A piece of jargon from the communications world: under embargo. An embargo is an agreement between journalists and the PR agency about when certain information may be published.
Embargoed or not?
Under embargo and exclusivity: when do you share a press release under embargo and when not? The main reason not to share a message under embargo is when your 'news' contains sensitive information that should absolutely not be leaked. To share such a press release under embargo, your relationship of trust with the journalist must be very good. Another reason not to share a press release under embargo is when you can be sure that it will be picked up. This mainly depends on the news value and reputation of the organization.
It is nice for your client to have some insight into the results you will achieve with a press release at the earliest possible stage. Offering exclusivity can be a good way to convince journalists. Play this game neatly: offering exclusivity to competing media is not done and will work against you in the long term. You can play with different media forms and, for example, offer something to a newspaper, a television channel and a radio station at the same time. Please take careful account of the coordination of publication or publication times.
As soon as you know with some certainty that the message will be picked up and your client expects high media value, exclusivity can also work against you. After all: if medium X has already reported about it, medium Y may not want to anymore. So see exclusivity primarily as a way to maintain control over your news and who publishes it.
A good way to maintain control and to ensure broad media attention is to exclusively offer a press release under embargo to ANP. If ANP publishes a message, preferably before the first news cycle of the day starts, you are almost assured of good results.
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