It’s Time to Lay the Embargoed Press Release to Rest
Mask chains. Face shields. Turtlenecks with built-in face coverings. There are a lot of things none of us probably ever thought about before the pandemic, but 2020 has changed things. To my list, I’m also adding the concept of embargoed press releases. I’d received a handful of them in the past, sure — but the volume has increased exponentially over the past few months, and now I’m officially declaring that this approach is not effective when it comes to pitching freelance writers.
Embargoed pitches have come up several times on Office Hours sessions lately. Ramsey Qubein, a travel writer for Forbes and NerdWallet, included them on his list of turn-offs in pitches. So did Jonah Flicker, a travel and spirits writer for Robb Report and Departures, putting embargoes in the same category as pitches around made-up holidays (national banana cream pie day, anyone?).
“I understand, but I don’t understand,” Flicker said of embargoes. And I think the main problem with embargoes is this: The press releases publicists are sending as embargoed news are just not that exciting. For example, this week I received a pitch under embargo for a bird feeder. OK, so it was a cool bird feeder, if you’re into that (it’s “smart,” capturing photos and videos of birds who flock to it, and it recognizes more than 1,000 species with AI technology), but why not just announce the news to the appropriate journalists who cover this type of product, rather than send out a mass embargoed press release?
A big problem with embargoed pitches is that most of them end with something to the effect of, “If you agree to the embargo, I’ll send you more details.” This requires an extra step on behalf of the journalist, which to be frank, most of them simply aren’t going to take. When I posted a Tweet about this yesterday, editor Samantha Leal of Well + Good chimed in: “If I have to reply with ‘agree’ I’m just… probably not going to.” Given the volume of emails many journalists receive, asking for a response before actually sharing the information isn’t going to be effective. (My monthly report from EmailMeter had my count at 6,761 for October — so you can see why it’s hard to stand out.)
On the same Twitter thread, publicist Shara Seigel added that PR teams might be thinking that by giving writers a heads up about news before a big announcement and sending under embargo, they increase the likelihood of coverage on the day of the announcement. That makes sense, and in researching this further in the PR realm, that seems to be the general goal of the embargo tactic. But, Seigel added, “if it’s news, people will find a way to cover, and it’s not just about announcement day.”
Perhaps that was the thinking behind pitches like these, all embargoed, that landed in my inbox recently:
A holiday ornament from a toilet paper company
A home audio console
A contest to win a life-size paper cutout of yourself from a tequila company
A new plant-based dry shampoo
A limited-edition box of crackers
I can’t make these things up. Lots of clients aren’t glitzy or sexy, and that’s OK.
I’m not calling these out to embarrass or make those who sent them feel bad, because I understand they’re simply trying to do their job. From a freelance writer perspective, though, I believe the general consensus is that the embargo tactic is dead. Unless you’re doing PR for a major company or CEO and have explosive news to share in confidence ahead of time, the embargo tactic has lost any allure it once had by being employed way too frequently.
So, lay it on me: Do you disagree? If you’re in PR, are you using embargoes frequently? Have they been successful? Freelance writers, how do you feel about embargoes? Are they ever worth it?