The word embargo came into the language in the late 16th century. It meant a ban on foreign ships coming into port or a ban on English ships going to the ports of certain foreign countries. Usually embargoes were imposed just before wars. There was an embargo on Spanish ships for some time after the war with Spain.
Nowadays the word applies to prohibitions of virtually any sort, but it has a special meaning for newspapers. Newspapers get material under embargo all the time.
The embargo is a co-operative arrangement between the supplier of the information and the newspaper. It enables the newspaper to get the material early to prepare it for publication so it can be published at the same time as the official announcement, but to the broad public.
A good example, is the publication this Monday of the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. The list is provided to newspapers several days in advance. That gives us time to prepare the list.
The honours embargo comes under the condition that we do not communicate knowledge of the honour to anyone by the recipient. So we are allowed to get an early interview with the recipient. (“”This award is not for me personally but an award that recognised the whole work of the XYZ organisation etc etc”)
Embargoes were crucial for things like the honours list or university exam results in the days of hot metal. The lists would have to be rekeyed on linotype machines. Keying errors were inevitable and so were machine errors (press “”A” and the brass “”B” drops down the chute, or lines get reversed). It took a long time to turn them around. If we got the list at the same time Government House put them in the Gazette or the university posted the results on the library board, we would not be able to publish till a couple of days later. Given Government House and the university want simultaneous publication, it suits us both to get early copy.
These days, computer-readable copy on disk and simultaneous internet publication make embargoes less important for the big list. But they remain important for other things.
Journalists are jacks of all trades (and masters of very few). Often organisations want to get very complex messages across to the public. The often organise public launches of research projects, reports on economic, social or scientific affairs and so on. So they will give journalists the huge report a day or two in advance, so that the journalist is in a better position to publish a more informed report immediately after the public launch. There is a symbiosis here. We scratch each other’s back. And the readers are better off, too.
Newspapers will frequently get advance copies of material to prepare graphics or to prepare pages in advance, particularly if the public event is in the evening and the organisers would like to see it reported in the next day’s paper.
We had an interesting one last week. It posed a mild conflict of interest for me, which my colleagues helped me get out of.
Every year The Canberra Times usually runs an article on the ACT Institute of Architects’ Awards with pictures of the winners and a bit of a write up. Usually the institute gives us the winners and the jurors a week before the announcement.
The awards usually attract a fair amount of interest. The construction of some of the larger entries has been watched. The results have been viewed and even worked in by many. Some of smaller entries attract interest because they are dwellings or extensions that give people ideas.
This year, however, the extensions to my own house were entered for an award. Would I peep and break the embargo? What of my duty as acting editor? Surely, I must see the material that goes into the paper if I am to be responsible for it?
(Incidentally, Arthur Sulzberger the publisher of The York Times replies to the question “”Do you read everything before it is published?” “”Whatdya think? I’m crazy.”)
Anyway, why spoil the fun at Friday night’s dinner. My colleagues took the pages in hand and were warned to stay quiet.
As it happened, the awards were printed in Panorama which is printed at 5pm on Friday and inserted in the edition as it is printed later, so I could take a few copies to the dinner. Without looking.
The awards were reported last week. It was worth waiting. Even against the Russell Offices, the Capital Jet Facility at the airport, the revamp of the Department of Finance and Administration and other multi-million dollar constructions, my little ex-guvvie revamp done by Strine Design got an award for design innovation.
More seriously, some organisations tweak the embargo system to get better coverage. They do silly things like issue material on Thursday or Friday embargoed until 1am Monday morning. The sole purpose is that they think Sunday is a slow news day, so their material will get a better run. Trouble is, everyone is alert to the slow Sunday and it is no longer a slow day.
Breaking an embargo, however, is a serious journalistic offence. The industry knows that it will result in erosion of trust, and God alone knows there is little enough of that around the media these days. If trust is eroded, then organisations will not give us early embargoed material and we and our readers will be the poorer for it.