A
ABC - Audit Bureau of Circulations; a group that audits newspaper circulation figures.

ACAP - Automated Content Access Protocol, a platform that would allow search engines to recognise the terms and conditions of specific websites.

Add - Copy to be added to a story already written.

Adobe InDesign - Desktop publishing program, now being used more widely in place of QuarkXPress.

Ad impression - Term used to describe the number of times an advert is seen. Advertisers usually sell space based on the exposure per thousand impressions. This is called Cost per impression (CPM). Alternatively, they might sell on a pay-per-click (CPC) basis (also known as cost-per-click - CPC)

ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line; high bandwidth web connection often just called broadband.

Advance - A story outlining a future event. Also means to raise the priority of a story or an upfront payment for written work, particuarly long articles or text.

All Caps - A word or sentence written in all capital letters.

Advertorial - An advert in the form of a complementary editorial piece, usually labelled as an advert.

Analogue television - TV transmitted in radio waves as opposed to digital TV.

Angle - The approach or focus of a story. This is sometimes known as the peg.

AP - the abbreviation for the Associated Press.

Assignment - A job given to a journalist by an editor.

Astroturfing - A term used to describe fake grassroots support on websites and in blog comments. A method most usually employed by the public relations and advertising industry and political groups.

Attribute - to quote the original source of material, whether it be a quote of copyrighted work.

Audit - An independent assessment of the validity of statistics used in adverts, newspapers etc.

AOP - Formed in 2002, the Association of Online Publishers is an industry body for UK web publishers. The AOP represents the interests of 160 publishing companies.

Average issue readership - Number of people who have read the newspaper or magazine in the period that it was issued, also known as AIR.

B
B2B - Business to business; describes a business whose primary customers are other businesses.

B2C - Business to customer; describes a business whose primary customers are individuals.

Background - Information given to a reporter to explain more about the situation and details of a story. Sometimes shortened to BG.

Back bench - Senior journalists on a newspaper.

Bandwidth - The amount of data that can be transferred through an internet connection.

Banner ad - Web advert, normally found at the top of a page. Typically around 468 by 60 pixels in size. Sometimes called a web banner.

BARB - Broadcasting Audience Research Board, measures TV audience numbers.

BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation.

Beat - The area or subject that a reporter regularly covers.

Best boy - Broadcasting term for second-in-command of a lighting team.

Blawg - Weblog dealing with aspects of law.

Bliki - Combination of a blog and a wiki; a blog that can be edited by readers or an approved group of users.

Blind interview - An interview with an unnamed source.

Blog - An online commentary or diary often written by individuals about hobbies or areas of specialist interest. Blogs commonly allow comments below entries and are published in reverse chronological order. Also known as a weblog.

Blogger - A person who writes a blog.

Blogosphere/Blogdom/Blogiverse/Blogmos/Blogostan - All things relating to blogs and blog communities.

Blurb - Brief introduction to the writer, usually following the headline.

BRAD - British Rate and Data; a company that logs every periodical that has to do with advertising in Britain.

Break - When a story is first published. Sometimes called breaking news.

Broadcast - communicating using radio and/or TV.

Browser - A piece of software that allows users to view internet pages. Popular browsers include Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Bulks - Copies distributed free, normally for promotion.

Bump - To move the position or timing of a story.

Button - A small web advertisement, usually around 165 by 90 pixels in size and commonly found in the right or left hand columns of a website.

Byline - A journalist’s name at the beginning of a story.

C
Cable television - TV delivered into the home through an underground cable.

Campaign - The various stages of an advertising project from beginning to end.

Cap - Upper case.

Caption - Text printed below a picture used to describe it and who took it. Sometimes called a cutline.

Cascading stylesheets (CSS) - Technique used for designing web pages. One file that defines the style for a whole site.

Chat rooms - An interactive part of a website where visitors can write messages to each other people in real time. Also known as forums and message boards.

Churnalism - Bad journalism; journalists that churn out rewrites of press releases.

