Your Embargo Needs an Internal Comms Plan

I’m working on a project with an organization that has a longstanding practice: employees hear company news 24 hours before it’s announced publicly.

I understand the reasoning. Employees shouldn’t routinely learn important news about their company from a news alert, LinkedIn post or reporter.

But 24 hours can be a long time when you’re also working with media under embargo.

An embargo gives reporters access to information before an announcement with an agreement that they won’t publish it until a specific time. It gives them time to understand the news, ask questions and prepare their coverage.

Now consider what happens when thousands of employees receive that same information a day early.

It only takes one screenshot.

An employee sends the announcement to a friend. Someone posts part of it on X. A screenshot makes its way to a reporter. Suddenly, information you’re asking journalists to hold is circulating publicly.

That creates several problems for the communications team. You may have to reconsider the timing of the announcement. Reporters who agreed to the embargo may have questions about whether it still applies. And journalists who honored your agreement may wonder why they were asked to hold information that had already been distributed to thousands of people.

The More People Who Know, the More People Managing the Information

There’s research that helps explain why this gets complicated so quickly.

Communication Privacy Management theory, developed by communications scholar Sandra Petronio, examines what happens when private information is shared with other people. Once you tell someone something, you’re no longer the only person deciding what happens to that information. Everyone who knows it becomes part of managing that boundary.

That feels especially relevant to embargoed announcements.

There’s a big difference between 5 senior leaders knowing about an announcement and 5,000 employees knowing about it. Once you expand that group, you’re relying on thousands of people to understand what’s confidential, how long it needs to stay confidential and what they can and can’t do with it.

Researchers have a term for what happens when those expectations aren’t shared or someone crosses the boundary: boundary turbulence.

Research on employee social media use has also documented how company information can inadvertently make its way outside an organization. And I think inadvertently matters here.

An employee doesn’t have to decide to leak company news to a reporter. They could screenshot an internal announcement and send it to a friend, post something they think is harmless or share a detail in a group chat. Someone else can take it from there.

Putting CONFIDENTIAL at the top of an employee email doesn’t solve that problem.

Rethink Who Needs to Know, and When

I’ve started recommending a more tiered approach to employee communications around embargoed announcements.

Senior leaders may need advance notice.

People managers may need talking points and time to prepare for questions.

Certain teams may need to know early because the announcement directly affects their work.

The broader employee population can often receive the news much closer to the public announcement. Depending on the situation, I sometimes recommend no more than 30 minutes.

Thirty minutes isn’t a rule. It’s a risk decision based on the announcement, the organization and what employees need.

A restructuring, acquisition, leadership change and product announcement each require different considerations. There may also be legal or regulatory requirements that determine who needs to know and when.

So the question I ask during planning is:

Who needs to know before this becomes public, and how much time do they genuinely need?

Internal and External Communications Need the Same Timeline

Media relations and internal communications need to answer that question together.

The media team needs to know when employees will receive the news. The internal team needs to understand what has been agreed with reporters. Both teams need a plan for what happens if information becomes public earlier than expected.

Employees deserve thoughtful communication, especially when company news affects them directly. Giving people advance notice can give managers time to prepare and employees time to process important information.

The amount of advance notice doesn't have to be the same for everyone.

Sometimes 30 minutes is enough. Sometimes it isn’t. The timing should be a communications decision, not an inherited practice.

A media embargo may be an agreement with reporters. Managing the information starts inside the organization.