Should the embargo go?

Four top tech journalists participated in a webinar hosted by InkHouse PR yesterday to discuss whether embargoes are still a useful tool for both journalists and public relations professionals. With increasing frequency, embargoes — a standard PR tool used to provide reporters ample time to cover a news story — are broken, calling the practice into question.
Scott Kirsner, columnist and blogger for The Boston Globe, believes there is too much opportunity to make a mistake with embargoes, and that reporters are too busy to manage them. Unless the news is earth-shattering, just don’t bother. Wade Roush, chief correspondent of Xconomy, agreed, “It’s not worth my time to hassle with embargoes.” Jon Swartz, a tech reporter for USA Today, had a different take on embargoes. According to Swartz, embargoes smack of “marking manipulation to me.”
When asked about the increased use of “exclusives” vs. embargoes, all the reporters agreed they were pretty much one in the same. They both require too much time and effort for journalists to manage unless the information is truly important and worthy of an exclusive.