Is it worth doing a press release kit?

It depends who you send to, and how you tailor your press release. Smaller newspapers will often just print your release if it's written well and they're looking for content. Bigger newspapers won't.

You might find local newspapers willing to print a story on yourself and what you're doing and how you shot your film completely in the local area (for example). In terms of reviewers, you'd need to target publications that review shorts if putting it together for a short.

It can certainly be useful to put an EPK together, especially if you're sending off to festivals, as they'll often request it.

Journalists get press kits all the time, so you'd need to do something thta would stand out from everything else, and also have a good product. A printed press release is also not often of much use to them.

You're likely to find some success press-wise with local newspapers if you can pitch the story the right way, larger newspapers are often harder, especially for shorts, and even moreso for shorts that aren't in selection for a major festival (major international, or major local festival)

It's worth it, even if its just for the practice for when you do a feature.

If you do succeed, the benefits can be decent, just don't expect the results to be too high. I was surprised in how easy it was to get the local paper to write a half page story, though this one did insist on taking their own photos.

I suggest that you talk to the local newspapers and tv stations (fluff pieces and smaller fluff shows) and ask how they prefer the press releases to be delivered and who to send them to. I don't know of any who prefer those folders to be sent out anymore. Most prefer them as either a fax with a link to the information or as an email with attachments. These don't cost a lot. You also may get some contacts.

The thing to understand with Journalists, they're looking for stories that are interesting for their readers. As Jax said they get these all the time, but rarely entertainment stories with local flavor. You'll need an interesting story to tell to rise above the chaff.

I agree with the others in that it is worth it if you wish to get press coverage and reviews. To save money, you may consider an electronic press release (EPK) to save printing costs. Press and media will sometimes take a pdf if you are corresponding by email. Festivals and distributors can be either or both printed and digital.

For my website (The Clapper Bored), I get dozens of press releases every day- mainly from the big releases, but often from smaller indie films (and lots of crowdfunding campaigns). The message of all that is to make sure you're targeting the right people- quick look around my site should tell you that it's fairly mainstream, and that'll be the same with a lot of website. To be honest, the showcases for short films and indie cinema tend to be the smaller sites, with whom it might be better to try and open a dialogue somewhere like Twitter. Faceless press releases for titles that, as the others have pointed out, might not be of particularly immediate interest aren't the way to go. I'll read a Jack Reacher press release because it might tell me something interesting, but if I haven't heard of the film then I'll usually just skim and discard. The exception are the messages that have taken the time to personalise and research who they're sending it to.