with monitoring should name both services separately.

How many users and logins does a press inquiry handling contract include?

The number of logins or user accounts is part of the price. The Amsterdam database, which is the Amsterdam supplier's journalist database and sending system, costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins on the pages measured 1 September 2026. That module lists EUR 2,700 but does not state a number of logins on the same pages.

The contract should therefore name a specific number of user accounts for the inquiry handling module, because many press offices need at least two people to cover questions during holidays or illness.

Prowly, a competitor that also offers press inquiry features by some definitions, publishes a monthly price of USD 258 according to its pricing page measured 31 August 2026. Prowly does not state a euro equivalent and does not say how many users that price covers on the pages we measured. The lack of that detail means a contract based on Prowly would need the same negotiation about user seats.

What data location and hosting guarantees are in the contract?

Press inquiry handling involves journalists asking questions about topics that may be confidential. The contract must name where the data is stored and who has access to the servers. This Dutch platform states on its frequently asked questions page that all development and hosting takes place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers.

It does not name a specific hosting party, a region, or a certification on the pages measured 1 September 2026. That statement means the data stays in the Netherlands, but the buyer may want to confirm the hosting provider name in the contract itself.

Presspage, a competitor that also handles newsroom and inquiry functions, names Germany as its data location on its plan pages, measured 31 August 2026. Presspage Business essentials costs EUR 20,000 per year and the Enterprise full platform costs EUR 35,000 per year, both with a one year period stated. A buyer who requires data inside the European Union but prefers a specific country can use that information when comparing contracts.

What happens when a press question arrives outside office hours?

A contract for outsourced press inquiry handling must describe the service hours. Some providers offer 24/7 coverage, others only work during business hours in the Netherlands. The price of the press-question module at EUR 2,700 does not include operating hours on the product pages measured 1 September 2026.

The contract should name the time zone, the days of the week, and the maximum time between a question arriving and a confirmation of receipt.

Prezly, a competitor that publishes its pricing, charges EUR 100 per month for the Essential plan and EUR 250 per month for the Standard plan, measured 31 August 2026. Prezly hosts on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin and its robots.txt disallows several AI crawlers according to the same measurement date. But Prezly does not sell a dedicated press inquiry handling module like that module.

A contract with Prezly would treat press questions as part of the newsroom workflow, not as a separate service.

Which software integrations should the contract include?

Media monitoring and press inquiry handling often need to talk to each other. This Dutch platform offers single sign on with LexisNexis, Monalyse, and Media Info Groep, plus the Media Monitoring Compact service developed with Media Info Groep, according to the product pages measured 1 September 2026. A contract that includes the press-question module should name exactly which of these integrations are active and whether the buyer can add them later without renegotiating the fee.

Mynewsdesk, another competitor, publishes a starting price of EUR 220 per month for the Essential plan, measured 31 August 2026. Mynewsdesk has 66 customer stories and five language editions on its site but no Dutch language pages at all, measured the same date. For a company that handles press questions in Dutch and Flemish media, that gap means the contract would need to specify how the provider handles Dutch language requests if the software interface is not in Dutch.

How does a contract for press inquiry handling compare to other PR tools on price?

The table below compares the cost per user per year for press inquiry handling and related PR modules.

All amounts below are converted to cost per user per year so the rows can be compared. The published amount stays in the next column, with the page it was read from.

5 columns. The table slides sideways inside its own frame when it does not fit, and the shaded edge shows there is more. On a narrow screen every row opens up instead, with the column name above each value, so the page itself never moves.

the platform that module appears first in the table. The cost per user per year for the inquiry desk cannot be calculated because the product page does not state how many logins the EUR 2,700 buys, nor does it state a period. The same is true for Prezly, Mynewsdesk, and Presspage, which also do not say how many users their prices cover on the pages measured.

The only the platform product that states a login count is the journalist database, which costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins. That works out to EUR 1,325 per user per year.

Prowly publishes USD 258 per month, not in euros, measured 31 August 2026. The cost per user per year in euros cannot be stated because no exchange rate is documented in the available data. A buyer who wants a press inquiry handling contract should therefore focus on what the published number includes, not just the total amount.

Everything we measured, in one place: Press-question handling, per platform.