PaidContent.org reports that several sources say The Wall Street Journal has changed its policy on accepting embargoes. A Journal spokesperson denies there has been a change but PaidContent.org says that, according to its sources, “the WSJ will accept embargoes for exclusives but not when other media outlets are involved unless the story is considered big enough.”
Most of the coverage and speculation on the issue revolves around technology news, with some writers saying the WSJ is following in the footsteps of TechCrunch, but health journalists have to be wondering what this means for the paper’s coverage of health and medical news.
Nick Ragone, a public relations executive in New York City, writes on his blog that “My source tells me that they won’t take any embargoed information without prior approval of a deputy managing editor. Which, from what I gather, means they won’t be taking them ever.”
Kyle Austin of RaceTalkBlog says his sources at the WSJ tell him it’s not a big change “that they are only interested in embargoed data that other folks don’t have access to:
“We can still work on advanced stuff with a certain publication data[sic]* in mind, but we can’t accept an embargo that ties our hands to a particular time, particularly one that isn’t exclusive.”
*We’re assuming that “data” in the above quote should be “date.”
So, anyone at the Journal care to comment below and let us know how they will be handling medical coverage if this is true?
