There’s a concept in the journalism world called an “embargo,” and it usually means agreeing to get some piece of guarded information ahead of other people, with the understanding that you won’t reprint that information until a specified later date. The reasons behind these embargoes range from the sensible to the spurious, and the outcomes are often hurt feelings.
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So now the morning dumps are behind a paywall?
Really?
This isn’t a morning dump. It’s a story about a morning dump gone wrong.
My bad for looking at the photo, which ironically says, The Morning Dump…
Maybe the key is to ignore the photo?
Maybe the missing For Members Only banner would have been appropriate?
Yeah, I get the confusion, it got me at first also. Ironically, the story involves being confused as well, but being confused about the difference between Tuesday and Thursday.
The “Exhaust Leak” articles are for members. But the logo is not always immediately noticeable on the banner photo.
Are embargoes themselves embargoed? What I mean is, can it be public information for us to know when an embargo ends?
I would love to know exactly when I can expect reviews for a new vehicle. They always pop up as a surprise in a deluge of content. If I’m interested in the car, I’d love to know in advance when the content will drop.
Depends. Some will say it’s ok to mention when the embargo lifts, while others will want it to be completely hush-hush.
I think it varies. I’ve quizzed Jeff Glucker about when he can share info before, and he usually gives me a day or at least a timeframe like “in about a week”.
Not as far as I know? I’ve seen folks say things like, “You’ll have to come back Thursday [NOT TUESDAY, MATT] to see my full impressions of the 2028 Volkswagen New New Beetle!”
I first learned about embargos several years ago (2016 or 2017). I was done at Utah Motorsports Park doing Ford’s ST Octane Academy on the same weekend they were doing the press launch of the new GT. We were all taking pics and videos of the press running laps around one of the tracks (man, the GT sounded sweet!), and some of our instructors were bummed they weren’t chosen to help out.
About a week later all the pics and videos hit online at the same time, and I got to brag to my friends how I was there (but had to admit it was on the other track running Focus & Fiesta STs, which was still a great time!)
Here’s a link to the video: https://youtu.be/LIf8yGteQlQ
I feel for you about the Tuesday/Thursday confusion. I have the same problem. I chalk it up to a light touch of some form of undiagnosed dyslexia. Sometimes, I know exactly which day of the week I’m thinking about but the other word comes out of my mouth, and similarly I’ll read the day but the other one sticks in my mind. I confuse the heck out of people sometimes.
I’d blame it on early onset dementia but it’s been a problem since childhood. In fact I had/have a similar problem with the words right and left. I know exactly what I mean to say, but the wrong word somehow escapes.
Fortunately I was able to come up with coping mechanisms for that one (which thumb and index finger form the L?) at a young age. And I later solved port and starboard by literally visualizing a boat next to the shore with the “steer board” needing to be away from the shore in the deeper water. (Fortunately I don’t do much in the nautical realm.)
I’m a bit jealous of all you normies out there that don’t have these problems.
My challenge relates to switching complementary colors. I sometimes say “blue” when I mean “orange”, and “red” when I mean “green”. I only realize my error because I hear the wrong word when I verbalize it. I don’t know if there’s a psychological term for this, but it’s a small deficit so I correct myself and move on.
A smart friend with a great memory says that he was 60 before he realized he has dyscalculia, “difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic”. His struggles in school were real and diminished his advancement in our society. He lives modestly as he never learned a good coping mechanism; he simply avoids certain areas of thought and focuses on what he can do. It’s hard to understand his predicament.
So where can I find Autoblognik? Seems like they get the scoops first and aren’t afraid to break the news! <g>
They have this crack publisher Hatt Mardigree who always gets the scoop!
I thought for a moment that Mack Hardigraw got into publishing, but then I checked your comment again and was calmed to realize it was just Hatt Mardigree, he really does seem to always get the best scoops!
Gosh, Autoblognik. They’ve been beefing with Motor Balls for years!
Honestly CR should be happy that they could even be mad at a human. At least it wasn’t AI generated in which case there would be no recourse, just a bunch of LLM’s in an echo chamber trying to compete for clicks.
As more outlets lean into video, have embargoes gotten longer? Just curious since I’ve only worked in video and have no idea what was ‘normal’ when print/web dominated stuff like reviews.
In pre-internet times they’d do a “long-lead” preview for the monthly car magazines who worked on a 3 month lead time and a “short lead” for the likes of AutoWeek and the daily newspapers’ auto editors.
There’s a similar concept in Bartertown, which may or may not be a coincidence.
We all sample the fine wine of Mea Culpa on occasion!
Now I’m looking at Rancheros…
Clicked the article thinking Matt used too much garlic or overcooked, then I realized the title said “Embargo” and not Escargot!
Nope, that’s still in Torch’s driveway.
Akio Toyoda is going to be holding Hardibro’s head on stage again!
Matt’s such a real one he gives us the inside dirt before everyone else, then gives the inside dirt on the inside dirt.
As a PR guy who often has to employ embargoes for stories, I can give the other side of the situation when it comes to embargoes.
In my industry, a lot of our news is transactional, and getting the right press for a transaction is a real dogfight. There are always two parties to a transaction, plus additional parties such as brokers, agents, etc. Sometimes all of us play together in the same sandbox and agree harmoniously on a media strategy. Sometimes people go rogue and break the story too soon.
