Mike Arrington wrote a pleasingly forceful denunciation of embargoes yesterday. Embargoes are agreements between PR people and reporters to hold publication until a certain time, but they always get broken and generally have become useless and counterproductive.
The talk was very blunt: they will break agreements they’ve already made, and they will always do it. “We will break every embargo we agree to … From now our new policy is to break every embargo.”
But not yet. On TechCrunch’s front door is 12seconds, which was announced to reporters last week the old-fashioned way, under embargo, for publication today.
So come on, lads! Break some embargoes already! It’s CES next month: there are surely loads of items the whole tech-writin’ world is sitting on.
Update: Here’s how it’s done: Lenovo’s dual-screen 700DS monster laptop, which bloggers were briefed on yesterday under a Jan. 8 embargo, gets anonymously posted to a web forum after google reveals a tenuous mention in official literature. Subsequently tipped off to bigger outlets, the whole shebang, photos and all, can justifiably be run. And lo, it is no longer a CES announcement.
You’re right. While I’d like to see the end of embargoes myself, I’m not going to burn anyone. It’s just not worth it, and our appeal isn’t built on breaking news.
But I don’t think they’re lazy: everyone’s uneasy about the unpredictability of embargoes, so Mike Arrington wants to simplify the game. And he doesn’t care if people think he’s unscrupulous.
A great way to simultaneously destroy existing relationships with PR reps and prevent new ones from occurring.
This is the treatment for herpes lazy journalism the world needs.
The PR reps will simply set up two schedules: One for those who honour the embargoes, and one for those who don’t.
Which is more work for someone who (if they’re a good PR rep in these tough times) is already over-worked.