Archive for February 2014
Quid pro quo: Earned media = priceless. For everything else, there’s MasterCard
Quid pro quo seemed to be alive and well at last night’s Brit Awards, featuring One Direction and Ellie Goulding — at least if the PR agency handling media for sponsor MasterCard had had their way.
PressGazette reports that a reporter asking for access to the event received this email: Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Valentine’s Day from Embargo Watch
Courtesy Ben Kling, via Demilked.com and Denise Graveline
Another embargo break for PNAS, for a climate change paper
PNAS has had a rash of embargo breaks recently.
The journal’s press office sent this email to its media list a few minutes before 11 a.m. Eastern yesterday, about four hours before the journal’s scheduled embargo time: Read the rest of this entry »
NIH angers reporters it held at the embargo gate after WSJ scored a scoop
Science biology deputy news editor John Travis was not happy Tuesday morning, February 4:
He wasn’t the only reporter angry at the NIH. Two Nature journalists retweeted him.
Here’s what happened: By February 3, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had a bead on a partnership between the NIH and a group of drug companies to further research, and was ready to publish a story about it. But at 9:54 p.m. on February 3, the NIH sent this email to its press list: Read the rest of this entry »
AP breaks abortion data embargo
Yesterday, following a break by the Associated Press (AP), the Guttmacher Institute press office lifted the embargo early on a study showing that abortion rates had fallen to 1970s levels.
From a message sent by the Guttmacher Institute at 4:40 p.m. Eastern, more than seven hours before the scheduled embargo lift at 12:01 a.m.: Read the rest of this entry »
US Chemical Safety Board drops flawed policy following criticism from Embargo Watch
On Thursday, I wrote about a troubling embargo policy at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) that forced reporters to agree not to seek outside comment on an investigation report before the embargo lifted, meaning only the CSB’s side of the story would make it into those first pieces.
To their credit the CSB heeded my criticisms, and they’ve decided to change their policy. Managing Director Daniel Horowitz responded Saturday with a comment: Read the rest of this entry »
Embargo Watch 