New PR Jargon Alert

A new piece of PR jargon has emerged and I don’t think hacks are understanding it the way flaks mean it (at least, I wasn’t),

I’ve written here before about my dislike of embargoes, since they tend to be for midnight, which means they are targeting the morning papers and giving a clear, if unintentional, V-sign to evening papers such as The Standard.

For us, a midday embargo works. A midnight embargo says “we couldn’t care less about you”, which is particularly odd on stories with a clear London angle.

Anyway here’s the new-ish trick, which I first noticed on press releases about six months ago.

It reads: Under embargo subject to a national exclusive.

Which could mean, we’ve given this somewhere else, and you can have it once they have finished with it.

Thanks a lot.

I asked a flak this time, who explained: “It means that the information contained within the release is under a press embargo until a national publication, such as The Standard, decides to publish the contents as an exclusive piece.”

So in some ways, this is just the flak trade trying to be honest. We have sent this everywhere, but if you bite first, it is saying, it’s all yours.

What happens if it’s a really good property, a good yarn, and both The Times and The Telegraph says “yes” at roughly the same time?

Then you’re back to playing favourites. In fact, you’ve got a problem on your hands.

I think it’s a device that means well, but is easily misunderstood. Certainly, I was, and remain, rather suspicious of it.