PR Glossary
Restaurant PR has its own language. Here's every term you'll encounter — defined clearly, without the jargon.
Earned Media
Press coverage you didn't pay for. When a food critic reviews your restaurant or a lifestyle magazine features your chef, that's earned media — and it's far more credible than advertising.
Paid Media
Advertising you pay for directly: Google Ads, Meta ads, sponsored posts, and display banners. Unlike earned media, paid media is explicitly labeled as advertising.
Owned Media
Content you control: your website, email list, social profiles, and blog. Owned media is your long-term brand asset — it doesn't disappear when a publication changes its coverage priorities.
Media Pitch
A brief, targeted message sent to a journalist or editor proposing a story angle. A great media pitch is personalized, newsworthy, and leads with why their specific audience cares.
Press Release
A formal announcement distributed to media contacts. Restaurants issue press releases for grand openings, new executive chefs, major renovations, awards, and significant partnerships.
Media Kit
A package of materials prepared for press: high-resolution photos, brand story, key facts, menu highlights, and contact information. A polished media kit makes a journalist's job easier — and increases your chances of coverage.
Editorial Calendar
A publication's schedule of themed content for the year. Knowing that a magazine is running a 'Best New Restaurants' issue in March lets a PR agency pitch you for that issue weeks in advance.
Embargo
An agreement with a journalist to hold a story until a specific release date. Often used for major announcements like grand openings or award reveals to coordinate simultaneous coverage.
Exclusive
Giving one journalist or publication the right to break a story before anyone else. Exclusives incentivize a journalist to invest time in the story, often resulting in longer, more prominent coverage.
Food Critic
A journalist who reviews restaurants, typically anonymously. A positive review in a major outlet can drive reservations for months. Building relationships with food critics — without compromising their independence — is core to restaurant PR.
Influencer Marketing
Partnering with social media creators who have engaged audiences of potential diners. Unlike traditional press, influencers create content their followers trust as personal recommendations.
UGC (User-Generated Content)
Photos, videos, and reviews created by customers, not brands. Restaurants that inspire UGC — through great food presentation, unique experiences, or shareable moments — benefit from authentic, free-of-charge marketing.
Crisis Communications
Strategic messaging used when a restaurant faces a public relations emergency — a health inspection failure, social media backlash, or food safety incident. Speed, transparency, and empathy are the cornerstones of effective crisis response.
Reputation Management
The ongoing process of monitoring, influencing, and protecting how a restaurant is perceived online and offline. Includes review monitoring, response strategy, and proactive story-building.
Media Relations
The practice of building and maintaining professional relationships with journalists, editors, and producers who cover food, lifestyle, and hospitality. Strong media relations is the engine of effective restaurant PR.
Brand Story
The narrative that gives your restaurant meaning beyond its menu. Your founding story, your chef's background, your sourcing philosophy, your community involvement — these are the elements that make journalists want to write about you.
SOV (Share of Voice)
The percentage of total media coverage in your category that features your restaurant versus competitors. Growing your SOV in local food media is a key PR objective.
Newsjacking
Inserting your restaurant into a trending news conversation. If a city is hosting a major event, a smart PR agency positions their restaurant clients as part of the story — catering options, nearby dining guides, themed menus.
Wire Service
A newswire that distributes press releases to hundreds of publications simultaneously (e.g. PR Newswire, Business Wire). Used for broad distribution but less effective than targeted, personalized pitching for restaurant coverage.
Soft Launch
A quiet opening to friends, family, and select media before the official public opening. A soft launch lets restaurants work out operational kinks while building initial buzz and earning early press.
Grand Opening Strategy
A coordinated PR campaign surrounding a restaurant's public opening. Typically includes media previews, influencer events, press release distribution, social content, and community outreach — all timed for maximum opening-week coverage.
Review Monitoring
Systematically tracking what's being said about your restaurant on Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and social media. Rapid response to negative reviews — and amplification of positive ones — is an essential reputation management practice.
Byline
The journalist's name credited beneath a headline. Knowing which journalists write which bylines helps PR agencies pitch the right person for each story.
Lead Time
The time between pitching a story and its publication date. Monthly print magazines need pitches 3-4 months in advance. Daily digital outlets may respond in days. Understanding lead times is essential for timely restaurant PR.
AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent)
A legacy metric estimating what earned media coverage would have cost if purchased as advertising. While still used, AVE is increasingly replaced by more meaningful metrics like reservation lift, search traffic changes, and social engagement.
Feature Story
A longer, narrative-driven article that goes beyond news to tell a restaurant's story in depth. Features in major food publications can have outsized impact on both brand perception and reservation volume.
Locavore
A consumer who prioritizes locally sourced food. Restaurants with strong local sourcing stories can leverage the locavore movement for PR angles with food, sustainability, and lifestyle media.
Listicle
An article formatted as a numbered or bulleted list (e.g., '10 Best New Restaurants in Dallas'). Getting on the right listicles — especially those that rank highly in Google — is a high-value earned media objective for restaurants.
Social Proof
The psychological phenomenon where people look to others' actions and opinions to guide their own decisions. For restaurants, social proof includes star ratings, review counts, user-generated photos, influencer mentions, and media coverage — any signal that other diners have validated the experience. A restaurant with 800 Google reviews at 4.6 stars has more social proof than a competitor with 50 reviews at 4.9 stars, because volume signals consistency.
Ready to Put This Into Practice?
Knowing the terminology is step one. Let our team build the strategy and do the pitching — so you can focus on running your restaurant.