Embargo What...?

[nsap]

Originally Posted by jokuvaan

Well if GMI has no embargo contract anymore with GM then GMI can publish whatever leaks into net, whenever it happens. All positive for site user.

You're right. Websites like us have ZERO incentive to not post ever bit of inside or leaked information we get.

Originally Posted by realist

I had hoped GM would learn from it's past mistakes and not constantly mess up reveals like this.

DCX and Ford have had similar problems. DCX in particular has had nearly all of their NAIAS stuff relased early.

[TaHoE]

Originally Posted by Mags

Ok, I'll bite. What happened 2 years ago, and was GMI implicated in any way?

edit- nevermind.

MF

Well in the article in mentions a little snafu, but nothing that should be considered "GMI's Fault" in any way. It's just that GMI doesn't like forums, at all really.

[uboys]

Originally Posted by Mags

But in the past you've pulled things for that very reason. Recent past I mean.

MF

Well I guess you can't burn all your bridges. GM at least still knows GMI exists.

[usa1]

It's time for the automakers to enter the 21st century. Embargo dates are for old school media like magazines. Every car magazine how has a web site. GM should just release the information at one time and let the fastest media outlet win. Pandering to archiac magazine media makes sense for no one except the magazines.

If the magazines complain about it, tell them the world has changed and they need to evolve. How many times have they thrown that same line at GM and other automakers?

Mark

[mike's 01ws6]

Originally Posted by asim

Nsap, you are very right. GM (or the other companies) can't really punish C/D, MT, or the other big print publications. Thats just unimaginable, since these magazines are so big. They would never ever even try to punish them, but of course it is easy to punish the little website guys. That sucks.

It seems like that one the Car and Driver online editors wrote a letter a few days ago in response to the embargoed Lincoln vehicle. He said some pretty nasty things about websites (like LeftLaneNews, Winding Road, and Autoblog). Anyhow, this just isn't right.

(from Autoblog).

When these magazines are a legitimate source of information vs your website full of thousands of usless opinions, there is a huge difference.

[ChevroletRevived]

Originally Posted by Ming

Heaven forbid that GM enthusiasts on fan-driven internet forums like this get to drool over (or criticize) GM concept and production cars a week or two before they are shown to the general public....

If GM Media has any sense, they'll realize that we enthusiasts are often the best goodwill ambassadors and advocates for GM that they have - a free tool that they could choose to use to build word of mouth buzz for their product. And if instead we attack the product, like the ill-bred Crossover Sport Vans, then perhaps GM deserves to hear our criticism and act to remedy the lackluster product in question before they attempt (and fail) to shove it down the consumers' throats.

Exactly! You'd think they'd value that. And want to make sure that we're happy with them, because as NSAP said, we have no incentive not to post everything we come across. But, we continue to respect embargo dates.

[eaton53]

I think GM should embargo all of the bad GM supplied photography, even after the cars are out.

[Realist]

Originally Posted by goblue

So why are these same magazines and sites safeguarding the Toyota Tundra's stats, but let the Malibu pictures fly...

Where the print magazines sealed their fate was by not respecting the embargos. If GM moves to an instant release format, the online sites will be just fine, only the print journalism will suffer.

My guess is that GM "allowed" the embargoes to be broken, or was flexible about them being broken. After all, GM did release several official teaser pics of the new Malibu.

But this is nothing new. GM doesn't seem to be all that worried when pics are leaked, released early, or embargoes are broken. This leads to the belief that GM in fact *wants* these things to happen.

Toyota on the other hand has very strict NDAs signed with all publications and news/media outlets that have seen the Tundra specs, those that have driven the new Tundra, and those that have seen/driven the CrewMax variation.

[FStephenMasek]

To a car enthusiast, GMI is one of the very best sources of information on every brand. The only thing the magazines still have are the test drives and instrumented testing. Of course, we all have doubts arising from the biases which affect the various instrumented tests and subjective comparisons in the magazines.

I would be happy to help if GMI decided to started performing and reporting on real instrumented testing. A web site could easily go far beyond a magazine by including video of the tests and video of the subjective evaluations.

[camarofanz]

Some recent embargo talk:

http://news.windingroad.com/concept-...ame-is-broken/

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...54/1148/AUTO01

[CaymanS]

The funny thing about WindingRoad is they had done the same action they're making bad remarks of with the Camaro Convertible pictures. I agree with the article though. I really like embargo dates because I get a bigger reaction when I see them uncovered. We already saw like half of the vehicles or more that are scheduled to unveil at NAIAS. The suspense breaks and it's not fun anymore. It might be really tempting at first but once an embargo is over, we look at it, make comments, and wait for the next embargo to break and the routine happens. That's not the case when it's unveiled at the autoshow. The solution to this is if the autoshow happens in January, put these pictures in the March issue. The competition of the magazines and how significant their articles are has went over the top and now C&D has let it loose. This embargo thing might be fun for us, but only in short-term. And now the magazines and websites are going to have a hard time defending themselves in this issue.