Death to the Embargo
December 17, 2008 by Heather
TechCrunch today put journalists and other news organizations on notice with Death to the Embargo.
We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch. Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We’ll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we’ll just do whatever we feel like right after that. We may break an embargo by one minute or three days. We’ll choose at random.
How did we get to this point? TechCrunch deals with PR people who “email a story to us as many as 20 times, and call every TechCrunch writer on their cell phones repeatedly. If we say we won’t write a story (which is most of the time), things often turn nasty.”
Sounds to me like we have a communication problem. According to TechCrunch, some PR people have “morphed into vultures” who will do and say anything to get a story published. Meanwhile, journalists are caught in a “race to the bottom” – pressured by a “competitive marketplace and decreasing advertising sales.”
Yes, there are some bad PR people out there. (Journalists, you have to admit that you’re not all perfect either.) But, just like there are excellent journalists who take the time to research stories and investigate real news, there are also good PR practitioners who simply want to help their clients communicate better.
Journalists: Continue to work with the good PR people. The ones who respect your time, deadlines and limited resources. PR pros: Be considerate of journalists. Understand that they are being forced to do more with less.
Also, keep in mind, there are two sides to every story. Just check out #journchat – a weekly discussion between PR pros, bloggers and journalists. Every Monday, these very people – who TechCrunch would lead you to believe are totally at odds with each other – engage in a fast-paced dialogue about important communication issues. This Monday they covered pitching tips, advice about navigating new media and general commentary about journalism.
#Journchat is real communication designed to break barriers and eliminate frustrations. As we all face mounting pressure from clients, readers and advertisers, maybe the goal should be to figure out how to work together instead of just ignoring professional standards and common sense rules.
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