Here’s what I’m always up against – Most everything I release has a legal restriction regarding when it can be made public. For a transactional story, breaking the news before closing could literally ruin the whole transaction and cause plenty of monetary losses and lawsuits. In all, I’ve had mostly positive experiences with journalists respecting embargoes. I rarely employ them, to be clear. I’m only going to ask for an embargo if there’s a specific publication I’d like to see get first crack at the story and I don’t want to risk waiting until the release goes wide only for them to decide it wasn’t newsworthy.
Basically, an embargo gives me the ability to share a piece of news and verify that it’s actually something the publication wants before I’m allowed to share it with the world. It helps everyone if we both know in advance that the publication actually wants the stories.
Thankfully, I’ve never had a reporter break an embargo and I’ve never (and will NEVER) disrespected an embargo that I asked for.
There’s also an understanding that if another party to the news story goes rogue and leaks the news, all bets are off. Anybody can run what they want, and it’s my job to chase the story around and make sure everyone has their facts straight in case whoever leaked it had wrong information.
I guess, in summary, if I can bring out some positives here, an embargo is a great way to get all your chips in order so that the publication in question gets the best possible story and I’m able to get the word out in the best way possible. It’s my job to respect everyone’s time and boundaries, and the embargo also allows me to work at pitching the story early enough to know if someone isn’t interested so I don’t waste their time and I can move on to a different publication.
And I can confirm the pressure-cooker that PR people go through around seeking news coverage. I’ve had situations where I let news fly too early due to honest mistakes, and believe me, it’s horrifying to all parties.
Matt – major respect to you for owning up and agreeing to pull the story. This is a relationship business on both sides of the equation and I have also been in your place, sending apologies and doing damage control.
Each time has been a great teachable moment for me and ultimately helps to forge tighter relationships when you’re this kind of transparent.
Ok… I’ll go back to being the funny guy in the comments now.
Something something BMW turn signals.
Philosophically I’m pro-embargo. Rather than having everybody racing to summarize and prognosticate on a press release, it makes more sense for them to have a few days to think on it, ask follow up questions, etc. Drastically reduces the amount of misinformation or just bad conclusions people may come to. Where I hate them is when they get weaponized such as NVidia has done for at least 5 years in every shady way possible including holding back the embargo until product launch if they know they have a bad product, or as Subaru seems to have done in heavily punishing outlets that don’t always speak positively of them by denying access.
I guess that fully explains the pithy TMD. And that I was correct about you not having a great day. Candidly, I’m glad it was something not too serious, relatively speaking.
So CR reads Autopian
Stef (former Jalop, friend of the Autopian) works at CR now. That may have something to do with it.
Oh, it’s not just me. Heck, Hardibird and some people even came and drove the test track back when we were all at Jalopnik. (I, a remote, was kinda jealous. No one’s let ME hoon the test track in the snow yet!)
yes
That’s OK, I’ve broken them many times, still have about a half a bottle of Havana Club left
I once showed up to an interview a day early. I was the interviewer and I felt really stupid. Stuff happens sometimes and in my experience people generally allow leeway for occasional oopses.
I once drove 2 hours, spend the the night in a hotel (to avoid rush hour Chicago) and showed up for a exam in the wrong MONTH because it was listed in the euro format for some dumb reason.
My undergraduate institution made a point of abbreviating Tuesday as U and Thursday as H. It took a bit to get used to this convention but it definitely helped in situations like this.
Yes mine was “R” for Thursday.
Luckily no weekend classes.
Mine was also R.
Mine was the Greek letter ‘theta.’ I think I stole this idea from my older brother. It confused people.
That’s a fun approach.
Same with my high school.
Rhursday.
and A for saturday, sunday gets to keep the S.
U and H used to be very common back with programmers back when Unix was more popular than Linux on servers, and in finance it’s still the standard convention if you can only use one letter per DOW.
Autoblognik, LOL
Everybody meet up at Matt’s for Taco Thursday!
Which is held on Fridays.
Just like Mercury Monday.
Huh. I thought it was Pthursday.
My 87 year-old mother-in-law calls every day “Blursday.” She also does the Sunday NYT crossword in ink.
Matt smuggled in Cuban cigars.
I was wondering why I felt like I read that Morning Dump twice.
Aha! I was also confused. Thanks for clarifying. I really appreciate how much you reveal behind the curtain. Goes a long way toward keeping fans (and friends). Viva Autopia!
I was so confused on Thursday because I remembered reading that bit, but when I went back through previous articles I couldn’t find it. I was fairly sure I read it here, but was having doubts that maybe I read this somewhere else, or it was a deja-vu from a dream or something.
I had a chat with the CR folks after I saw your story. We won’t break an embargo, but once it is broken, we’re off to the races — usually. I told ’em that you are a straight shooter and that if you said you didn’t intend to break the embargo, they could take you at your word. Turns out you fixed it fast and no harm was done.
Yup, just my luck that you were assigned the story. Total dipshittery on my part, as opposed to asshattery.
You rang? Oh, sorry.
AssMattery, MattHattery, it’s a matter of perspective, really.
Who among us has never effed up? No one. (sh)it happens.
It’s true. Like at least every other day I eff up and down hard. It’s hard to laugh at that frequency, but what else can you do?