Guardian and Telegraph have an embargoed story - front page embargoed till 1.30 am. I wonder what it is?

[cakeorwine]

Will it be a Royal story? Harry at the Coronation?

Or something about Zahawi and taxes

@Whitefly “The Cass Review”

What the heck was in the last initiative that it had to be stopped once the Cass Review came out?

There has to be something significant, this wasn't only a random tweet saying 'ooh there's a big story'. Both papers held the front page, and even on the 1st April they wouldn't do that for shits and giggles. The most important thing for any news outlet is to be seen as trustworthy.

Something happened to stop them publishing. When it got to the time where they had to go to print to have the paper copies with newsagents in time in the morning they had to run with something else. (The IMF story would have been embargoed when it was first released, but the embargo was long past.) They are probably not very happy about it, a) because they've been denied their scoop and b) because they know it makes them look weak.

So…what was/is it? 🤷🏻‍♀️

twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1620160944616906752?cxt=HHwWgIDR7fHy-_ssAAAA

Harry, William and Kate were all once entangled. Harry was on board with Mermaids and Kate was talking about "pregnant people" for a significant period of time, she has since changed back to "pregnant women".

Twitter just seems to be full of the usual people banging on about how beautiful Kate is, this time because she's wearing a red suit.

She does look fab-u-lous

But it reminds me of the scene in Madam Secretary when the Secretary of State goes out in a red suit to distract reporters from the real story

😂

It is a nice suit! 😂

She does look fab in it tbf

Looks like it was the 'British economy is well and truly screwed due to Brexit' article on the front page (aka IMF says Britain will soon be a basket case).

That seems a bit boring to have been it. Not much of an exclusive and definitely not "worth staying up for".

Looks like it was the 'British economy is well and truly screwed due to Brexit' article on the front page (aka IMF says Britain will soon be a basket case).

Now now @MsFogi Project Fear. Project Fear

It was not the IMF report, that was already out.

This. They were talking about it on the 6 o'clock news so it wasn't really that.

Your comment amused me more than it should have. In what world is being an academic something to brag about? I don't care about grammar at all on MN. Amusingly, reading back, I had to agree with you that the repetitive use of academic sounded weird. I must remember never to read my old tweets too.

Embargos are usually used when there's going to be an announcement later in the day, but the press are given copies of what it is, so they can digest the information and have reporting (and background) ready.

Big recent example was London Bridge info was coming out to those who needed to know, including the press, from about 12:30, but embargo in place until official announcement (just a holding line about 'under medical supervision' until then)

One expiring at 01:30 doesn't make sense in UK terms. So my guess is that the story originates somewhere about 8 hours behind GMT (making it an 'end of the working day' deadline, or 8 hours the other way (a 'first thing in the morning' one). And for some reason the embargo has been extended and the press are respecting that extension.

California?

The places 8-hours ahead of GMT are slightly more interesting, from a news POV:

Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Perth, Singapore, Taipei, Urumqi.

Agree those places are more interesting - but our press is traditionally disturbingly uninterested in them.

Is it possible that 1.30 was due to a judge hearing a case still, like for a super injunction? I can imagine if proceedings were going on, someone powerful enough could stretch the traditional midnight deadline. Or a company powerful enough.

Presumably this is a UK-interest only news story? Or was the embargo in place in other countries?

I used to be sent embargoed stuff as I had to read it and do background before it hit the press. If I'd broken an embargo I'd never get the stuff ahead and again and so wouldn't have been able to do my job.
That's not the same as a paper embargoing their own front page. That's more likely something that has been worked up into a story but is still going through background checks or legal. Obviously it didn't quite pass the bar for publishing today.

I guess yes, but only those two have the story.

"UK economy to suffer more than sanctions-hit Russia in 2023, warns IMF"

Tell us something we don't already know.

A kerfuffle about nothing.

So is it the tax??

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/31/infosys-uk-tax-dispute?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other