The Jeff Pulver Blog: Just say No! to “News Embargos”

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October 03, 2006

Just say No! to “News Embargos”

One old-school tactic that doesn’t work in a Web 2.0 world are “News Embargos.” The word “embargo” just does not work in the Blogosphere. To date, my experience regarding embargos has been that those people who break the embargo are the ones credited for “breaking the story” and everyone else who honored the embargo are left sitting with a timed-dated “me too” story. So…what is the point?

Signed, Jeff “Grumbles” Pulver.

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Posted by jeff on October 3, 2006 07:05 AM | Permalink

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A few months ago, I was under such an embargo with Webaroo. Being the small-time "new media producer / independent consultant" that I am, it was a rewarding experience to be the only "little guy" among a sea of "big media" (NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, GigaOm, etc.) covering the company. Their PR folks were consistently seeking reassurance about the embargo before their launch (April 10, 2006), of which I gladly respected.

By earning their trust, the Interviews podcast (which had only existed for a mere three months) was the ONLY source of all the global press involved allowed to break their official launch date just days prior. Another first because of this trust was being allowed to interview all three co-founders (Rakesh Mathur, Brad Husick, and Beerud Sheth) prior to the "big players" interviewing the founders and breaking their stories.

It was a great experience to essentially be a "trusted partner" in their PR launch strategy. It's by far the best accomplishment for the podcast to date.

Ronald Lewis
Producer, Interviews
Founder and CTA, Riverscape

Posted by: Ronald Lewis at October 3, 2006 09:38 PM

Jeff, the concept applies whether you're talking about national security or hi-tech news or whatever. Violate the embargo and risk pissing off your source. Your call.

Posted by: Dale Cruse at October 3, 2006 10:52 AM

I used to work for a major news service and they did not sit and do nothing while waiting for a news embargo to end. They spent the time preparing a background story so that when it was ok to publish, everyone else just had "me too" stories, they had the in depth background.

No matter where they started readers ended up at their stories, either via the subscription service or the next morning in the business sections of their newspapers.

If something you know is coming is of more interest than just repeating the announcement, consider it an oportunity to spend the time writing a better story. :-)

Geoff.

Posted by: Geoff Mendelson at October 3, 2006 08:55 AM

Dale, totally understand about issues regarding national security. I was more focused on the companies that ping me from the hi-tech industry.

Posted by: Jeff Pulver at October 3, 2006 08:51 AM

There is *some* truth in what you're saying. However, breaking a news embargo is one sure way to piss off the source of the release. I used to work for CBS News.com and I can tell you that if we had broken a news embargo with, say the Department of Defense, we not have been privvy to news advances from them in the future.

When publishing, we must make that decision each time: Is it worth "being first" when you may be burning a bridge in the process?

Posted by: Dale Cruse at October 3, 2006 08:42 AM

October 03, 2006

Just say No! to “News Embargos”

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