Embargo the Embargo
Today I read a plaintive tweet from Martin Bryant, UK Editor at the popular tech blog The Next Web. I could almost hear the beseeching in his voice as he begged: "Seriously, can we just scrap news embargoes? I'm happy to honour them but it's clear they don't work when not everyone follows them."
That's the problem. It just takes one journalist to decide not to toe the line and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. As a PR, you instantly lose control of the flow of your message. As a journalist, you may win a very temporary feather in your cap for ‘breaking' the story, followed by heaps of opprobrium from more obedient rivals who suddenly find themselves scooped.
As one of those poachers-turned-gamekeepers, I meet hundreds of PR professionals in a consultative capacity every year, and the subject of embargoes invariably comes up. So here's my 10p's worth.
Don't use them.
There is a place for the embargo. But it's very specific. The most valid circumstance is when police impose a news blackout because of an active investigation. One of the most memorable examples of this was the notorious Stephanie Slater kidnap in February 1992; all media knew about it but adhered strictly to the blackout imposition because to have broken it would have seriously impeded the police work and could have had fatal consequences.
In the world of PR, the word ‘embargo' has been cheapened in much the same way as the word ‘exclusive' has in journalism. And when an account executive slaps an embargo across a press release about the launch of a new air freshener, he or she might as well be waving a red rag at a bull.
Mark Templeton, Assistant Editor of the South Wales Argus, agrees. "We get 10-15 embargoed press releases a week. The first reaction, as a news person, is to instinctively think ‘this may be good'. Then you read it and it's just nonsense.
"It's quite insulting a lot of the time because many releases are embargoed for 1pm in the afternoon, so they're clearly aiming it at the lunchtime news, without a thought for print media.
"But this is a 24-hour news environment now and like every other newspaper we have an online product.
"Embargoes make many press releases look more important than they are, and that's intensely annoying."
Martin Bryant's desperate tweet was prompted by another organisation breaking an embargo.
He sighs: "When someone else breaks an embargo, there's a panic. You have to rush to print with the article that you had been working on.
"I can understand why companies do it - to achieve a co-ordinated run of coverage - but the effect can be counter-productive, with people rushing to print rather than spending time producing a fuller piece.
"On the other hand, an embargo can be useful because it gives us time to get the story together properly. But if just one person breaks it, then it's panic stations."
Martin's point about a "co-ordinated run of coverage" is valid. But a tried and tested way of achieving the same thing without winding up legions of journalists (who may be less disposed to look kindly on your offering next time) is to release your material freely, to everyone, at the same time.
Distributing a piece to the regional and national print media, for instance, in the morning, does not mean other media will ignore it throughout the day - in fact quite the opposite. The days of media pooh-poohing a story because it has appeared elsewhere are long gone. Media owners know that the fragmentation of the market means people take their news in many different forms and may take a ‘repeat prescription' throughout the day, as conversation and opinion grows around a story.
Putting an embargo on a press release (if it's a good one) is like telling a journalist a really, really funny joke, watching them laugh, and then announcing: "Oh, by the way, you can't tell anyone else that joke until 1pm on Thursday March 4."
Annoying.
Written by Jay Williams
PR Emails - What the Papers Say
I've been following the recent PR spam debate and the "An Inconvenient PR Truth" campaign with some interest.
Although I feel a "Bill of Rights" is perhaps unnecessary, as I work in the national news industry I was interested in gauging the thoughts of editorial level newspaper staff regarding the issue of PR emails.
So today I posed the following question to senior staff on The Telegraph, Sun and Metro:
"As an editor on a national news publication, what are your thoughts on press release emails and what tips would you give to PRs looking to achieve national coverage?"
This was their response:
Chris Pharo. Head of news. The Sun:
‘'We are bombarded with badly written press release emails all day. It is about time PR people spent a bit longer reading the newspapers to try and get more of a grip on what sort of stories we run on a daily basis. We are often called just before conference, a time when myself and everyone else on the desk has much bigger fish to fry''
Jane Hamilton. Consumer Editor. The Sun:
DO:
• Sum up the story in the subject line.
• Send ideas early - not at gone 11am when it is too late for conference.
• Know the publication, which days it has certain sections etc.
• Enjoy the job, try hard and be more creative. Journalists love really good PRs as you help us come up with great stories - but there are not enough truly excellent PRs around.
DON'T:
• Send a completely irrelevant idea - think whether you can honestly see it in that publication first.
• Send huge attachments or press releases in a word document. We don't have time to open them up - just put the details in the email.
• Never ever send a press release as a PDF as we cannot cut and paste from it.
• Ring and ask if we got the press release. If it hasn't bounced back to you then we have. We will contact you if you like it. I have over 40 calls a day from PRs asking if I've received the release which can take up to an hour of my time.
• Do boring surveys and call them 'quirky'. We know supermarkets sell a lot of BBQs in the summer - that is not news.
• Just send statistics - think of the story behind it. Why have sales gone up, what does it mean, is it a new trend or celeb-led?
James Day. In Focus Editor. Metro:
"While I appreciate PRs have a very stressful job role and are expected to get results, trying to hoodwink journalists with lazy tactics such as entitling releases as 'breaking news' is neither original, inspired or in any way inventive.
"Honesty is always the best policy and if what you are trying to plug is strong enough or of interest we will take notice and give it the coverage it deserves.
"If we've not spoken before don't act like you're my best friend or make jokes about the weather. Keep things tight and professional and direct it personally. Do your research and make sure what you're sending is relevant to the publication and warrants coverage in a particular section.
"Finally, calling my landline, mobile, landline, mobile then landline again in quick succession won't make me want to pick up the phone any quicker. I'm probably busy, so please leave me a message or send me an email. We do pick them up and more regularly than you would imagine."
Andy Bloxham. Daily Telegraph newsdesk:
‘'I would advise PR people to call first and say something like ‘I am calling with a story for tomorrow's paper' - not "Hello, My name is Shanice from TinPot PR" or whatever.
‘'Please get to the point. Also it's better if you don't try and explain to me what your client wants the story to say as I'm not interested in that.
‘'Give me a good intro or a nice fact which will make a headline. You have to remember I am not interested in products, I am interested in stories.''
Written by Harriet Crosse
72Point Blog
72 Point are national news PR & survey specialists. Achieving daily print & online news exposure for the UK’s largest brands and PR agencies.
