Press Clipping
Quick answer
A press clipping is a single piece of media coverage about a brand, originally a physical cutting from a newspaper and now any news article, blog post or online mention saved and tracked as a record. A press-clipping archive is simply the running collection of that coverage over time.
Why it matters
Without a saved record, coverage of a brand is scattered across whatever each team member happened to see and remember, and most of it is never found again once a journalist's site changes or an article gets buried under newer posts. A clipping archive keeps that history searchable and in one place, which matters most when someone needs to point to past coverage for a pitch, an investor update, or a renewal conversation months later, long after the original article has slipped out of anyone's memory.
How to measure it
Track coverage as it's published and keep a record of the outlet, the date and the actual content, rather than relying on memory or an occasional manual search when someone asks for it. The archive is most useful when it's searchable by competitor name too, not only the brand's own name, so a pitch can reference how competitors have been covered as well. Keeping the record updated as coverage happens, rather than reconstructing it later, is what makes it reliable when it's actually needed.
Example
A marketing lead wants to show a new hire what coverage the brand has received over the past year, for context before a press push. Without a kept archive, the search turns into guessing which outlets to check and hoping old links still work months or years later. A running clipping record would have turned the same request into a five-minute lookup instead of an afternoon of searching.
Frequently asked questions
Is a press clipping only for news articles?
Traditionally yes, but the term now extends to any saved record of online coverage, including blog posts, podcast mentions and other media that discuss the brand, not just traditional newspaper or magazine articles.
Does a clipping archive need to include competitor coverage?
It's more useful if it does. Knowing what coverage a named competitor has received in the same period gives the archive context a brand-only record wouldn't have, especially when comparing how much and how favorable the coverage was.
How long should a clipping archive be kept?
As long as it's useful for reference, commonly a year or more, since older coverage is often what gets requested for a retrospective report or a renewal conversation.
Who typically maintains a clipping archive?
Usually marketing or communications, though in a small company it often falls to whoever happens to notice coverage first, which is exactly why a consistent tracking process helps rather than relying on one person's memory of what they happened to see.
Related terms
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