Some of the most typical media and PR-specific terms and their explanations.
Boilerplate
Most often used at the end of a press release, a boilerplate is a brief and concise description of what your company does and contains credibility information such as awards, customer names, numbers, total funding, etc.
Embargo
An embargo date is the publishing date of your news. Setting an embargo date and time allows you to send your information out to journalists prior to the publishing date to give them notice of the upcoming news. It's a request that the news provided not be published until this certain date and time.
Exclusivity
Giving the right to just one journalist/outlet to cover the story before everyone else. This means that no larger VIP pitching can take place because that would break the exclusivity agreement. Be suspicious of companies pitching under embargo when also promising exclusivity.
Media hits
News published in the media.
Pitching
A personalized story idea under embargo sent to an editor or journalist to gauge their interest in the press release. It can be an email, phone call, face-to-face chat,
PR
PR can mean several things depending on the context. It can mean:
- Public Relations
- Press Relations
- Press Release
- PR-representative
Send-out
A send-out is another term for press release distribution, where the press release is sent to a wider list of media that you haven’t pitched to under embargo. This usually takes place at the time of the embargo – e.g., if the embargo date is December 15th, 7 AM CET, you would send the press release out free for publishing on December 15th, 7.01 AM CET.