Breaking the Embargo
September 4th, 2009 by Rob Brown
The relationship between journalists and PR people is privileged, even if it can be somewhat strained at times. It was never more so than with the embargo, the implicit agreement between press office and journalists that they won’t publish until a given hour, if it no one else does. Social media has essentially seen the death of the embargo but some PR people seem to want to dig it up, rebury it and dance upon its grave.
PR organisations are handing out press releases with embargoes and then breaking the story themselves. Kris Vire the Theater Editor for Time Out Chicago magazine recently posted “PR firm asks for 11am embargo, then posts/tweets its news itself at 10:55. Why am I even here?”. There is no reason PR firms can’t break stories but this is about trust - if you make an agreement stick to it. It is essential for your relationship with the media both on and offline.
Control of the flow of information, whether embargoed or not, has changed. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) sent e-mails yesterday to all the entrants in the CIPR Pride Awards informing them as to whether or not they had been shortlisted. Within minutes the wires were alive with PR people tweeting about their own fortunes, before the CIPR posted the list and presumably before the media had the information. We have to be circumspect about the objectivity of PR people posting news about their own successes. I couldn’t help but notice the agency which announced that it had been entered just five categories and been shortlisted in all five, only to proudly confirm later that they’d been shortlisted in a sixth category.
Tags: , Awards, Chicago, CIPR, dead, death, Emabargo, Embargoed, Embargoes, jounalism, journalists, Kris Vire, PR, Press, Pride, Time Out
September 4th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Blogs have spelled the end of embargoes, as bloggers either don’t understand the notion or simply don’t care. No gentlemen’s agreements there.
The car industry has pretty much given up on them, as have most sites, as you can bet your bottom dollar some previously-unheard of blog will break a story or release pictures as soon as they’re sent out, prompting an unseemly scramble by everyone else to follow suit.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Very interesting post. Take a look at our opinion from a Picture Editor’s point of view on Embargos… http://paphotocall.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/the-end-of-the-embargo/
Let me know your thoughts.
Many Thanks
PA Photocall
September 4th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Interesting point. Yesterday that Tim Webber, the Business Editor at BBC News radio + interactive, tweeted at 11.00am:
‘Sony Ericsson not aware that people might twitter. At very end of media briefing they announce 1500 embargo. Tad too late, me thinks…’
Seems as if the days of holding a press launch with embargoes has indeed passed.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:28 am
@PA Photocall - yours is a great post and completely right. As you say no-one can control the media.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:49 am
We recently covered Embargos in our PR degree and to be honest it felt a bit redundant then. I see the value they once had and like the idea of having trust in journalists but with the whole social media frenzy still in full flow surrounding Twitter and blogging, I can’t see them being stuck to by many. In this time where immediacy has become ever more important and emphasised perhaps the time for Embargos is sadly over.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:42 am
The answer to this question depends who you are briefing and to what extent those journalists appreciate the value of the deal. The social media element of the equation complicates it but doesn’t make it redundant….yet.
We gave a story embargoed to political journalists a couple of weeks ago that was inadvertently published by the Guardian on its website before the embargo time. They took it down straightaway but the damage was done. On the other hand most web journalists and bloggers I’ve dealt with lately have understood the reasoning for embargoes.
September 7th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Mark, I think the blanket embargo is dead but I agree that individual agreements are still valid. What put even these arrangements under pressure are the PR people who make them and then break them themselves.
September 7th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
LoL - yes, good point!
September 8th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Regarding PR firms breaking their own embargoes - well that’s an obvious “you’re doing it wrong” moment. Otherwise, however, I believe the embargo is alive and well, and will continue to be for quite some time. My counterpoint to this is here: http://www.stagetwoconsulting.com/wordpress/why-embargoes-will-survive-231/