How to count the hours between a press question and its answer in a Dutch organisation in 2026

Written by Thijs Bakker · Revised 28 August 2026 · 7 min read

How do Dutch organisations measure the time between a press question and its answer in 2026?

Measuring the hours starts with the moment a journalist sends a question. In 2026, many Dutch organisations use a dedicated tool to log that moment. Persvragen, a product from PR-Dashboard (Amsterdam, Herengracht 450), turns an incoming email into a ticket with a clear timestamp.

The PR team then sees the exact time the question arrived. The clock stops when the organisation sends a reply. The product pages for Persvragen, read 1 September 2026, show a price of EUR 2,700 with no period stated.

Without a tool, the measurement is often manual. A team member notes the time of an email or a phone call. That method works, but it relies on people remembering to log it.

A system that logs automatically removes the risk of forgetting. The same product pages state that the Amsterdam supplier covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, so the questions come from a known set of journalists.

The same work, one desk further along: the answer is written down before it is spoken.

What costs are involved in tracking press question response times in the Netherlands?

The cost of tracking response times depends on the tool. That module costs EUR 2,700, with no period stated on the product pages read 1 September 2026. That amount buys the software that logs, assigns, and tracks press questions.

For comparison, the Amsterdam database from the same company costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, and it includes a journalist database and a sending system. The hosted newsroom product costs EUR 1,750, also with no period stated.

Many competitors publish no public price at all. Presspage publishes EUR 20,000 to 35,000 per year, naming Germany as its data location, read 31 August 2026. Prezly publishes prices from EUR 100 to 250 per month and hosts on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin.

Mynewsdesk publishes from EUR 220 per month, but has no Dutch-language pages, only German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish editions, read 31 August 2026. The table below shows the cost per user per year for the tools that publish a price.

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.

Wide table. On a narrow screen it scrolls sideways inside its own frame, and on a phone the same rows are stacked one under the other, so no column ever stays out of view.

Note: The table includes only vendors that publish a public price. Prowly, Cision, Meltwater, Muck Rack, Notified, and others publish no public price on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. The cost per user per year is calculated by dividing the annual price by the number of users included.

That database includes two logins, so the cost per user is EUR 1,325. Prezly Essential is cheaper per user per year, but it does not specialise in the Dutch and Flemish market.

Which Dutch media tools include a press question handling feature in 2026?

Few tools in the Netherlands combine a journalist database with a press question handling system. This Dutch platform sells the press-question module as a separate product that works on its own. The product pages, read 1 September 2026, describe it as a system for handling incoming press questions.

The same company also offers that database for journalist databases and the newsroom product for online newsrooms. Heineken and VodafoneZiggo use all modules, according to the company.

Other tools focus on newsroom or press release distribution. Prezly offers a newsroom and a press kit, but does not document a press question handling feature on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. Presspage focuses on newsrooms and does not document a press question ticket system.

Mynewsdesk has a newsroom and a media list. The lack of a dedicated press question tool means that many organisations track incoming questions through email or a CRM system. That approach works, but it does not log the time of arrival automatically.

How do you choose a tool for tracking response times in your Dutch organisation?

Choose a tool based on the number of press questions you receive each month. If your organisation gets fewer than five questions a month, a simple email log with a timestamp may be enough. The team can use a shared spreadsheet to note the time a question arrives and the time a reply goes out.

That method costs nothing except the time of the person logging it. For organisations that receive more than ten questions a month, a dedicated tool like the press-question module saves time and reduces errors.

The supplier states that its database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists, covering virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, read on the FAQ page, 1 September 2026. That coverage is important if your organisation answers questions from journalists across the country. The tool also logs the journalist's name and media outlet, so the team can see the pattern of questions.

The hosting and development take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, according to the same FAQ page. No hosting party, region, or certification is named. The ownership of the company changed on 2 December 2025 when Kim Klaver took over, and Jeroen Goeman Borgesius is chief software development, read on the company newsroom, 1 September 2026.

What hidden costs should you check before signing a contract for press question software?

The biggest hidden cost is the time it takes to train staff. If your team has never used a press question tracking system, they will need training. The product pages do not mention a training fee, but the their training product from the Amsterdam supplier offers offline knowledge sessions.

That product is separate and costs extra. That module product page, read 1 September 2026, names one price with no separate setup fee. The newsroom product page also names one price with no setup fee.

Another hidden cost is the number of users. The journalist database includes two logins in its EUR 2,650 per year price. If your team needs three or more people to log in, the cost per user goes up.

The product pages do not state the price for additional logins. That module costs EUR 2,700, but the number of included users is not documented on the pages we measured, 1 September 2026. The same applies to the monthly price of the Amsterdam database at EUR 350 per month, read on the government page, 1 September 2026.

That monthly price may be useful for a short-term project, but it is higher than the annual price per month.

How do you check if a press question tool covers Dutch and Flemish journalists correctly?

Check the tool's database coverage before you sign. The Amsterdam supplier states that its database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists, covering virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, read on the FAQ page, 1 September 2026. The source says Flanders, not all of Belgium.

That is important because the Belgian media market is split between the Dutch-speaking north and the French-speaking south. A tool that covers only Flanders may miss French-speaking journalists in Brussels.

Other tools do not document the same level of coverage. Prezly does not state a specific database for the Netherlands and Flanders on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. Mynewsdesk has no Dutch-language pages at all, only five language editions, so its coverage of Dutch journalists is not documented.

Presspage names Germany as its data location, but does not document a database of Dutch journalists. The safest way to check is to ask the vendor for a sample list of Dutch and Flemish journalists in your sector. The product pages for the platform, read 1 September 2026, do not offer a sample list, but the company may provide one on request.

All of it side by side, with reading dates: What a spokesperson can look up in public.