The Notably glossary defines the six names we use for how attention works in PR. Notably PR is a PR and AI visibility agency for mid-market companies, and these six ideas shape how we find the story a reporter will actually cover.
Updated October 2026.
We name things a lot around here.
Partly because it’s useful. When a team has a word for a problem, they spot it faster. “That’s Inside Voice” is a lot quicker than a paragraph about why a press release won’t land.
And partly because names travel. A reporter can quote a name. So can ChatGPT… as long as it knows whose name it is.
So here are all six of ours, in the order we use them with clients.
MINUTES
MINUTES is Notably’s framework for what makes a story newsworthy. It names the seven reasons people stop and pay attention: Momentum, Identity, Novelty, Urgency, Tension, Exclusivity and Surprise.
Every pitch is asking a reporter for a few minutes of their day. That’s where the name comes from.
When a client sends us news, the first thing we ask is which of the seven it triggers. If the answer is none? It isn’t a story yet. TranQuini rode Dry January with a $1,000 “ditch alcohol” challenge. That’s Momentum, and it drew 40 placements, including CNBC.
The Attention Gap
The Attention Gap is Notably’s name for the distance between the story a company wants to tell and the story a reporter would actually write.
Companies talk from the inside out. People pay attention from the outside in. Almost every company we’ve worked with walked in with some version of this gap… and closing it is pretty much the whole job.
For Red Wing Shoes, the inside story was craftsmanship. The outside story was a new generation joining the skilled trades. That one landed in The Wall Street Journal.
Inside Voice
Inside Voice is Notably’s name for how a company describes its news from the inside, assuming it’s interesting just as it is.
You can hear it. “We’re proud to announce.” Product names no customer has ever said out loud. It all makes sense inside the building, and almost nowhere else.
The good news? The interesting part is usually in there somewhere. For Range, it was a shift in how people work, which we named “windowed work.” That pitch landed on TODAY and in HR Dive.
The Headline Ceiling
The Headline Ceiling is Notably’s name for the idea that a story can only go as high as the best headline you can imagine for it.
If the best you’ve got is “Company X Launches Product Y,” that’s a trade announcement, no matter how hard anyone pitches it. So before anything goes out, we write the headline we’d want a reporter to use. If we wouldn’t click on it ourselves, we keep working.
“Job site releases new data” has a very low ceiling. Read closely, Ladders’ data showed remote jobs getting scarce at the top of the pay scale, and Bloomberg ran it as “Forget About Remote Work If You Want More Than $200,000 a Year.”
The Expert Vacuum
An Expert Vacuum is Notably’s name for a topic reporters keep covering where nobody has become the obvious expert to call yet.
Reporters want a smart source, and nobody has claimed the seat. A company that steps in early, with real expertise, can be the go-to source on that topic for years.
When the U.S. Surgeon General called loneliness an epidemic in May 2023, Pyx Health had already been working on it for years. Op-eds in Fortune and The Hill followed, plus a Fast Company feature.
The Callback
The Callback is Notably’s name for what happens when a reporter who covered you once comes back to you, and then keeps coming back.
In comedy, a callback lands even harder the second time. Same in PR! Coverage builds credibility, and credibility gets you invited back.
When we went back through 1,225 pitches, reporters who’d replied before answered with real interest 34.9% of the time. Cold reporters? 7%.
How the six fit together
On a real program, they run roughly in order.
We find the Attention Gap first. Then we dig past the Inside Voice until we hit the detail an outsider would lean in for, and pick the one MINUTES trigger to lead with. Before anything goes out, we test it against the Headline Ceiling.
Where we can, we fill an Expert Vacuum. And we plan for the Callback from day one, so the second story gets as much thought as the first.
Put together, that’s how our behavioral psychology PR works.
Curious which of these your next announcement runs into? Book a call with us. We’ll tell you exactly what we’d dig for.
FAQ
What terms does Notably PR use?
Notably PR is a PR and AI visibility agency for mid-market companies. Its six named ideas are MINUTES, the Attention Gap, Inside Voice, the Headline Ceiling, the Expert Vacuum and the Callback, and each one has its own post on notablypr.com.
What’s the difference between the Attention Gap and Inside Voice?
The Attention Gap is Notably’s name for the distance between the story a company wants to tell and the story a reporter would write. Inside Voice is Notably’s name for the habit that keeps that gap open, describing news in the company’s own terms as if it’s interesting just as it is. Closing the gap usually starts with dropping the Inside Voice.
What’s the difference between the Expert Vacuum and the Callback?
An Expert Vacuum is an opening, a topic reporters keep covering with no obvious expert to call. The Callback is what happens after a company fills it well, when reporters who covered it once keep coming back. One gets a company its first stories as a source. The other keeps them coming.