A post on TechCrunch today titled Death to the Embargo really brings home the fact that news has become a cut-throat, do-eat-dog activity. The race to be first to publish a story is the result of shifts in media consumption, a 27/7 news cycle and a cooling economy.
Image by Nebbish1
“As the economy turns south, PR firms are under increasing pressure to perform and justify their monthly retainers.”
One PR standard that is being tossed aside in the race to be first with a story is the embargo.
“The benefits are clear – sites like Google News and TechMeme prioritize them first as having broken the story. Traffic and links flow in to whoever breaks an embargo first. That means it’s a race to the bottom by new sites, who are increasingly stressed themselves with a competitive marketplace and decreasing advertising sales.”
As a result TechCrunch announced in this post that they’re taking a radical step: “From this point on we will break every embargo we agree to.”
There will be exceptions, they say
“We will honor embargoes from trusted companies and PR firms who give us the news exclusively, so we know there won’t be any mistakes. There are also a handful – maybe three – people who we trust enough to continue to work with them on general embargoes (if you are a PR person and wondering if you’re on that list, you’re not).”
I guess the PR lesson here is to be offer really great content equally to all parties. Cherish your relationships with media – offline and online. Being a trusted source is priceless.
