What is the difference between a reputation issue and a reputation crisis?

An issue is contained: one article, one platform comment, one customer complaint that has not picked up amplification. Most issues never become crises and the right response to most of them is monitoring rather than action. A crisis has reached escape velocity in at least one dimension: it is being repeated across credentialed outlets, it is moving on social, the AI engines have absorbed it into their narrative, or stakeholders (investors, regulators, employees, customers) are reaching out. The threshold matters because the operational tempo and the tools are different. An issue is handled by the comms team; a crisis pulls in legal, IR, the board, and reputation specialists working in coordination.