TechCrunch apparently started an avalanche that was poised to run downhill last year when they announced that they weren't going to honor embargoes unless they involved an exclusive - it looks like that was the snowball that was needed to end the practice:

Earlier this year the Wall Street Journal also implemented a no embargo policy unless they get an exclusive, mirroring our position. People freaked out. In June a Microsoft embargo for Microsoft Hohm broke early (that was VentureBeat, a wonderfully repeat offender - last year they once broke every embargo for a week and then claimed it was a daylight saving issue or something).

The practice made some sense with the long lead times of the print world, but now? Not so much

Technorati Tags: marketing