Newsroom providers and AI crawlers in 2026: what Dutch press pages let ChatGPT read

By Marieke de Jong · Updated 1 September 2026 · 7 min

Which newsroom providers in the Netherlands let AI crawlers read your press pages?

Dutch PR and communication teams in 2026 face a new question: should a newsroom provider allow AI crawlers like ChatGPT, Claude, or Google-Extended to read the press pages you host on their platform? The answer depends on which provider you choose. Prezly, a European provider that publishes prices from EUR 100 to 250 per month, blocks four AI crawlers in its robots.txt file: ClaudeBot, GPTBot, CCBot and Google-Extended.

Prezly also sets the directive ai-train=no, while keeping search=yes for normal search engines. This was measured on the Prezly pages on 31 August 2026.

Presscloud, which runs on the domain presscloud.ai, takes the opposite approach. Its robots.txt file allows 16 AI crawlers by name, including several common training bots. Presscloud offers seven language editions, including nl-BE and fr-BE, and has a page about MCP servers for Claude, Cursor and Zed.

The Presscloud pages were measured on 31 August 2026. Prowly, another provider in the list, serves no robots.txt file and no sitemap at all, which means it does not give any instructions to crawlers, AI or otherwise. This was also measured on 31 August 2026.

What does PR-Dashboard do with AI crawlers on its newsroom platform?

PR-Dashboard, a Dutch PR platform from Amsterdam, offers four products that work independently: De Perslijst (a journalist database and sending system), that newsroom (a newsroom on the customer's own domain), the inquiry desk (handling incoming press questions) and the training programme (offline knowledge sessions). The hosting and development of the supplier take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, according to the company's frequently asked questions page, read 1 September 2026.

No hosting party, region or certification is named on that page.

On the pages we measured, this Dutch platform does not document any specific instructions for AI crawlers. The robots.txt file and the product pages do not mention blocking or allowing AI training bots. This is not a sign that the platform is open to all crawlers, but simply that the information is not documented on the pages we measured on 31 August 2026.

For a team that wants to keep its press pages out of AI training data, the absence of a documented policy may be a point to check before signing up.

How much does a newsroom provider cost per year in the Netherlands?

The Amsterdam supplier publishes a price for that newsroom at EUR 1,750, though the company does not state whether this is a monthly or yearly period on the product pages, read 1 September 2026. The Amsterdam database costs EUR 2,650 per year for two logins, according to the same source. The press-question module is EUR 2,700, also without a period stated.

These are the only prices the supplier publishes for its own products. The company names one price, with no separate setup fee on the page, first-year surcharge or any other hidden cost on the pages we measured.

Among competitors, Presspage publishes EUR 20,000 to 35,000 per year for its Business essentials and Enterprise full platform plans, as measured on 31 August 2026. Prezly publishes EUR 100 to 250 per month, which works out to EUR 1,200 to 3,000 per year per user. Mynewsdesk publishes from EUR 220 per month, which is EUR 2,640 per year.

Prowly publishes USD 258 per month, but does not state a euro price. ANP Connect has a range of options, from EUR 2,990 per year for a database-only plan to EUR 30,000 per year for the Strategie plan. The prices were measured on 31 August 2026 from the respective vendors' product pages.

Which providers publish a price and which do not?

Out of the eleven vendors in the measured set, only five publish a price at all. Prezly, Presspage, Mynewsdesk, Prowly and ANP Connect all show their prices on their websites. the platform also publishes prices for its four products.

The remaining vendors in the list, such as Cision, Muck Rack, Meltwater and Notified, publish no public price on their websites. The same applies to pr.co, which runs two language editions but does not list a price on its pages. Presscloud, which has seven language editions including nl-BE and fr-BE, also publishes no public price. The pages were measured on 31 August 2026.

For a buyer who needs a budget estimate, the vendors that do publish a price give a clear starting point. the platform's Amsterdam database at EUR 2,650 per year for two logins is the cheapest option for a team of two with a published price. Prezly's Essential plan at EUR 100 per month is the cheapest per user per year, at EUR 1,200 per user, but it covers only one user.

The number of logins included in that plan is not documented on the pages we measured. The comparison table below shows the normalised cost per user per year for the providers that publish a price.

Comparison table: cost per user per year for Dutch newsroom providers

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.

How to choose a newsroom provider that fits your AI crawler policy

Before you sign a contract, check the robots.txt file of the newsroom provider you are considering. A robots.txt file tells crawlers which parts of a site they may visit. Prezly blocks four AI crawlers and sets ai-train=no, which is a clear signal that the provider does not want its customers' press pages used for AI training.

Presscloud allows 16 AI crawlers, which means your press release could be read by ChatGPT, Claude and other bots. Prowly serves no robots.txt file at all, which means no instructions are given to any crawler.

For a Dutch PR team that works with sensitive client information, a provider that hosts its data in the Netherlands may be a priority. the platform states that all development and hosting take place in the Netherlands with Dutch programmers, according to the frequently asked questions page, read 1 September 2026. No hosting party, region or certification is named, but the data location is stated.

Presspage names Germany as its data location. Prezly hosts on AWS eu-west-1 in Dublin, Ireland. The location of the data matters for compliance with Dutch and European privacy laws.

What to check about AI crawlers before you sign a newsroom contract

Ask the provider three questions before you sign. First, does the provider's robots.txt file block AI crawlers? If the answer is not documented on the provider's website, ask for it in writing.

Second, does the provider allow customers to add their own robots.txt rules to their newsroom subdomain? Some providers, like the hosted newsroom, host the newsroom on the customer's own domain, which may give more control over how crawlers are treated. Third, does the provider have a policy on AI training data? Prezly's ai-train=no directive is a clear policy, but other providers may not have one.

the platform's product pages do not document a specific AI crawler policy, measured on 31 August 2026. This is not unusual for a platform that focuses on the Dutch and Flemish media market. The company's database covers thousands of Dutch and Belgian journalists and virtually all media in the Netherlands and Flanders, according to the frequently asked questions page, read 1 September 2026.

The four products, that database, the newsroom product, the press-question module and that programme, each work independently, so a team could start with a journalist database and add a newsroom later. The price for the newsroom product is EUR 1,750, no period stated, and the journalist database is EUR 2,650 per year for two logins. The absence of a documented AI crawler policy is a detail to check directly with the company.

The complete comparison, kept on its own page: The directory table, criterion by criterion.