TechCrunch “Kills” Embargoes
There’s quite a discussion going on at blogs across cyberspace about news embargoes after an announcement yesterday at TechCrunch. It’s fairly common practice (particularly among makers of electronics, one of the main topics at TechCrunch) for PR people to give the information about a story to the media, but tell them to hold it until a certain date or time. Yesterday, TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington yesterday posted a rant that said his site will no longer honor these embargoes, and that if a PR person gives them information it may be posted immediately, regardless of any stated embargo. Here’s an excerpt:
Some firms will stop talking to us (yeah! less email), but we’ll find other ways to get the news. Others, who haven’t read this post because they don’t read TechCrunch, will be unpleasantly surprised. Maybe if we cause enough pain then PR firms will start to take action against those publications who break the rules.
There will be exceptions. 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). But for the vast majority of news we get in our inboxes, we’re just going to fire it off to our readers ad hoc whenever we please.
Many have suggested that Arrington is ticked off because his site, one of the most popular tech blogs in the blogosphere, isn’t the only big dog in his space anymore and that he’s just looking for ways to trump the competition. I think it’s just part of a blogger backlash I’ve noticed recently against PR people. The problem I see is that PR people don’t know how to pitch bloggers.
Fact is that PR people should follow many of the same rules about pitching blogs as they SHOULD be following when they pitch traditional media. First, read the publication and read articles by the person you’re pitching. Second, don’t pitch anything irrelevant. Third, personalize your pitches for the publication and person you’re pitching. That seems simple, but what’s happening more and more (particularly since companies like Cision have included bloggers in their media directories) is that PR people are just blasting releases blindly to bloggers like they’ve been doing with the media for years. It’s called the shotgun approach and it’s a very poor PR habit.
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Great post Steve. My name is Jay Krall and I’m the manager of Internet media research at Cision. I just wanted to reiterate your point about the importance of taking the time to learn bloggers’ interests and preferences. We include detailed profiles for thousands of bloggers in our research database, and in addition to reading those, it’s always a good idea to read the blog you plan to pitch before reaching out. Thanks for discussing this important topic.
Many blogs thrive by choosing a niche and staying focused in that narrow scope. For example TechCrunch and CrunchGear are different even though they are tech blogs. One should understand the subtle difference to gain the blogger confidence and be in their good book. Otherwise all your mails will end up in their trash or spam filter.
Every blogger wants to be the first to break the news. Competition is a nightmare even for established blogger because of low entry barrier. Many blogs are one or two man show. So it is dangerous to trust bloggers with embargoes. Use some email scheduling software to send out press releases at a particular date and time. Embargoed press release is an age old concept started when technology is in its infancy, when press releases are transmitted through wires.
Good advice about the scheduled email, and if more blogs start blatantly breaking embargoes that may be the way it has to be. However, an embargo is actually a professional courtesy to the journalist (be it a traditional one or a blogger) to allow them time to do interviews and prepare a full story that is ready to go on the day the embargo ends. It helps the PR effort and it helps the journalist. If the system works, everyone wins.
I understand TechCrunch’s frustration at bad PR practices, however I do disagree with the way they’re protesting. Fact is, if other organizations don’t follow suit, TechCrunch will hurt their ability to break news, regardless of what the editor says in his rant.