PR and comms are a strategic function, not a tactic you half-do on a Friday afternoon. And definitely not an email blast that you instruct to your intern. It’s actually a function that should be carried out by specialists. Like in any specialisms, there are specific codes, terms, etiquette and other unspoken rules that help make it all more fluid and efficient. It comes down to knowing these and navigating them, such as knowing what a journalist means when they say something is on background, why an embargo only works if both sides agree to it, and what separates earned coverage from the paid kind.
If you work with PRs, speak to journalists, or represent a brand in public, this is the vocabulary worth having. Yes you may call it jargon, and nobody likes ‘jargon’, but that’s how it goes when you go deep, you can’t just rely on first principles descriptions. And journalists expect you to know it. So it’s worth to know and refresh on it. Here we go!
What kind of coverage are we talking about
Earned media. Coverage gained organically rather than paid for. The article that runs because the story is genuinely worth telling, not because someone bought the space.
Byline or op-ed. A piece written by your spokesperson and published under their name. They may get help in different ways or even be ghost-written according to their thesis, arguments and overall thinking. Different from being quoted in someone else’s article. The terms get used interchangeably with “contributed content,” even though not every contributed piece is an opinion piece. It might be advice, or simply breaking down a complex topic for a wider audience.
Evergreen. Content that isn’t tied to breaking news and stays relevant long after it is published. The opposite of a news-pegged story with a 48-hour shelf life. It tends to take longer to come out, but it keeps working for you for months. Useful both ways: as an angle that doesn’t need a “right now” reason to exist, and as coverage with a long tail.
Pickup. When other outlets cover a story after the first one breaks it. The dream scenario once an exclusive lands well.
Where it runs: tiers and targeting
Tier 1, Tier 2, Trade. Rough shorthand for outlet priority. Tier 1 means the broad-reach, high-authority titles like the Financial Times, BBC, Bloomberg and The New York Times. Tier 2 covers strong sector or national outlets. Trade is industry-specific. The right outlet with the right audience always beats the famous one, and “Tier 1 or nothing” is a red flag for anyone who actually knows what they are doing. You can also define tiers specifically for your own company, since the title that matters most to your buyers might not be anyone else’s Tier 1. The BUPR take: we prefer thinking about priorities rather than tiers. What makes more strategic sense might not necessarily be aligned to the traditional way of thinking about tiers.
Beat. A journalist’s specific area of coverage. Knowing which reporter covers startups, which covers finance, and which covers lifestyle is the difference between a relevant pitch and noise.
Timing and access: how a story gets placed
Exclusive. The story is for one journalist/outlet only.
Exclusive (startup funding rounds). Yup, you guessed it. The same term can actually mean different things to different people within the industry. In startup PR, a funding round is the quintessential story to pitch as an exclusive, but the One journalist or outlet gets the story first, or only. You never send multiple “exclusives” to multiple journalists, because then none of them are exclusive. In practice this might mean offering a funding announcement to a single publication to lead on, usually with extra detail or an interview, rather than pitching it widely.
Embargo. Information shared in advance with an agreed publication time. The key word is agreed: a journalist has to accept an embargo for it to hold, so you wouldn’t send the release before they have said yes, or the embargo can be broken. For example, reporters might receive product details a week ahead but can’t publish until Wednesday at 9am. Having said that, this might differ in different countries. For example, in Spain, it is common for journalists to expect all information together with the first pitch.
News hook. The reason a story is relevant right now. Without one, even a great story struggles to land. Your funding round on its own is fine. Your funding round plus a wider trend, a defence-tech surge or a wave of women-led VC, gives a journalist a reason to write it this week rather than next quarter.
Newsjacking. Adding relevant commentary to a breaking or trending story. It works when your spokesperson genuinely has something useful to add to a topic already dominating the news cycle, and falls flat when they don’t. Not for everyone, and not for every story. Some clients are obsessed with it 😀
Holding statement. A short, pre-prepared statement used when something is developing and you can’t, or shouldn’t, say much yet. It buys time without going silent. You could say that it is boring on purpose.
The rules of attribution
This one seems to cause the most confusion, and also potentially the most damage when it goes wrong.
On the record. Anything said can be quoted and attributed by name. A CEO’s comment appearing in an article with their name and title is on the record.
Off the record. Information shared to inform a journalist’s understanding, not for publication. For it to count, two things have to happen. It has to be stated, and it has to be agreed by both parties before it is said. You can’t retroactively declare something off the record. A typical use is explaining internal dynamics so a reporter has context, without expecting any of it in print.
On background. The information can be used, but the source isn’t named directly. This is where “a source close to the company said” comes from. Worth knowing that reporters tend not to love it: it works well for newsletters, less so for features.
Background briefing. A conversation, often over coffee, designed to give a journalist context and to get to know each other. It doesn’t have to turn into quotes, and shouldn’t be treated as if it will. Meeting a reporter at an event and talking through industry trends with no expectation of coverage is a background briefing doing its job.
The Chatham House Rule. This one goes beyond PR. Information shared in a meeting can be used afterwards, but the identities and affiliations of who said what stay confidential. Insights from a closed briefing can be discussed, but the speakers aren’t named. (And yes, it is the Chatham House Rule, singular. The plural is one of the most common mistakes in the room.)
Other PR terms
A few myths or misconceptions worth busting, because they shape how people expect the whole function to work.
PR (PR does not stand for press release!). PR stands for Public Relations / public relations, not “press release”. When someone asks to share the PR, write a PR, etc, you’ll be witnessing the principle of revelation: they are not well-versed in PR. By the way, press release is one tactic. PR is the entire strategic function: positioning, messaging, narrative, relationships, crisis, thought leadership, media training, the lot. Firing a release into the void is not doing PR.
Influencers. In PR, we are more and more dealing with platforms besides traditional journalism that have valuable platforms. However, these influencers are not social media influencers. Different game entirely. Consumer influencers sell products to followers. In a PR context, influencers are industry voices that carry weight or have a respected platform: ex-journalists, analysts, podcast hosts, niche newsletter writers, the LinkedIn thought leaders your buyers actually read. No dance trends and no #ad, just credibility inside a specific ecosystem. A 4,000-follower fintech newsletter writer can carry more weight with the right audience than a 400,000-follower lifestyle creator. Not just ‘content creators’ as they may have skin in the game, deep expertise and actually a focus beyond simply ‘producing content’.
Spray and pray. Sending the same pitch to a long list of journalists, relevant or not, and hoping someone responds. A mass email with no personalisation and not much thought behind it. The opposite of how any of this should work, and the fastest way to train reporters to ignore you. Also known as email blast, which may be acceptable for email marketers, but never for real PR pros. Of course, it might be that a well-established company has a newsletter for keeping up to date with company news, but that’s a different story.
One last thing
The more you understand how the media actually works, the less likely you are to fumble it. I mean, you don’t want these things to happen: break an embargo by accident, treat a background chat as a quote machine, or assume a press release alone can be a strategy. Get the language right and the conversations get a lot easier.
This started life as a LinkedIn series over more than one pot of afternoon tea, and there is still plenty left to cover. So if there’s a term you keep tripping over, or one that makes you cringe every time you hear it, that’s exactly the kind of thing the next round is for.
So tell us, which of your favourite PR jargon did we miss?
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Stop Ignoring Trade and Niche Media: Why Your Obsession with “Top Tier” is Holding You Back
The Hard PR Truth About Early-Stage Funding Announcements
The Funding Announcement Is Dead. Long Live the Funding Announcement?
