I snorted my coffee out my nose this morning at Rogers Cadenhead's Exclusive: Techbloggers have sold their souls. I know a few serious journos that won't take an embargo, like my friend Om Malik. That's his business, and I respect his position. But me? If you've got news and are trying to coordinate a launch, I'll take the embargo. I don't publish press releases. Most of what I write is opinion. Dropping a press release in my inbox the day the announcement is being made isn't going to do it for me, since I write between 6 AM and 9 AM (that's the reality of writing a blog as a sideline to running a startup). Unless you've given me a couple of days to muddle over the news, I'm not likely to write about it the day of, and perhaps not at all.
Sold my soul? Hardly. Trying to give readers who honor me with a spot in their clogged RSS feed some value? Sign me up.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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I'm not just talking about an across-the-board embargo that puts everyone on the same footing. These bloggers are taking embargoes intended to give another blog the scoop, and Scoble doesn't sound like he has a problem with it. That's way too pliant for my tastes. If that's common practice on the A list, point me to the B and C.