PR glossary: essential startup communications terms

Public relations is the work of managing communication, reputation, and relationships with people who affect a company or are affected by it. Media relations is one part of that work. The terms below explain the strategy, media, measurement, and commercial distinctions you may encounter in a PR proposal or report. The PRSA glossary offers a broader professional reference.

Strategy and audiences

Term	Definition
Audience	People who receive or could receive a communication. An audience can be broad and passive.
Stakeholder	A person or group that can affect the organization or is affected by it. Customers, employees, investors, candidates, partners, communities, journalists, and regulators can be stakeholders.
Public	A group connected by a shared issue, interest, or relationship with the organization. In PR usage, a public is more specific than the general public.
Business objective	An organizational result that communication is intended to support, such as adoption, retention, hiring, risk reduction, or policy change.
Communication objective	What you want a particular audience to understand, believe, or do as a result of the communication. Make it specific enough to judge progress.
Strategy	The governing approach that connects the current condition to an objective. A tactic is an action taken under that approach.
Message	The main idea you want an audience to understand, supported by facts or examples.
Positioning	The intended place an organization, product, or idea occupies relative to alternatives for a defined stakeholder.
Reputation	Stakeholder judgments formed from the organization's conduct, communication, and third-party information over time.
PR-ready	An informal term that depends on the work being proposed. Readiness for media outreach differs from readiness to buy research, preparation, or crisis help. See what PR-ready means.

Channels and formats

Term	Definition
Earned media	Attention or distribution selected and controlled by an independent third party. The company or its provider may propose the opportunity but cannot guarantee selection, framing, or timing.
Editorial coverage	Newsroom content selected and framed under the publisher's editorial authority. Coverage may be favorable, neutral, mixed, or critical; publication alone is not an endorsement.
Controlled or owned media	Content whose release the company controls, such as its website, newsroom, documentation, newsletter, or account. “Owned” does not prove legal ownership of every asset or durable control of a host platform.
Shared media	Communication and interaction on social or community platforms where the company, participants, and platform all shape distribution.
Paid media	Distribution or placement purchased from a platform, publisher, event, or intermediary under stated commercial terms.
PESO	Shorthand for paid, earned, shared, and owned media. The categories help explain how a program reaches people and what control the company has.
Sponsored content	Content or programming supported by a sponsor. Ask what the sponsorship buys, how it is disclosed, and what rights are included.
Paid access	A fee that buys entry, eligibility, participation, consideration, or a seat. Selection and treatment may remain independent, so state what the payment does and does not buy.
Native advertising	Paid content formatted to resemble surrounding non-advertising material. The FTC's U.S. native advertising guidance says commercial content must not mislead consumers about its nature and explains when clear and prominent disclosure is necessary.
Material connection	A relationship between an endorser and marketer that viewers may not expect and that could affect how they evaluate the endorsement. The FTC's U.S. endorsement guidance covers relationships such as employment, payment, gifts, family ties, and personal ties; context determines whether disclosure is required.
Thought leadership	Substantive, supportable ideas or analysis attributed to a person or organization for a defined audience. The label describes an intended communication role, not an independent credential.
Byline or contributed article	An article published under a named contributor's authorship. Confirm the publisher's editorial, authorship, assistance, sponsorship, and disclosure rules.
Ghostwriting	Drafting material for publication under another person's name or voice. The named author should substantively contribute, approve attributed claims, and comply with the publisher's authorship rules.
Boilerplate	A maintained standard company description used in releases and press materials.
Press kit or media kit	Current company facts, biographies, images, and other useful source material for reporters. Include contact and usage information.

Media and interview terms

Attribution rules vary by newsroom. The Associated Press says sources and reporters should negotiate conditions at the start of an interview and explicitly set ground rules when anonymity is expected.

Term	Definition
Media relations	The PR practice of maintaining useful relationships with journalists and providing information relevant to their audiences.
Media list	A working list of relevant journalists and outlets, with enough context to support appropriate outreach. Contact information and database licenses may carry privacy or reuse restrictions.
Pitch	A proposal asking a journalist to consider a story, source, data set, interview, demonstration, or other editorial input. It does not create an obligation to respond or publish.
Press release	An official written announcement from an organization. It can serve as a source document or be distributed through a wire; it does not require a newsroom to report the announcement.
Newswire	A paid service that distributes or hosts releases through a defined network. Syndicated release copies differ from independently reported stories.
Placement or hit	Informal terms for a published item. Open the link to understand the substance, audience, and whether it was earned, contributed, sponsored, or a release pickup.
Mention	A reference to a company, product, or spokesperson within a larger item.
Feature	A developed article, segment, or profile. Newsrooms use the term differently, so evaluate the published item rather than the label.
Syndication or pickup	Republication or redistribution of an existing item. Count the original and duplicate copies separately.
Embargo	An agreement that specified information will not be published before a stated time. The recipient must accept the condition before disclosure; an embargo does not replace confidentiality controls or legal review.
Exclusive	Information or access offered to one outlet under defined limits. Confirm the subject, format, territory, duration, and each party's commitment. An exclusive does not by itself promise publication.
On the record	Information that may be published and attributed to the speaker.
Background	Information that may be published under attribution conditions agreed with the reporter. The term has no universal newsroom definition.
Off the record	Information shared under use conditions agreed with the reporter before disclosure. The phrase is not a unilateral instruction, and newsrooms define it differently.

