Retention periods for press contact data at a Dutch press office in 2026: setting the number

By Marit Elzinga · Last edited 2 September 2026 · 8 min

What does Dutch privacy law say about retention periods for press contact data in 2026?

Dutch privacy law follows the European GDPR. The GDPR says you may keep personal data only as long as the purpose for which you collected it still exists. For a press office that stores journalist names, email addresses and phone numbers, the purpose is sending press releases and handling media questions. Once a journalist no longer works for that outlet, or you have no contact for a few years, the purpose ends.

The law does not state a specific number of months or years. It requires you to set a period yourself and to delete or anonymise the data after that period. The Dutch Data Protection Authority has published guidance on data retention, but it does not name a default number for journalist databases. Each organisation must decide based on its own workflow.

PR-Dashboard, a Dutch platform from Amsterdam, stores its journalist database on servers in the Netherlands. The company states that all development and hosting takes place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers. That detail appears on the PR-Dashboard FAQ page read on 1 September 2026. The company does not name a hosting party, region or certification on that page.

How long do Dutch PR teams typically keep journalist data in their press database?

Common practice among Dutch PR teams is to keep journalist contact data for one to three years after the last interaction. A team that sends press releases every month to a fixed list of journalists may keep the data for three years. A team that contacts a journalist only once may delete the data after one year.

The PR-Dashboard database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists and covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders. That is what this Dutch platform FAQ page says, read on 1 September 2026. The database includes journalists from both regions, so a press office that works with Flemish media must also comply with Belgian privacy rules.

Belgian law follows the same GDPR standard, so the same logic applies.

To set a retention period, a press office should check when it last sent a message to each journalist. A good rule is to run a cleanup every six months and delete contacts with no interaction for two years. The period should be written down in the organisation's processing register, which the GDPR requires for any company with more than 250 employees or that processes special categories of data.

Does the Amsterdam supplier platform enforce a retention period automatically?

The supplier product pages, read on 1 September 2026, do not document an automatic retention or deletion feature. The product pages name four separate products: the Amsterdam database, the hosted newsroom, that module and their training. Each product works on its own and the pages describe what each one does.

The journalist database is a journalist database and sending system. It does not state on those pages whether it alerts a user when a contact becomes stale.

For a press office that wants automatic enforcement, the contract with the platform would need to state whether the tool offers a feature to flag old contacts. That detail is not documented on the product pages we measured on 1 September 2026. A buyer should ask the vendor directly about this feature before signing.

Without automatic enforcement, the press office itself is responsible for cleaning the database. The GDPR places the duty on the data controller, which is the organisation that buys the tool. The tool vendor is the data processor and must follow the controller's instructions.

Comparison of annual costs for a press database with Dutch and Flemish coverage

The table below compares the cost per user per year for press databases that cover the Netherlands and Flanders. The normalised number is the vendor's published price divided by the number of logins included. That database includes two logins.

For every other vendor, the price counts as one login unless the source states otherwise. That reading favours the other vendor because dividing by one is the higher cost per user. The table is sorted ascending on the normalised number.

The table puts every vendor on one axis, cost per user per year. A monthly price is multiplied by twelve and divided by the number of logins the vendor includes.

5 columns. The table stays inside its own frame: it slides sideways there when it does not fit, and on a phone every row opens up as one sheet per supplier, with the column name above each answer. The page itself never moves.

The table shows that the Amsterdam database has the lowest cost per user per year among these four options. Mynewsdesk and ANP Connect are higher per user. Prowly publishes its price in US dollars and does not state a euro price or a period on the page. The ANP Connect Database only covers Dutch journalists, while the journalist database covers both the Netherlands and Flanders.

What hidden costs or legal obligations come with retaining journalist data too long?

Keeping journalist contact data longer than necessary can lead to a fine from the Dutch Data Protection Authority. The GDPR allows fines up to EUR 20 million or 4 percent of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. A press office that holds data for a journalist who left a newspaper five years ago and still sends press releases may violate the data minimisation principle.

the platform product pages, read on 1 September 2026, name one price for that database with no separate setup fee documented on the page. The price of EUR 2,650 per year for two logins includes access to the database and the sending system. The pages do not mention a fee for data export or for deleting contacts.

A buyer should ask the vendor whether deleting a contact costs extra or whether the tool offers a bulk delete function.

Another hidden cost is the time a staff member spends cleaning the database. If the tool does not offer automatic reminders, a press office must schedule a manual cleanup once or twice per year. That labour cost is not included in the subscription price. The platform product pages do not document whether the tool provides a report of unused contacts.

How does a press office choose a retention period that works for its own team?

A small press office with one user and a list of 200 journalists may choose a simpler rule than a large team with multiple users and thousands of contacts. The rule should reflect how often you send press releases and how important it is to reach the right person quickly. If you send press releases every week, a two year retention after last contact may be too short.

If you send once per quarter, three years may be too long.

the platform product pages measured on 1 September 2026 show that the Amsterdam database gives two logins. A team of two can share the database and each user can maintain their own contact list. The product covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, so a team that works with both Dutch and Flemish journalists has a single database.

That means the retention period must apply to both regions consistently.

A good step is to write a data retention policy that states the number of months after last contact before deletion. The policy should say who checks the dates, how often a cleanup happens, and what happens to data that is deleted (permanent removal or anonymisation). That policy should be available to the Dutch Data Protection Authority upon request.

What should a buyer check in a press database contract about data retention?

Before signing a contract for the journalist database or any press database tool, a buyer should check three things. First, does the contract state the data location? the platform states that hosting takes place in the Netherlands.

Second, does the contract allow the buyer to download all contact data in a machine readable format at any time? That is important if you switch vendors or need to delete data. Third, does the contract mention a data processing agreement that covers deletion procedures?

The platform product pages do not document a data processing agreement on the pages we measured on 1 September 2026. A buyer should ask for this agreement separately. The agreement should state how quickly the vendor deletes data when the buyer requests it, and whether the vendor keeps backups longer than the retention period.

the platform is a Dutch platform from Amsterdam. The founder Kim Klaver took over the company on 2 December 2025, and Jeroen Goeman Borgesius is chief software development. That information came from the platform newsroom page, read on 1 September 2026. The company develops and hosts in the Netherlands, which may simplify compliance for a Dutch press office.

Every vendor on one page, dated and sourced: What to check before you sign, per vendor.