---
title: "Glossary"
url: https://luxurepr.com/glossary
description: "Eighteen terms used in public relations practice, defined in plain language and linked to the page where each is used in context."
---

# Glossary

**Attribution**: The judgement that a change in behaviour or opinion followed from a particular piece of communication. Always partial, and honest reporting says so. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/measurement-and-evaluation).

**Background**: Information given to a reporter to help them understand a subject, on the agreed condition that it is not quoted directly. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/media-relations).

**Baseline**: A record of where things stood before the work began, without which no later measurement can show movement. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/measurement-and-evaluation).

**Beat**: The subject area a particular reporter covers. Approaches sent outside a reporter’s beat mark the sender as unfamiliar with the publication. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/media-relations).

**Boilerplate**: The short standing factual description of an organisation that closes a release. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/press-release-anatomy).

**Bridging**: Answering the question asked and then connecting the answer to the point that needed making. Skipping the first half turns it into deflection. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/spokesperson-preparation).

**Cascade**: The structure by which an internal message travels through the management line so that people hear it from someone they can question. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/internal-communication).

**Embargo**: An agreement, offered in advance and accepted, to hold an item until a stated time. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/embargoes-and-exclusives).

**Exclusive**: An arrangement giving one outlet sole early access, trading breadth of coverage for depth. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/embargoes-and-exclusives).

**Holding statement**: A short statement issued early that says what is known, says what is not yet established, and states when the next update will come. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/crisis-communication).

**Lead**: The opening paragraph carrying the whole announcement, written so that a reader who stops there still describes the item correctly. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/press-release-anatomy).

**On the record**: The default condition of any conversation with a reporter: everything said may be quoted and attributed unless something else was agreed beforehand. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/media-relations).

**Outcome**: What changed among the people the work was aimed at, as distinct from what was published about it. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/measurement-and-evaluation).

**Output**: What was published, where and in what form. A record of activity, not of effect. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/measurement-and-evaluation).

**Pull-through**: The share of the intended points that survived into published coverage, found by reading the coverage rather than counting it. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/measurement-and-evaluation).

**Return path**: The route by which questions raised during an internal cascade travel back up and are answered visibly. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/internal-communication).

**Share of voice**: How much of the coverage in a subject area concerned one organisation. Useful as context, weak as a result on its own. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/measurement-and-evaluation).

**Stakeholder**: Any group whose understanding of an organisation matters to it, including those who will never be customers. [Used in context](https://luxurepr.com/overview).