Comments on: The death of the “press embargo” http://danweinreb.org/blog/the-death-of-the-press-embargo Software and Innovation Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:13:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Chuck Tanowitz http://danweinreb.org/blog/the-death-of-the-press-embargo/comment-page-1#comment-34270 Chuck Tanowitz Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:26:28 +0000 http://danweinreb.org/blog/?p=223#comment-34270 I’ve never been a fan of the embargo, but they do serve a purpose. I think the panelists (as the organizations you mentioned) are reacting to the overuse of the term. Young PR people are taught to put the term at the top of nearly any release they write, which isn’t what it’s for.

I try to only tell reporters news will be on a particular date, unless it is so sensitive that it requires more care, as with an announcement that has a regulatory bent or involves a partner company that may pull out if it’s announced too early.

There have been times in the past when other publications set “no embargo” rules, but we often found that individual reporters would accept them if they truly wanted the information or were very interested in the company, but would pull out the “no embargo” language if they felt they were being played.

]]> By: John Cowan http://danweinreb.org/blog/the-death-of-the-press-embargo/comment-page-1#comment-34095 John Cowan Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:35:28 +0000 http://danweinreb.org/blog/?p=223#comment-34095 In other subfields of journalism such as health, though, embargos are thriving. Break an embargo imposed by the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, and they’ll cut you off from their PR for a graduated period. Do it too many times, and they’ll ban you from their advance list permanently. That can be crippling for a medical journalist.

The reason, of course, is that the NEJM is itself a news outlet, and doesn’t care to be scooped by the people it’s sending advance notice to. So the embargo is set for the same day as the journal’s publication date. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was common elsewhere in science as well.

]]> By: Schmoo http://danweinreb.org/blog/the-death-of-the-press-embargo/comment-page-1#comment-34090 Schmoo Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:05:49 +0000 http://danweinreb.org/blog/?p=223#comment-34090 Meh. If you don’t have lead time, you just have to make sure you understand the material and its implications before you publish. If you don’t, you look like an idiot. If you look like an idiot too often, people stop reading your news.

I fail to see how end users getting news earlier and getting a built-in filtering system for crap journalism as a by-product is a bad thing. We desperately need a filter for crap journalism.

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