PART THREE | PR GLOSSARY TERMS | PR AND THE MEDIA
>> This blog is part of a six part series on all things PR Glossary Terms. Get around it if
- You run a business and you need a PR campaign, self-managed or not.
- You’re considering a career in PR.
- You’ve graduated with a PR degree and want to talk the talk or at least understand it. (In my experience most PR graduates have never come across these everyday PR terms. Believe it).
- You have a friend, child or sibling working in PR and you think PR is similar to Personal Assisting or some such, not sure, maybe.
- You’re a client to a PR agency or considering hiring a PR agency. (You know you need their help but you’re not sure what they’re saying, or why or what the hell they’ll be doing when you book them).
- You’re a supplier providing a service or collaborating with a PR agency.
PR AND THE MEDIA SPEAK, LET’S GO…
Editorial Coordinator: The go-to person at any publication. They know people. They get things done. They’ll pass your story idea onto the right person if you don’t know who that person is directly.
Market Editor: The editor at a magazine who coordinates short news items and product placement coverage.
Product Placement: Editorial coverage which features a product.
Feature Stories: Editorial coverage which is long form text and dives deeply into a story. Features are not usually hard-hitting news, or current affairs, they’re usually defined by human interest.
Human Interest Stories: A story that’s centred around a person or group of people and which will usually engage interest to the reader through empathy or common interests.
Embargoed: A news or story idea, which is not to be released to the public or to anyone who wasn’t the receiver until the ban/embargo has been lifted. This will commonly occur if the journalist needs to receive confidential news earlier than the public so that they can prepare a story within their lead-time to coincide with a scheduled announcement.
An Exclusive: A unique story idea/interview/or picture opportunity restricted to one person or media outlet. An exclusive opportunity is often pitched to pique media interest on a story that they will be first with, or that is unshared and unique to their publication. Sometime PR people will pitch ‘exclusive elements’ to various media about the same story
i.e.
Media Outlet #1 is offered access to a high profile retail store before it opens.
Media Outlet #2 Is offered an exclusive interview with the owner of the store
Media Outlet #3 Is offered exclusive access to the celebrity ambassador on-board to launch the store’s Opening Campaign.
Picture Story: A story that is predominately told via a photo. Mostly tabloid newspapers between page one and page 17 produce editorial via picture stories. PR people will pitch exclusive picture story ideas to support a story or news item they hope will be considered.
Photo Editor: The person you pitch your picture-stories to.
Producer: The person you pitch your TV and radio news and editorial opportunities to. We don’t pitch to show presenters, we pitch opportunities to producers of the show.
In-Market: Refers to when your product, place, thing or service will be available to the public. Or from a content perspective, when consumers will be able to read your story or editorial.
On Stands: Similar to run-date, this term refers to when the coverage you’ve set up is likely to be available. It’s an archaic PR term, which is still relevant and much-used in agency land. I hope it never disappears. It relates to when the editorial you’ve coordinated will be on news stands on the street. Y’know those newspaper streets stands in most CBDs?! It conjures all sorts of nostalgia for anyone in the media world who has rushed to newspaper stands (or newsagencies, or petrol stations) to see if their coverage has been placed.
>>READ ON FOR PART FOUR, FIVE AND SIX OF THIS SERIES.
