The PR Glossary Every New Agency Hire Needs

When I first joined agency life at Greenough Communications, I was excited to dive into the fast-paced world of PR. But that excitement and buzz quickly turned into a flash of panic as I entered a world that felt as if it had its own entirely new language to learn. Suddenly, my co-workers were using terms like “thought leadership,” “earned media,” and “KPIs” like they were completing their lunch order. I nodded along (a lot) while secretly Googling these terms under the table. So, if you’ve ever felt lost in translation during your first days at an agency, you’re not alone.  

Let’s decode some of the most common PR lingo together, so you can nod with confidence during your next meeting:

• Coverage: Any mention of your client in the news or social media

• Clippings: Mentions of a brand in a newspaper, article, journal, blog, podcast, magazine, or any other online media

• Media Outlet: The publication, TV/radio station, or platform your contact works for  

• Media List: A compilation of contact information for journalists, reporters, editors, bloggers, and influencers who might be interested in covering a news story or press release  

• Specialty: The topics or industries the journalist covers  

• Press release: A formal announcement from a company, aiming to generate earned media coverage  

• Boilerplate: The section at the end of a company’s press release that includes approved company information  

• Flag: To communicate something quickly to your team or a client

• SME: Subject Matter Expert  

• Bylines: Essay, paper, or thought leadership crediting the author of an article who is typically a company executive or expert, published in a media outlet to showcase industry expertise, build credibility, and establish thought leadership  

• Earned Media: News about a client or subject matter that a reporter writes about based on a pitch sent from the PR team

• Organic Media: News about a client or subject matter that a reporter naturally writes about without a pitch from a PR professional

• Angle: The focus used when writing a story that will be presented to the media. The story’s perspective is usually determined by the publication type, the audience, goals you want to achieve, and the channel

• Trade Media Outlets: A publication, website, or broadcasting entity that provides news, trends, and information specifically to professionals within a niche industry or trade  

• Exclusive pitch: Choose one reporter who you will grant sole access to break a story first

• Embargo pitch: Part of an exclusive media strategy; gives an early look to a story to multiple reporters, but they still must wait until the press release is published to share their own take on the news

• *NOTE: Embargo pitches and Exclusive pitches do not happen at the same time

• Business Wire: A paid method and distribution service for companies to leverage to widely share press releases and major news announcements  

• Pipeline: A structured, linear process that manages the movement of "inputs," such as prospective clients, media leads, or any order of operations, through various stages leading to an outcome

• Tiers of media:

• Tier 1: National news – audience of more than 20 million  

• Tier 2:

• National news - audience of 3-10 million

• Industry Specific/Trade news media outlet - audience of more than 150,000

• Tier 3: Industry Specific/Trade news media outlet - audience of 100,000 or less

• Thought Leadership: A strategic form of content marketing that establishes a brand or individual as an industry expert by sharing unique, insightful, and forward-thinking perspectives

• Newsjacking: Quickly injecting your brand's ideas or expertise into a breaking news story or trending topic, adding unique context (like an expert take, data, or creative angle) to gain visibility or increase brand awareness. These days, we position our thought leaders as experts and swiftly pitch journalists

• Trend jacking: A marketing tactic where brands quickly create content related to a popular, trending topic (meme, viral challenge, or big event) to gain visibility, boost engagement, and connect with audiences by leveraging the existing buzz  

• Bridging: A technique used during interviews which allows the interviewee to steer away from negative questions and unfavorable conversations back to their key messages  

• KPI: Key Performance Indicators are metrics your team tracks to measure whether your work is hitting program goals (think: number of placements, media impressions, or share of voice)

• UVM: Unique Visitors per Month to a website (also known as impressions)

• Backlink: Link from one website to another. Why are they important? Search engines, such as Google, use backlinks as a way to rank websites. If many outlets link back to your website, Google believes your content is newsworthy and will rank you higher

• M&A: Mergers and Acquisitions, the strategic consolidation or purchase of companies  

• ARR: Annual Recurring Revenue, primarily for subscription-based companies  

• Buyers Journey: Describes a customer's process as they research a product or service before making a final purchase  

• Streamline: To make a process or system more efficient, simple, and faster by removing unnecessary steps, bottlenecks, or complexities

• CMS: Content Management System; used to modify and manage online content  

• CRM: Allows you to organize and manage your contacts and their information  

• AEO: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the process we follow to ensure websites are clear and easy to understand so that AI tools (especially search engines that give direct answers) can pick up relevant site content and display it as the answer to someone’s question on sites like Google

• GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring and optimizing content to ensure AI-driven platforms, like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview, cite, recommend, or mention a brand in their generated responses. It’s about making sure AI tools not only use your content for answers but also mention your brand or name when they do

The PR world has a language all on its own, and the faster you learn it, the faster you'll find your footing in this ever-changing world of PR! What words have other new PR-pros picked up that have helped them hit the ground running?

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