Media embargoes – Dos and don’ts.

Media embargoes – what are they? How do I use them? Dos and dont’s.

This is a brilliant animation on a discussion between a PR and a journalist in relation to an embargo on the launch of a product.

As the media changes, becomes more electronic and instant, and as newspapers compete for a skrinking share of the market, there is becoming less of a place for embargoes and they are becoming less relevant and more risky for companies to do, due to the fact that there is a higher risk that they can often broken and a story come out to early. Embargoes are generally used where a company is making a large announcement on a deal or in the run up to a launch.

An embargo, if agreed to by the journalist, allows them to be briefed in advance of the launch, but with the proviso that they don’t publish anything until the actual launch day. This can be very helpful to newspapers in particular as it means they can often run the story on the day of the launch. Often the more sensitive details are kept aside for the launch itself,  thus allowing the papers to give an overview and a teaser, thereby actually encouraging attendance. This can be very beneficial to a newspaper or journalist, but where papers believe they are competing on the story there is an chance that they can break the embargo in order to be first to the market.

My rule of thumb is to use embargoes sparingly. Where you do use them only approach those media contacts you have a good, preferably long term relationship with, and who you know will not break the embargo. Ideally they should be given an ‘exclusive’ with it being made clear to the journalist that they have an exclusive and, therefore, no one else will be competing with them to get the story out. This way they do not feel under pressure to beat the competition to print. It must be indicated clearly that the embargo applies to all forms of media, such as the website, because rival newspaper will often use their website to publish a spoiler story, that is, release a story on-line to scupper an article being run in print by a rival.

The types of media titles most likely  likely to break an embargo are local papers,  those printed in the afternoon or evening or trade magazines. These titles often have the most to gain from breaking the embargo because they need to fight their corner for market share and exposure when competing against national daily newspapers with bigger circulation. For a local paper or trade magazine, to be seen to be breaking a big story can give them huge kudos, often way outside their circulation area. They can also get a lot of bylines, for example when I worked in property PR in London the trade magazine Property Week, which is published on a Friday, often breaks big property stories, which means they get can a mention in the Sunday papers. With a regional paper, a PR based in the capital city can often not be dealing with the titles on a daily basis so the newspaper has less to lose in terms of the relationship with the PR and their client, so they can often risk breaking the embargo. However, at the end of the day this is rare, journalists are professionals and most often will adhere to an embargo if the need for it is explained to them correctly and the benefits outlined.

Here’s a recent example of a project I was launching: I worked with a trade magazine on a very large launch last year and it worked quite well. The trade magazine publishes on the Friday and my launch was on the Thursday, but the deadline for when the trade magazine was ‘put to bed’ i.e. went to print, was Monday. I agreed with the editor of the magazine that they could have the details of the launch on Monday so that they could run with it in that week’s edition, but with the proviso that they didn’t print anything on their website or send out any news alerts before the launch. This was agreed and it worked well for both us.

Meanwhile, the weekend before, a Sunday paper carried an exclusive feature on the people behind the project, the first time they had been interviewed in Ireland, and outlined very general details on the launch. But, in order to secure this, the journalist was given a full off-the-record preview of the project with the proviso that the embargo was adhered too. We both benefited because by the time he would have printed his next issue, the Sunday after the launch, it would’ve been old news, which is a big problem for a Sunday newspapers. This way he got an exclusive on the people behind the project and was able to inform his readers of the upcoming launch. This is was great for my client because we were able to promote key individuals and give a teaser to people before the launch. Though it still made for restless night sleep the Saturday night before it appeared.

On the other side of coin a trade magazine once agreed to the embargo for that week’s print issue, but proceeded to publish day early, which was my day of the launch. This was a clever way to get around breaking the embargo by a few hours and simply blamed the publishers for getting the magazine out early. It was ‘squeaky bum time’ for me that morning because I feared the cat was out of the bag and attendance at the launch would be down. Thankfully it worked quite well in the end as it boosted exposure on the day of the event and made it a high profile launch that those in the sector couldn’t miss. I’m convinced this ‘convenient accident’ by the publishers to print a day early was planned, as it is something I would do myself if I thought I could get away with it.

My first ever boss in PR said that “in this game you need ‘peasant cunning’” and how right he was, although it is only in the last few years that I’ve come to appreciate what he meant. But this was the first time I’d experience this happening, so it is something to be checked when agreeing the embargo, to ensure that the journalist knows that you know all the tricks and state implicitly that this includes any ‘accidents’ such as early printing.

So, use embargoes sparingly and if you do use them, then do so selectively.  Where possible use them exclusively and selectively to contacts that you trust. If you are worried about being broken then never ever use them as you could be jeopardising the whole PR programme if it goes wrong and frankly you’ll look like a muppet. Always think worse case scenario – that way you can’t got wrong.

Ends