Old Dogs, New Tricks
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 10:00AM 
The words “For Immediate Release” have appeared at the tops of press releases for years. The reason for this is...
Before the advent of the internet, press releases were transmitted to the media by either mail or fax. The sender had very little control over when the media actually received their news. Because of this, the authors of press releases included the phrase “For Immediate Release” at the top of each news story. This phrase notified the media that they could go “live” with the story immediately.
However, if the author wanted the story to be held until a specific date and time, they would replace the phrase “For Immediate Release” with an embargo. The embargo would request that the media refrain from publishing the story until a specific date and time. This gave the media time to develop a detailed and accurate news story and allowed the press release’s author to coordinate a media campaign.
In today’s world of PR, it’s no longer necessary to include the words “For Immediate Release” at the top of every standard press release. The phrase has become less common over time because online news revolves around a sense of urgency. Press release writers now aim to control the timing of news to the media instead of relying on embargoed releases.
If you do have a need to send an embargoed press release to the media, include something like this in your sub-headline: Embargo: For Use After TIME on DATE.
Reader Comments (2)
Perhaps the most infuriating thing was when you would hold on to an "embargoed" press release and every other media agency ignored the embargo. How would one strive to maintain a strict leash on news in this rapid web-driven, blog-oriented, attention-deprived media market?
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the feedback. I'm not a fan of embargoed press releases myself, and here's why:
As you mentioned, an embargo is a request and not an order. There is very little you can do to ensure that a media outlet doesn't break your story ahead of time. Sadly, one of the only things you can do if a news site doesn't honor an embargo is refuse to send them FUTURE press releases, but who does that really hurt?
Honestly, my suggestion is to avoid sending embargoed press releases whenever possible. Nowadays, it's easy to control the exact time the media receives your releases, so send them ONLY when you're ready. This will help control when your news goes live, but it won't affect the amount of time a reporter or editor spends on your story.
To help a reporter or editor develop a news story from your press release, you should first insert links into your release guiding them to important related information. Then reach out to the journalist personally. One goal of every media relations professional should be to build long-standing relationships with reporters and editors in their. Make it easy for them to refer back to you with questions.
If I had to send an embargoed press release, I would first reach out to a select group of journalists with whom I have a good working relationship and offer to send them the information in advance. Then, on the date and time we discussed initially, I would distribute my release to all media in my field. This does two things: It decreases the chances of your embargo being broken, and it lets the journalist know that you respect their work and value your relationship with them. Blasting out an embargoed press release to media everywhere is an unnecessary risk.
In the online news world, embargoes are especially dangerous because there's more incentive than ever before to be the first site to publish a story. Here's a TechCrunch article that talks about how they've changed their editorial policy regarding embargoes http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/death-to-the-embargo/