Measurement

The AMEC evaluation taxonomy separates activities, outputs, out-takes, outcomes, and impact. These stages are not interchangeable, and not every program can establish impact within its measurement period.

Term	Definition
Baseline	The starting point used for comparison. Know where the number came from and compare it consistently.
Activity	Work performed to plan and produce communication, such as research, writing, training, outreach, or briefings. Activity counts do not show audience response.
Output	Communication distributed and received by an audience, such as coverage, a post, an event, or an appearance. An output does not establish what the audience understood or did.
Out-take	What an audience initially does with or takes from communication, including attention, awareness, understanding, interest, engagement, or consideration.
Outcome	An effect on the audience, such as learning, attitude change, trust, preference, intention, or advocacy.
Impact	An organizational, stakeholder, or societal result caused in full or in part by communication. Claims of impact should address timing, evidence of audience exposure and use, and other plausible causes.
KPI	A key performance indicator: a measure chosen because it helps you judge progress toward a goal.
Potential reach	A modeled estimate of the exposure available to an item, often derived from outlet or account audience figures. It can include duplicate people and does not count readers.
Reach	A platform's count or estimate of people or accounts exposed to distribution. Methods vary, so record the source and definition. Reach does not establish attention or relevance.
Impressions	A count or estimate of content displays. One person or account can generate several impressions.
Engagement	A platform-specific interaction such as a click, reaction, comment, share, save, or message. Define included actions and relevant stakeholders; an interaction does not by itself establish an outcome.
Share of voice	The organization's measured share of a defined set of relevant coverage or conversation. State the subjects, sources, comparison set, geography, date range, duplicate rule, and weighting.
Sentiment or tone	A description or score of how a subject is treated. Read a sample of the actual coverage, especially when software assigned the labels.
Message inclusion	The presence of a defined priority idea in a communication output. It is sometimes called message pull-through. Presence does not establish that a stakeholder noticed, understood, or accepted the idea.
Attribution	A supported assignment of an observed result to a cause. When several influences remain plausible, report contribution or association instead of exclusive causation.
AVE	Advertising value equivalency, a monetary estimate that prices editorial coverage by reference to advertising space or time. AMEC's Barcelona Principles 4.0 reject AVE as a measure of communication value.

Responsibilities and safeguards

Term	Definition
Decision owner	The person who can make a particular decision. On a small team, this may be the founder or marketing lead.
Approval	Permission to proceed. Be clear about which facts, draft, or action have been approved when that distinction matters.
Account owner	The person or entity entitled to retain control of an account after a provider or employee leaves. Determine entitlement from platform records and terms, company records, identity, and the contract.
Administrator	A user permitted to manage an account, users, settings, or assets. Administrative access does not by itself establish ownership.
Asset owner	The person or organization that controls an asset, such as a file or recording. Possessing a copy does not necessarily grant ownership or reuse rights.
Least privilege	Restricting each user or process to the minimum access required for assigned work, consistent with the NIST definition. Remove provider access when the assignment ends.
Multifactor authentication (MFA)	Authentication that uses two or more ways to verify identity. CISA advises businesses to use the strongest available method and aim for phishing-resistant MFA in its current guidance.
Cybersecurity incident	An occurrence that actually or imminently jeopardizes, without lawful authority, the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of information or a system, or violates or imminently threatens applicable law or security rules. The definition follows the current NIST glossary; a company should use the definition in its own response plan and governing requirements.
Crisis communications	The governed flow of verified information before, during, and after an event that creates material stakeholder, operational, legal, safety, or reputation risk. It supports incident response but does not replace containment, safety work, legal analysis, required notices, business continuity, or remediation.
Regulation FD	A U.S. issuer-disclosure rule governing specified disclosures of material nonpublic information by covered issuers or people acting on their behalf to enumerated securities-market professionals and security holders. The SEC rule requires simultaneous public disclosure for intentional covered disclosures and prompt public disclosure for non-intentional ones. Securities counsel should determine whether and how it applies.
Conflict of interest	A relationship or incentive that may impair, or reasonably appear to impair, independent judgment. Define disclosure, consent, recusal, and termination rules for provider conflicts before work begins.

Costs and contracts

Term	Definition
Buyer	The person or team choosing the service. They may also manage it, or hand it to someone else.
Agency of record (AOR)	An agency formally assigned primary responsibility for a defined communication function, geography, or business unit. The title does not expand authority beyond the agreement.
Retainer	A recurring fee that reserves defined services, capacity, or provider availability during a period. It does not guarantee independent editorial outcomes.
Project fee	A fee for a defined piece of work. Agree what is included and what happens if the work or timing changes.
Pass-through expense	An outside cost passed on to the client, such as a wire fee, travel, or research. Ask whether the quote includes it and whether the agency adds a markup.
Pay for placement	A fee triggered by publication. Determine whether the mechanism is independent earned coverage, disclosed paid distribution, syndication, or vendor-controlled publication before accepting the label.
Scope of work (SOW)	The description of the work you are buying, including what each side provides, the fee, timing, and important limits.
Work product	Material created under an engagement. The contract should identify each deliverable and distinguish ownership from custody, access, or permission to use it.
Usage rights	Permission to use an asset in specified media, territories, contexts, and periods. A license can grant usage rights without transferring ownership.

For the decisions behind these terms, use PR metrics, release vs. pitch, and the scope-of-work guide.