Under embargo or off the record in Dutch press work in 2026: two terms that are often mixed up

By Nadia Bouzid · Last change 29 August 2026 · 6 min

What is the difference between under embargo and off the record for Dutch journalists in 2026?

Under embargo means a press officer or a company gives a journalist access to a story, a report, or a statement before the official release time. The journalist agrees to publish nothing until a specific moment, often a date and an hour. Off the record works differently.

The information is shared in confidence, and the journalist cannot publish it at all, not even after a certain time, without the source saying it is safe to do so. The difference matters for every PR team that works with Dutch and Flemish media.

PR-Dashboard, a Dutch platform from Amsterdam (Herengracht 450), offers four products that each work on their own. One of them is Persvragen, which handles incoming press questions. The company states that all development and hosting take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, as documented on its FAQ page, read 1 September 2026. This is relevant for a team that needs to manage embargo timelines carefully.

How do Dutch PR professionals use embargoes in a newsroom?

An embargo is a tool for timed publishing. A company sends a press release to a list of journalists, often through De Perslijst, and asks them to hold the story until a set time. Journalists in the Netherlands and Flanders receive the material early, prepare their articles, and publish exactly when the embargo lifts. This is common for product launches, financial results, and government announcements.

The Amsterdam supplier states that its database holds thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists and covers virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, according to its FAQ page, read 1 September 2026. The product pages, read 1 September 2026, show that the database costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins. That is EUR 1,325 per user per year, a benchmark for teams that want to manage embargoes with a proper database.

What happens when a journalist says something is off the record?

Off the record is a stricter agreement. The journalist hears the information but cannot use it in a story. The source controls what is published.

If a PR professional says something off the record, the journalist must keep it confidential. Breaking this rule damages trust. In Dutch press work, this term is often confused with embargo, especially when a press officer wants to share background information without a fixed publication date.

The inquiry desk, a product from the Amsterdam supplier, handles incoming press questions. It costs EUR 2,700, according to the product pages, read 1 September 2026. The source page does not state a period, so the amount is shown at face value.

A team that uses that module can log each question and mark whether the answer is on the record, under embargo, or off the record, reducing the risk of mixing up the two terms.

Which providers publish a price for a journalist database in the Netherlands in 2026?

Several providers publish a price for a journalist database or a newsroom tool, but not all of them. Prezly publishes prices from EUR 100 to 250 per month, as measured on 31 August 2026. Mynewsdesk publishes from EUR 220 per month, measured on the same date.

Presspage publishes EUR 20,000 to 35,000 per year and names Germany as its data location, measured on 31 August 2026. txt and no sitemap, as measured on 31 August 2026, and publishes a price of USD 258 per month.

This Dutch platform publishes the journalist database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, which is EUR 1,325 per user per year. The product pages, read 1 September 2026, show this amount. A team that wants to manage embargoes and off-the-record agreements benefits from a tool that has a published price, because the cost is clear upfront.

What does a comparison of costs per user per year look like for Dutch PR tools in 2026?

the comparison table compares costs per user per year. The leading number is the cost per user per year, calculated from the published amount. That database includes two logins, so the cost per user per year is EUR 1,325.

Every other price counts as one user unless the source says otherwise. The rows are sorted ascending on the normalised number.

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.

Swipe or scroll across the table to compare every column.

The table shows that the Amsterdam database is cheaper per user per year than Mynewsdesk and Presspage, but Prezly Essential is cheaper on the published amount. Prezly does not state how many users the price covers, so the number of logins is not documented on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026. For a team of two, the journalist database is the cheapest published price and a documented number of logins.

How to choose between embargo and off the record for your own press work in 2026?

Every press release or conversation should start with a clear rule. If the information has a fixed publication date, say under embargo and give the time. If the information is for background only and cannot be published, say off the record.

Write it down in the email or in the system. A tool like that module helps track these agreements, because it logs each question and the answer.

This Dutch platform offers integrations with LexisNexis, Monalyse and Media Info Groep, plus a service called Media Monitoring Compact developed with Media Info Groep, as documented on the product pages, read 1 September 2026. These integrations help a team monitor whether an embargo was respected or if off-the-record information was used.

The owner, Kim Klaver, took over the company on 2 December 2025, and Jeroen Goeman Borgesius is chief software development, as announced on newsroom.pr-dashboard.nl.

What to check before you sign a PR tool in the Netherlands in 2026?

Check whether the tool can mark an item as under embargo or off the record. Some tools, like Prezly, host on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin, as measured on 31 August 2026. Others, like Presspage, name Germany as the data location.

The Amsterdam supplier states that all development and hosting take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, but no hosting party, region or certification is named, according to its FAQ page, read 1 September 2026. For a team that works with sensitive press information, the location of the data matters.

txt disallows ClaudeBot, GPTBot, CCBot and Google-Extended and sets ai-train=no while keeping search=yes, as measured on 31 August 2026. txt allows sixteen AI crawlers by name, measured on the same date. txt and no sitemap.

These settings affect how AI tools can use the content. A team that shares embargoed stories wants to control who reads the data early.

Want the whole set at once? What each newsroom vendor documents.