How to Pitch Big News: Embargo vs Exclusive

Remember the news hooks we discussed in How to Get Your Startup Featured in the News? To be successful in media relations and get your startup mentioned, you need to be extremely thoughtful about both what you are pitching, and how you are pitching it. Big news can easily land some great coverage in top tier media, but also could be totally wasted if pitched wrong.

One of the most common mistakes founders and PR newbies do—they pitch in a “spray and pray” way. Not only to several journalists from the same media, but also sharing the news “under embargo” or as an “exclusive” then neither of it is really fits the case.

Note — it’s the “news” that matter here. If you want journalists to run your story, you need to give them something truly newsworthy. Not just some app features or your company’s teambuilding pictures. Product launches, great new hires, and compelling not-obvious-at-all survey or research results—those are all worthy topics to pitch.

So before you send your pitch or press release, let’s go through the terminology.

Under Embargo

You need embargo if you want multiple pieces of coverage the minute your news goes live.

In the world of media and public relations, an embargo means sharing a story teaser without major details in advance of its “full-disclosure” date with a provision that keeps reporters from covering the news until a specific date and time.

So, the reporters you pitch must give written consent to an embargo before you send the full information. Once you have it, only then share the story in full.

Embargo pitching makes a lot of sense—it gives journalists some time to draft a story in advance. Embargo helps you obtain coverage in quantity and quality, making sure there’ll be a buzz on announcement day.

Note: News under embargo can be pitched to countless reporters who then accept or pass on the story. But - the more journalists you contact, the higher the risk of someone breaking the embargo. Ensure you don’t share too much in your first email. If you break the news in different countries, the embargo timing must be the same across markets—consider time zones and find a fit for everyone if you work internationally. Put their local time in the press release and indicate the time zone name to avoid confusion.

You may think that pitching under embargo is far more fruitful and makes the story as broadly available as possible. However, a story pitched as an exclusive can get you in-depth coverage or even an interview in a top tier media and thus more attention from your target audience.

Exclusive (or Scoop)

An exclusive, also known as scoop, is an item of news reported by one journalist before others, and of exceptional originality, importance, or secrecy. Choose an exclusive if you have your eyes on one perfect media to break the story, and others to repost.

As mentioned above, pitching an exclusive means you limit your story to share with just one journalist—and, you promise this specific reporter that they alone will break your news at an agreed date and time or (what is more likely with startups) when the publication is able to run the news.

Note: for tech companies landing an exclusive with WSJ or Bloomberg involves pitching some really important or breaking news. It can be a groundbreaking product, or a huge round of investment, or an M&A deal. Sometimes, pitching news as an exclusive could be a better PR strategy for a startup than embargo. Sharing some not really big news of a small business, such as below $10M investments, or a new product release, or entering a new market have a chance to get featured if only pitched as an exclusive - think Techcrunch or Tech.eu.

Be ready to share and disclose as much as possible. To speed up communications with the journalist, a Q&A list might come in handy.

Final thought: never try to trick anybody. Sharing news with one outlet as an exclusive doesn’t mean you can share the same story with others under embargo. Your “exclusive” can be running late and your “under embargo” stories break the exclusive, ruining both your top tier announcement and your relationship with the reporter.

It goes without saying, whatever strategy you pick, contact a reporter via email. Twitter DMs could be easily missed, phone calls might be be annoying while mentioning a story in person might be forgotten.

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