Centre of visual interest (CVI) - The prominent item on a page usually a headline, picture or graphic.

CIOJ - the Chartered Institute of Journalists.

Circulation - Number of copies sold by newspapers or magazines. In the UK these figures are monitored by ABC - The Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Citizen journalism - Term used to describe the reporting of news events by members of the public most commonly on blogs and social networking websites. Other terms include participatory journalism and networked journalism though it should not be confused with civic journalism, which is practiced by professional journalists.

Classified advertising - Advertising placed by individuals in newspapers. Sometimes called small ads.

Clickthrough - When a reader clicks on an advert and is redirected to a new page. Advertisers sometimes buy adverts based on a rate per click called a Click-through rate or CTR.

Closed question - A simple yes/no question that does little to encourage an interviewee to open up.

Column - A regular feature often on a specific topic, written by the same person who is known as a columnist.

Contempt of court - The criminal offence of ignoring court rules.

Content management system - CMS is a program for easily editing and placing content such as text, still images and videos on web sites.

Convergence - The term used to describe multimedia newsrooms producing news for different publishing platforms.

Cookie - Small text file that is downloaded to your computer when you visit a site. The next time you visit, the site can use the file to remember details such as your login information.

Copy - Main text of a story.

Copy approval - A source or interviewer asking to see the text of an article prior to publication. (Always discouraged!)

Copywriting - Creating the text for an advertisement.

Coverline - Captions on a magazine cover.

Cover story - Leading story used on front cover.

CPM - cost per thousand impressions. This is the cost an advertiser pays for 1,000 page views. The M in CPM is the Roman numeral for 1,000.

Crosshead - A few words used to break up large amounts of text, normally taken from the main text. Typically used in interviews.

Cub - A trainee reporter. Also known as a rookie or junior reporter.

Cut - To remove text.

Cuttings - A journalist’s collection of published print work. Also known as clips and sometimes presented as a portfolio.

Cuttings job - An article which has been put together using research culled from a number of other articles or news items.

Cyber-journalist - A journalist that works on the internet. An online journalist.

D
Dateline - A line at the beginning of a story stating the date and the location.

Deadline - The time at which an editor requests a journalists to finish an assignment.

Death-knock - Calling at the house of a bereaved relative or friend when reporting on the death. Also known as door-stepping.

Deck - Part of the headline which summarises the story. Also known as deck copy or bank.

Defamation - Information that is written by one person which damages another person reputation.

Digg - A community powered internet link recommendation system. Furl offers a similar service.

Direct quote - The exact reproduction of a verbatim quote in quotemarks and correctly attributed.

DHTML - Dynamic HTML. Allows exciting things to happen when you move your mouse over words.

Digital television - TV transmitted in binary format, producing good picture quality.

Direct marketing - Sending advertising material directly to potential customers either by post, fax, email or information by telephone.

Dogblogging - When the upkeep of a weblog becomes a hassle.

Dowdification - Deliberate omission of a term or terms to change the meaning of a quote. Refers to journalist Maureen Dowd.

Download - Copying a file from a website to your own computer.

Draft - The first version of an article before editing and submission to the editor.

Dropdown menus - Name given to website menus that allow users to select from a list of options that drop down in a vertical menu.

DPS - Double-page spread; can also be referred to as a spread.

E
e - Often used to indicate an electronic version of something, for example eNews, for an electronic newsletter, or eGovernment, to describe electronic government.

Editor - Someone who prepares material for print or broadcast.

Editorialise - To write in an opinionated way.

Encryption - TV signals encoded so only paying subscribers can watch.

Endnote - Text written at the end of an article stating the authors credentials.

eTail - Online or ‘electronic’ retail.

Exclusivity - When an advert appears exclusively on a page, rather than being in rotation with other ads.

Ezine - Specialized online magazines.

F
Feature - A longer, more in-depth article.

Fisk - Detailed word-by-word analysis and critique of an article. Refers to journalist Robert Fisk.

Flash - A program used to display design-heavy, animated content.

