Glossary

Twenty-four terms that recur across the five desks, defined in plain words.

Practice vocabulary used throughout the standing notes.
Term	Definition
Backgrounder	A written summary of context supplied to a journalist so that a story can be reported accurately without further enquiry.
Boilerplate	The standing paragraph describing an organisation that appears unchanged at the foot of its releases.
Cascade	The practice of passing a message to staff through their line managers, who are briefed before the wider announcement.
Corporate affairs	An umbrella term for communications work that spans media, policy, internal and reputation matters within one function.
Coverage log	The running record of where an organisation was mentioned, in what form, and with what accuracy.
Crisis plan	The set of decisions taken in advance about who speaks, what triggers a response and how information moves during an incident.
Embargo	An agreed time before which supplied material is not to be published, which holds only while both parties keep to it.
Equivalent advertising value	A figure converting editorial coverage into an advertising price; a measure of volume, not of effect.
Holding statement	A short first public statement confirming an organisation is aware of an incident and stating when the next update will come.
House style	An organisation's settled conventions on spelling, naming, capitalisation and the presentation of figures.
Internal audience	The staff, contractors and volunteers of an organisation, treated as an audience with distinct needs.
Line-to-take	An agreed short answer to a question the organisation expects to be asked, cleared before it is needed.
Media list	A maintained record of journalists and desks relevant to a subject, with what each has previously covered.
Outcome	A change in understanding, behaviour or circumstance that communications work contributed to.
Outtake	What an audience noticed, understood or recalled, sitting between what was produced and what changed.
Output	What was produced and placed: releases issued, items published, sessions held.
Pitch	A short specific approach to one journalist explaining what the story is and why it suits their coverage.
Press office	The function that receives and answers enquiries from journalists, usually against a stated response time.
Public affairs	Communications work directed at government, regulators and the policy process.
Reach	An estimate of how many people could have seen something, which is an upper bound rather than a count.
Register	An official record of those who contact government on behalf of others, with declared interests.
Spokesperson	The person authorised to speak publicly for an organisation on a defined subject.
Stakeholder map	A record of the groups affected by an organisation's work and how each is best reached.
Transparency duty	An obligation to disclose contacts, interests or funding, the detail of which varies by jurisdiction.