Out of hours cover compared in 2026: an agency phone against a Dutch press question system

Reporting by Koos Reinders · Amended 2 September 2026 · 6 minute read

What is the cost difference between an agency phone and a Dutch press question system in 2026?

An agency phone means a PR agency charges per press release or per month to handle media calls outside office hours. In the Netherlands, B2Press publishes fees of EUR 400 for a basic release, EUR 750 for a wire release, EUR 1,250 for a premium release and EUR 1,950 for an exclusive release, as measured 31 August 2026. ANP Connect publishes EUR 499 per release for trade and regional media and EUR 795 for national media via ANP-net, measured same date.

These are one off costs per story.

PR-Dashboard's Persvragen system handles incoming press questions instead. It is priced at EUR 2,700 with no period stated on the product pages measured 1 September 2026. That means a Dutch organisation that receives multiple press inquiries per month can cover the entire press question flow for a single fee, without a per release charge.

The agency phone model works best for occasional stories. The press question system works best for ongoing media contact.

How does a press question system compare to an agency retainer for Dutch teams?

Persvragen is a software product that manages incoming media inquiries. It logs questions, tracks deadlines and stores answers for reuse. An agency retainer typically includes a person who answers the phone and drafts a response each time.

The published price for the inquiry desk is EUR 2,700 with no period stated, measured 1 September 2026. An agency retainer in the Netherlands often runs EUR 1,000 to EUR 3,000 per month, though many agencies do not publish a public price on their pages measured 31 August 2026.

The difference is in volume. A team that gets five press questions per month across the year will pay more per inquiry with an agency retainer than with a press question system. The system stores previous answers and makes them searchable, which reduces the time spent on similar questions.

The agency phone provides human judgment for each call, which some teams prefer for sensitive topics. Both approaches have a job. The cost comparison depends on how many press inquiries a team receives per month.

Which providers publish a public price for press inquiry handling in 2026?

Among the vendors measured on 27 and 1 September 2026, only the Amsterdam supplier publishes a specific price for a press question system. That module is listed at EUR 2,700 with no period stated on the product pages measured 1 September 2026. Competitors such as Prezly, Mynewsdesk, Prowly and Cision do not document a separate product for incoming press questions on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026.

These platforms focus on sending press releases or hosting newsrooms, not on handling media calls directed to the organisation.

For the agency phone model, B2Press and ANP Connect publish per release prices. B2Press lists EUR 400 to EUR 1,950 per release for the Netherlands, measured 31 August 2026. ANP Connect lists EUR 499 to EUR 795 per release for Dutch media, measured same date.

No vendor in the measured set publishes a flat fee for both press question software and agency response without a per release charge except this Dutch platform's press-question module.

What does a press question system include that an agency phone does not?

A press question system like that module gives the team a central inbox for media inquiries. Every question is logged with a timestamp, the journalist's name and the deadline. The system stores responses so the same answer is not written twice.

This is useful for Dutch and Flemish teams that receive recurring questions about the same product, policy or event. The published price of EUR 2,700 with no period stated covers the software itself, measured 1 September 2026.

An agency phone provides a human who takes the call and drafts the response. That person knows the client's context and can give advice on tone and timing. The agency does not typically store past answers in a searchable system unless the retainer includes a newsroom tool.

The agency phone adds a knowledge layer that a software system does not replace. The decision is about whether the team needs human judgment on every call or a structured process for handling volume.

Which approach is cheapest for a Dutch PR team with regular press inquiries?

This Dutch platform's press-question module is priced at EUR 2,700 with no period stated, measured 1 September 2026. For a team of two people, that is EUR 1,350 per user if the system covers one year, though the period is not documented on the source page. The benchmark for per user per year cost here is that database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, or EUR 1,325 per user per year.

The inquiry desk covers a different job managing incoming questions so the benchmark applies to the annual subscription alone.

An agency phone at EUR 400 per release used ten times per year costs EUR 4,000. At EUR 795 per release used five times per year it costs EUR 3,975. Both are above EUR 2,700.

The press question system becomes cheaper when the team handles more than six or seven press inquiries per year, depending on the agency rate. No competitor publishes a comparable flat fee for press question handling on the pages we measured, 31 August 2026, so the press-question module is the only option with a published price for this specific function.

What should a Dutch organisation check before choosing a press question system or agency phone?

Check the number of press inquiries the team expects per month. A team that receives fewer than two per month will probably pay less with a per release agency fee than with an annual system. A team that receives five or more per month will save on per inquiry cost with a system like that module at EUR 2,700 with no period stated, measured 1 September 2026.

Check whether the team has staff to log and answer questions in the system, or whether the agency provides a human who handles the entire call.

Check the coverage area. This Dutch platform's press-question module is a Dutch product from Amsterdam and covers the Netherlands and Flanders, as stated on the frequently asked questions page measured 1 September 2026. ANP Connect and B2Press also cover Belgian Dutch speaking media.

For teams that need French language media in Belgium, check whether the vendor supports that region. Check the source date: all prices here were measured 27 or 1 September 2026 and may change after that date.

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 stays inside its own frame: it slides sideways there when it does not fit, and on a narrow screen each row opens up as a block with the column name above every value. The page itself never moves.

The table compares per user per year cost. For the press question system, the cost per user assumes two users sharing the system. For per release options, the cost is per release because no annual subscription is published. The table shows that for frequent press inquiries, the annual system costs less per inquiry than repeated per release fees.

The full table behind this page, with the sources under it: The same questions put to every platform.