Flash - Short news story on a new event.

Flatplan - A page plan that shows where the articles and adverts are laid out.

Follow-up - An update on a previous story.

Font - Typeface.

Freelancer - Someone that works alone, usually on a contract-to-contract basis.

Freesheet - A publication that is free to consumers and generates its revenue from advertising.

Free-to-air - TV service received without having to decode or pay.

Freeview - Commercial free-to-air digital service, between BBC, BSkyB and the transmission firm Crown Castle.

Frontline Club - A club in London that promotes “freedom of expression and support journalists, cameramen and photographers who risk their lives in the course of their work.”

FTP - File Transfer Protocol. A method of moving files, usually used to transfer files from your computer to a web server.

FYI - An abbreviation meaning for your information.

G
Get - A very good or exclusive interview.

GIF - A type of picture file, often used for images that include text.

Glossite - The website of a glossy women’s magazine.

Graf - Paragraph.

Grip - A person that looks after the equipment required to make a TV camera move.

H
Hard copy - When the article is printed out on paper.

Hits - Number of downloads of every element of a web page, rather than the page as a whole. A page of 20 images, text boxes, logos and menus will count as 20 hits, so hits are therefore not regarded as a reliable measurement of web traffic.

Headline - The main title of the article.

Homepage - The front page of a website.

House style - A publication’s guide to style, spelling and use of grammar, designed to help journalists write and present in a consistent way for their target audience. The Economist publishes a style guide as does The Guardian.

HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language. Basic programming code used for the design and display of web pages.

Hyperlink - A link that redirects the user to another web page.

I
Impressions - The number of times an advertising banner was viewed during a campaign.

An internet - Any network of connected computers.

The internet - The international network of interconnected computers. The World Wide Web, email, FTP and usenet are all part of the Internet.

Intranet - A private computer network inside a company or organisation for internal use only.

Intro - Very important first paragraph, known as a ‘lead’ in the US.

Inventory - The number of advertisement spaces for sale on a web site at a given time.

Island position - An advert surrounded by editorial content in the middle of the page.

ITV network - 15 regional franchises that make up ITV1. ITV is the Broadcaster that was formed by the merger of Carlton and Granada.

JJavascript - A scripting language commonly used to add functionality to web sites beyond that which is achievable in HTML.

JPEG - Joint Photographic Expert Group. Common type of picture file used on the web.

Joost - interactive television software produced by the makers of Skype and Kazaa.

Journalist - Someone who writes, researches and reports news, or works on the production of a publication. Sometimes shortened to journo, hack or scribe.

K
Kerning - Adjustment of horizontal space between two written characters.

Kicker - The first sentence or first few words of a story’s lead, set in a font size larger than the body text of the story.

Kill - To cancel or delete a story.

Kill fee - A reduced fee paid to a journalist for a story that is not used.

Kittyblog - A pointless and boring weblog, possibly about the owner’s cat.

LLayout - (noun) How the page is designed and formatted.

Layout sub-editor - A sub-editor who specialises in laying out pages.

Leader - An article that shows the opinion of a newspaper.

Leading - Adjustment of vertical space between two lines.

Leading questions - A question that contains the predicted answer within the question.

Libel - A case for defamation. Defendent would need to show claims were true, fair comment or an accurate record of parliamentary or court proceedings.

Licence fee - BBC funding system.

Lobster shift - Working in the hours after a publication has gone to print. Also known as dog watch.

Long tail - The effect of publishing content online and keeping it available in an archive. Unlike in a newspaper, old stories will continue to receive traffic long after publication date, hence the long tail.

M
Mark - Correction.

Martini media - Media that is available “any time, any place, any where”.

Mash up, mashup, or mash-up - a website or web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

Masthead - Main title section and name at the front of a publication.

Media Kit - Practical information available to potential advertisers regarding costs etc. See the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the Belfast Telegraph for examples.

Microblogs - Blogs dealing with very specialised discussion.

