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

@vera99 wake up! @vera99 Wake up!! Wake up @vera99!!! You've been talking in your sleep again.

But someone upthread said that the IMF story was on an earlier news bulletin yesterday - six o'clock I think? If that's right then it can't be the IMF story (as depressing as it is that no-one believes it is anyway, because we've already accepted that we live in a corrupt and failing economy)

Just woken up from my all-night newsdesk shift and seen all the speculation and anticipation on MN about the Guardian and Telegraph's 1.30am embargoed story. Sorry to disappoint, but the story was the forecast from the International Monetary Fund saying that the UK is the only G7 country in recession. Which is indeed on the front pages today. And which is why those BBC journos who tweeted the warning of an impending big story last night were so gleeful about it - as they are with any story that shows the economy (and therefore the government) in a bad light.
These days embargoes are largely ignored, so the only way of controlling the release of an announcement is to release it to all media simultaneously for immediate publication. The IMF report was released in advance to allow time for its main points to be digested. It was due to be released in Washington at 8.30PM last night, which is 1.30am UK time.

The IMF report was on the BBC news earlier. The BBC do not ignore big press embargoes.

This is correct. Family who works for one of these papers confirmed it was IMF story. The Times published too.

Stop trying to throw us off the scent 😂

😂 I was disappointed too! But why are people still speculating as it’s gone 1.30am?

William and Kate are announcing their separation and wish to be afforded some privacy at this difficult time and want to focus on the Coronation of His Majesty. (I'm still asleep btw.....!)

Not worse than Shri Lanka.

The Spanish Government have asked the French for ‘assurances’ on the safety of their citizens and transport when travelling through France, as the civil unrest is threatening their property and business.

The Swedish Prime Minister has said that the gang violence which has now spread to Stockholm ( including frequent grenade attacks) is ‘ akin to terrorism’.

Its not all roses elsewhere.

FFS, it's not even news. It's a forecast...

Why on earth would the IMF forecast be embargoed? I'm really struggling to understand

Bows

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen
I agree it’s not all roses elsewhere. I don’t think anybody thinks it is.

You can’t argue with the facts though. The U.K.was the only country to see a marked downgrade to growth forecasts since the autumn and the only major G7 country forecast to contract this year. Indeed it was the only country in all the new set of 15 forecasts not showing growth over 2023 including sanctions hit Russia.

This is the BBC reporting on IMF findings. So it’s facts. About our country.

But perhaps you would like to tell me about how bad things are in the Ukrainian economy or some other piece of information that avoids reacting to what is happening here right now?

The Swedish Prime Minister has said that the gang violence which has now spread to Stockholm ( including frequent grenade attacks) is ‘ akin to terrorism’.

However we can still get GP appointments whenever needed, ambulances arrive in a timely manner, schools aren't closing, nobody is on strike, hospital treatment/appointments are guaranteed within 3 months, and you'd be hard pushed to find someone who knows what a food bank is.

It wasn't. There's a different story which didn't get released so thy ran with the IMF story instead.

I hope there's something else because putting an embargo on that would be ridiculous

The IMF publish the report on their own website.

Excellent post, brilliantly put.

Sadly, as disturbing as the IMF forecast is for anyone in the UK without dual citizenship of Denial, it was not the subject of the embargo.

I mean why do they print them late?

Because that's how press releases work. Organisations release announcements to media (general or selected) in advance so they can work out how they will run the story, but the release states an embargoed-to date, before which they can't publish the story. If a newspaper broke the terms of an embargo they would be excluded from further releases from the organisation.

So, if, for example, Buckingham Palace released an announcement, it would state "embargoed until 01:30 01 Feb 2023". If a newspaper ran the story earlier than that, they would not be given advance notification of any future announcements from Buckingham Palace, so they would be way behind their rivals for all future royal stories.

I can't help my mind working overtime. What if it is a signal regarding the Wales' marriage? Just thinking of Kate's bravura solo appearance in her "fabulous green coat in Leeds. Reminds me of Diana and the black dress.

OK, back to making the grub and real life.

I hope you are being intentionally obtuse?

www.imf.org/
We will release the latest World Economic Outlook Update on Jan 30 at 8:30pm ET / Jan 31 at 9:30am SGT.

Which is Jan 31 at 1:30am GMT (London).

It's just that the IMF report was clearly on the front of the Daily Mail at 1130pm last night when they showed today's papers.

I think you're not familiar with how a story embargo works.

I realise I am getting old in media terms so I apologise if I am missing something here. But quite a few posters hadn't heard the term before and I wonder if you are misunderstanding something. If I am being obtuse, it's not deliberate.

So @JocelynBurnell you're saying the IMF story was embargoed for some papers but not others?!

Did you see her yesterday in her fabulous red trouser suit accompanied by her clearly very proud husband and looking happy and relaxed?