Embargos

I read an interesting post on Jeff Nolan.com today regarding embargos that was forwarded to me by my colleague, Laura Fitton Athavale, at Pistachio Consulting. Nolan's opinion on embargos is bleak, and as a PR practitioner, I couldn't agree more. It goes without saying, if you want one media outlet to break your story, then just give that one media outlet your story when you're ready for the news to break .

Nolan says, "Marcus Brauchli, who takes over from Paul Steiger at the helm of the powerful business newspaper, is a noted opponent of the media embargoes that Silicon Valley companies love so much."

"Valleywag is speculating that the WSJ will lead the charge to end the PR practice of embargoes on press announcements. I think the WSJ could easily do away with this vestige of traditional public relations practice. The desire for companies to break news in the WSJ is simply greater than their desire to adhere to a practice that has outlived it’s utility.

On a related note, I’m always amused when a PR person sends me email that begins with 'embargo until such-and-such time'. I don’t ask for PR people to send me anything, they just do so why should I give a crap about violating some 'arrangement' they are accustomed to? I am typically not sufficiently motivated to post about press releases anyway so I don’t give the topic must attention, but it does seem like we should get beyond the notion that anything can be "sprung" these days."