Microblogging - Variant of traditional blogging in which users write brief text messages over the web. Popularized by web site Twitter, which limits users to 140-character updates.

Moblogging - Where individuals contribute to a blog using images or text sent from a mobile phone.

MPEG - Moving Pictures Experts Group. A file format used for digital video.

MPU - Known as a Messaging Plus Unit, a large square web advert usually in a central position below or inline with editorial. Typically around 350 by 250 pixels in size.

Multimedia - Term used to describe a range of different delivery formats such as video, audio, text and images, often presented simultaneously on the internet.

Multiplex - Single digital terrestrial TV transmission comprising of several channels.

N
Navigation - Structure that helps web users move around the website.

NCTJ - National Council for Training of Journalists, official UK accreditation board for journalism courses.

Netiquette - Online etiquette, eg. reciprocal links.

Networked journalism - Another term to describe participatory journalism or citizen journalism.

News agency - Company that sells stories to newspapers or magazines.

Newspaper Society - Industry body representing the regional press & local press.

Newsreader - Software that helps receive and read RSS blog and news feeds.

NIB - News in brief - a quick summary of a story.

Nut graf - Paragraph containing the essential elements of a story.

NUJ - National Union of Journalists, a UK trade union.

O
Ofcom - Broadcasting industry regulator.

Off diary - An unscheduled or unpredicted story.

Off the record - Information that must not be disclosed.

On diary - Scheduled story.

On spec - Article that is written ‘just in-case’, but it will only be used if needed.

On the record - Information given by a source that can be used in an article.

Op-ed - A feature, usually by a prominent journalist, presenting an opinionated story.

Orphan - First line of a paragraph appearing on the last line of a column of text. Normally avoided.

P
PDF - Portable Document Format – a standard file format that allows web publishers to post documents viewable by any user who installs a copy of the free Acrobat Reader.

PACT - Industry body representing independent cinema and tv producers.

Pay-per-view - A single programme that the viewer has to pay for.

Pay TV - Paid subscription service for TV.

PDA - Personal Digital Assistant. A hand-held computer combining a phone, organiser and web client.

Photoblogging - Contributing photos to a blog.

Photoshop - (noun) Computer program used to edit photographs.

Pitch - Story idea sent to an editor by a reporter.

Pixel - An on-screen measurement. Most monitors display around 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high.

Podcasts - MP3 audio recordings that can automatically download to a user’s computer as soon as they are published online.

Point size - Size of the type face.

Pop-under/pop-behind - A web advert that opens under the browser window.

Pop-up - A web advert that pops up on screen. These are commonly blocked with a pop-up blocker.

Post - To add a comment to a blog.

Pork - Material held for later use, if needed.

PPA - Periodical Publishers Association. Industry body representing UK magazine publishers.

Portal - A busy site often used as a starting point online through services such as messaging, news and searches.

Proof - Copy of a laid-out page ready to be corrected.

Prosumer - Marketing term used to describe professional consumers.

Puff piece - A news story with editorialised, complimentary statements.

Pulldown - Web text that is activated by a down arrow on a web menu.

Pulitzer Prize - American journalism awards. There are fourteen prizes for journalism. The prizes have been awarded by Columbia University since 1917.

Pull-out quote - Selected quote from a story highlighted next to the main text. Often used in interviews.

Q
QuarkXPress - Desktop publishing program.

Quote - Record of what a source or interviewee has said.

R
Radio spectrum - Total capacity of radio frequencies that can be received.

Rate card - A list of advertising rates provided by a publisher.

Recto - Right-hand page.

Redletter - Exclusive, breaking news coverage of a major news event, printed in red type.

Reporter - Someone who writes and researches news stories.

Reporters without borders - An organisation founded in 1985 that fights for press freedom around the world.

Retraction - A withdrawal of a previously-published story or fact.

Revision - A re-written or improved story, often with additional quotes or facts.

Rich media - Artwork formats such as Flash, Java and DHTML that allow interactive or multimedia content.

Roadblock - The sale of all the adverts on your home page to one advertiser.

