30 JARGONS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS
1. Advertorial: Not to be confused with editorial. An advertorial is commissioned like an ad, but is a paid
for (seemingly) objective opinion piece, and published in a print publication. It’s often written by a
journalist, but the copy is agreed upon and signed off by the client featured.
2. Backlink: When another website posts a link back to yours. These are usually used in articles or blog
posts, in order to increase traffic back to your own website.
3. Boilerplate: Also known as “Notes to Editors”. At the end of every press release, following the main
news story, there is a section that provides the journalist with more information about the client, so they
can read more about who they are.
4. Editorial Calendars: A calendar of topics media outlets will cover during specific months of the year.
These are a great way of planning when you should be pitching your content.
5. Engagement: Every interaction on an online post count towards “engagement”. Interactions are likes,
shares, and comments.
6. Exclusive: An exclusive is a story that you have promised to a journalist and outlet, under the condition
that they get to publish it before any other outlet. This means that you must not pitch to multiple
journalists in order to get multiple articles and coverage – it’s imperative that you never promise an
exclusive where you can’t deliver one.
7. Impressions: The number of times that a user has viewed a piece published on an online platform. This
could be across social media, on an online magazine outlet, blog post, etc.
8. Lead time: The time in between a journalist working on a piece and/or submitting it, and when it gets
published. For example: Christmas stories traditionally start getting worked on in July, meaning that the
lead time for Christmas coverage is often ~4/5 months.
9. Media Relations: Mutually beneficial relationships between PR professionals and journalists.
10. NIB: Abbreviation for “News in Brief”. You would use a NIB when you need to summarize a news story
in a few short sentences.
11. Owned Media: Content that you or your agency have created.
12. Pitch: Not to be confused with a press release. A pitch is a highly-targeted “sell” to a journalist. A PR
will pitch to a journalist when they have a particular story for them and their publication.
13. Press Kit: Also known as a media kit. This is often a digital or physical package with information about a
product or service. This often gets distributed to relevant members of the press.
14. Press Release: Not to be confused with a pitch. A press release is a document encompassing all of the
news to be relayed to press. It is often of a product launch or event and typically is one side of A4 or the
email equivalent. It’s distributed by the representative of a company or on behalf of that company by a PR
agency.
15. Reach: The number of people who may see an article, post or publication. For example, an Instagram
account with 100,000 followers can be expected to have a “reach” of 100,000 users, and a publication
with a circulation of 100,000 units can be expected to reach 100,000 people.
16. Round-Robin: A PR newsletter or summary of client news.
17. Round-up: A piece of coverage that features news about products or services, all within the same
category or theme.
18. Syndication/syndicate – A news service that takes a single story and places it on several websites or in
several outlets’ nation/worldwide – Associated Press is an example of a syndicate. When a piece of client
coverage is syndicated, it means that the same story ran in multiple media outlets.
19. Traction – A term to denote interest in your client from a media outlet – this could be a request for
more information or actual coverage.
20. Trade publication – A publication targeted to a specific industry for people that work in that industry
(usually not for consumption by the general public). Examples include: Variety (entertainment industry)
and ComputerWorld (information technology industry).
21. UVM (unique visitors per month) – The number of real, individual visitors to a website, determined by
individual IP addresses of the visitors. A way to measure the popularity of a website (the higher the
number the better), rather than relying on number of site visits, which can encompass one person visiting
a site several times. Can help show clients how many people potentially saw their article.
22. Sending over the wire/wire service – A distribution service for press releases that allows you to get
news out about your client to several media outlets across the country in a short amount of time. Since
there is a cost associated with wire services, they are usually only used in the event of big company news
or breaking news. Business wire and PR Newswire are examples of this service.
23. press tour – Usually done in anticipation of the launch of a new product or service, press tours are 1–
2-day events where you invite select media to interact with your client and their upcoming offerings faceto-face. This can be a great way to enrich relationships with editors you may not often see, and allow
reporters an early, hands-on look at unreleased projects.
24.Paid Media – Not just your traditional advertising, this can encompass Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn
and Twitter ads that can work as part of an integrated PR and social media strategy.
25.Earned Media – Third-party endorsement for your client, whether from the sharing of media coverage
or tweets, reviews and posts from consumers of your client’s product.
26.Ed Cals – Short for editorial calendars, ed Cals are a schedule of topics media will cover at a certain
publication for the entire year. These can give PR pros a starting point for reaching out to an editor about a
story.
27.Embargo – The sharing of unannounced, relevant information between a PR pro and the media that
cannot be published before an agreed upon time and date. For example, if you have a new phone model
coming out, you contact reporters asking if they are interested in information, reach an agreement that
they won’t post the news before a certain time and then give them a preview of the information to be
announced.
28. Launch – The official announcement, usually jump started with a press release, about a new product
or service.
29. Backlink: A hyperlink from one website to another, often used in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to
improve website visibility and search engine rankings.
30. DMA (Designated Marketing Area): A geographic region or area identified by media research
companies to target and measure media audiences and advertising effectiveness.