Industry - Public Relations

This is a bit ironic - most ordinary folk hate jargon yet public relations of most companies invent their own public relations jargon? - that is great for public relations isn't it!

Still, most public relations people are arrogant know it alls who think they know best and how to spin and exploit situations to their own ends so its not surising that this public relations jargon exists.

What other profession would invent a position called 'crisis manager' - surely only companies that have a lot of crisis - would you want to deal with a company like that?  I thinks its always a bit worrying when any company has its own department for public relations.

Simply reading some of the tems below in our public relations jargon directory will show you that a lot of the time it simply deals with fire engine management and damage limitation for the comapny concerned.

Public relations jargon

ABC - Audit Bureau of Circulation

The Audit Bureau of Circulations independently checks the circulation of the national newspapers.

ACE - Advertising Cost Equivalent

A comparison between the cost of an advertising space and an equivalent editorial piece. Gives PR a value.

ACE PR Value

An industry view that the value of PR is 2.5 times more than that of advertising taking into account the high editorial involvement and the story content.

Advertising

A paid-for space in media that intends to promote a company’s product or service within the area that the media targets.

ADVERTORIAL

A paid for article that has the appearance of an editorial. Readers will be able to identify the piece as ‘promotion’ or as ‘advertorial’.

Agency

A company in the business of creating advertisements, packaging and names for products and services, as well as providing marketing and merchandising advice and general business and promotional counsel to its clients. One type of agency is a PR agency.

BARB - Broadcasters Audience Research Board

A service providing information on the audience levels every minute. This information is available for ITV and BBC.

Byline

The name of the author or journalist written under the headline.

Circulation

The number of copies distributed by a publication. Circulation figures are available for all major publications.

Collateral PR

Materials such as a brochure or printed information about a company. Often supports media or packs and therefore obtaining links with the primary source.

Column Inches

A form of measuring PR success multiplying the length of a piece of editorial by the number of columns.

Competitor Analysis

A comparison of PR success against competitors. Can be measured in various ways.

Composition

The different types of audiences that make up the target audience.

Core Message

The angle taken in order to target the correct publications. Press releases contain the core message.

Coverage

The amount of exposure given to a company in the media.

CPT - Cost Per Thousand

The cost efficiency of publications. Calculated by dividing the rate or specific advertisement cost by the circulation or number of readers.

Crisis Management

A crisis can be described as a period of potential or actual damage to the perception and/ or reputation of an organisation, individual or concept caused or started by an unexpected event. Forward planning can prevent if not minimise a crisis from happening.

Demographics

Information about the target audience. Such as age, gender, race etc.

DPS - Double Page Spread

Two pages of the same article covering both pages of an open publication. Becomes more eye-catching to the reader.

Duplication

Where a person consumes more than one media. I.e. they may read ‘The Times’ and ‘The Telegraph’.

Editorial

Section of a publication written by a journalist such as an article or feature.

Executive Summary

Listing of key research findings.

Feature

An article of a detailed nature.

Frequency

Since people are exposed to more that one type of media, frequency is the average number of times that your audience could be exposed to your message.

IPR - Institute of Public Relations

The leading public relations industry professional body for the UK and Europe.

IPRA - International Public Relations Association

An organisation based on membership for professionals in up to 95 countries. Members gain valuable networking and professional advice.

Keywords

Specific words or phrases often within a press release. Many professionals use keywords in order to search for specific publications or features.

Mechanical Data

The layout details of a publication including page size, width of the columns and number of columns.

Media Type

Such as broadcast, national papers, consumer magazines and local or regional newsletters.

NLA - Newspaper Licensing Agency

The NLA issue copyright licenses to companies who wish to copy articles. Applies to all the national and some regional and foreign newspapers.

OTS - Opportunity To See (OTH - Opportunity To Hear)

The number of times the target audience is likely to see a marketing message.

Overlap

Houses that are able to obtain more than one ITV station due to living on the boundaries of regions.

PR - Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.

Press Release

A written announcement issued to the news media and other publications that seeks to draw the public attention of a company’s developments.

Pro-Active PR / Re-Active PR

Editorials that appear as a direct result of the PR. Re-active PR is where the editorial has been placed as a result of the publication's input.

Publics

'Publics' are audiences that are important to the organisation. They include customers - existing and potential; employees and management; investors; media; government; suppliers; opinion-formers

RAJAR - Radio Joint Audience Research

An independent research body who monitor the performance of all radio stations in the UK, whether BBC or commercial.

Rate Card

The cost published for advertising in any type of media.

Reach

The reach of a PR campaign is the total number of people within your target audience that may see your message. Often referred to as coverage.

Readership

A general term that refers to the number of people reading a particular publication. Includes both the individual that purchased the publication and the other persons who have read the publication.

ROI - Return On Investment

A measure of budget spent to a campaign, versus the income generated through the activity.

ROP - Run of Paper

It is an instruction to a publisher indicating that no special position is sought for an advertisement, i.e. it can be placed in any convenient part of the advertising space of the publication and is therefore charged at a lower rate.

SCC RATE / Single Column Centimetre Advertising Rate

How advertising rates are calculated. It is generally the width multiplied by the height of the publication column.

Sector Analysis

The measure of an industry sector's media coverage.

SERIES - Regional Newspapers

A number of publications covering a geographical area represented by the same publisher.

Syndicated Articles

The same article published across a series. The copy and layout can sometimes vary within the series.

Target Audience

This is the group of people you are trying to reach with your message.

Target Publications

Newspapers and magazines whose readership profile best matches a company's target market.

Tonal Bias

Whether an article takes a positive, neutral or negative angle.

Tone Of The Media

An analysis tool that accurately reflects the mood of the press. Takes into account the amount of editorial bias.

TV Regions

The transmission areas of each of the ITV companies cover specific UK

TVR - Television Rating

Percentage of specific demographic viewing a channel or programme, one TVR represents 1% of target audience.

Universe

The total number of people that read, listen to and watch a type of media.

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