RSS - This began life as Rich Site Summary in 1999, then mutated to Really/Real Simple Simple Syndication in 2002, then Real Simple Synchronisation in 2005.

Run - To publish a story.

S
Sell - Short sentence promoting an article, often pulling out a quote or a interesting sentence. See also Pull-out quote.

Spider - Also known as a crawler or ant, a program that uses hyperlinks to make methodical searches of the web to provide information about pages for search engines.

Sacred cow - News or promotional material which a publisher or editor demands be published, often for personal reasons.

Serif and Sans serif - Plain font type with or without (sans) lines perpendicular to the ends of characters.

Satellite television - TV recieved through a satellite dish.

Scoop - An exclusive or first-published story.

Scoopt - the world’s first citizen journalism photograph agency owned by Getty Images.

Search box - A tool that allows users to enter a word or phrase to search a database.

Server - A computer that hosts the pages of a web site.

Shockwave - Software that allows the user to play multimedia animations; published by Macromedia.

Skype - Popular free internet telephony tool sometimes used to produce Skypecasts, or broadcast conference calls.

Skyscraper - A vertical banner advert, usually at one side of a web page and 60 x 468 pixels in size.

Social bookmarking - A service that allows users to store interesting website addresses publically on a web page and lets users network and pool recommendations.

Source - An individual who provides information for a story.

Spike - Not to publish a submitted article.

Splash - Front page story.

Standfirst - Line of text after the headline that gives more information about the article.

Stet - Proofreader’s mark for ‘restore to condition before mark up’.

Sticky content - Content that encourages users to stay on one site for as long as possible.

Strapline - Similar to a subhead or standfirst, but used more as a marketing term.

Streaming - Watching or listening to video or audio in real time, rather than downloading files.

Sub-editor - The person that checksand edits a reporters’ work and adds headlines and standfirsts.

Subhead - A smaller one-line headline for a story.

Superstitials - A type of rich media advert that downloads gradually without obscuring other content on the page; usually more popular than pop ups.

T
Tabloid - Smaller print newspaper size.

Technobabble - Confusing technical jargon.

Technorati - Powerful blog search engine.

Teeline - A form of shorthand.

Terrestrial television - TV sent through a beam transmitter directly into the home.

Testimonial - Endorsement of a product, often by a celebrity or well-respected client.

TK - Proofreader’s insertion mark for data to come. Sometimes written as TKTK.

Tie in - Placing the facts of a new story within the context of past events. Also known as a tie back.

Tip - A lead of piece of new information about a new story.

Top heads - Headlines at the top of a column.

Traffic - Amount of users recorded by a website.

Twitter - A service that allows users to send 140 character messages to ‘friends’ via mobile SMS, website or Instant Messenger.

U
Unique users - The number of individual users, as identified by unique computer addresses, that visit a web site.

Upload - To publish a file on the internet.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator, technical name for a web address.

User - A visitor or reader on a web site.

User-generated content - Material created and submitted to sites by its users - such as photographs, video footage, comments, articles etc.

V
Verso - Left-hand page.

Video blogger/Vlogger - A blogger who mainly uses video and publishes on the internet.

Video journalist - A journalist who publishes video reports on TV and/or on the internet.

Vertical search engine - A search engine containing information on a specific subject area.

W
Web scraping - Automated process of finding content on web pages and converting it into another form for use on another web site.

Warblogs - Opinionated and political web logs.

Webcasting - Online visual and/or audio broadcasts, usually in real time.

Webmercials - Similar format to television adverts used online.

Webinar/Web conference - A seminar, lecture or presentation delivered over the internet.

Widow - Last line of paragraph appearing on the first line of a column of text.

Wi-fi - Wireless internet or network connection.

Wiki - An information site that can be edited and added to by readers. See Wikipedia - an online Wiki encyclopedia.

Wires - Stories or photographs sent electrically to your desktop. Here is a list of wire news services.

Wob - White text on a black or other coloured background.