Press Embargoes for Hardware Launches: How They Work and When to Skip Them

A press embargo for a hardware launch is an agreement that reporters get the product details, benchmarks and briefings early and all publish at one set time. For a chip or a device, that lead time is what lets trade reporters check the claims and business reporters write the bigger story before launch day.

It also carries more risk than most embargoes, because more is under wraps: the product, the numbers, sometimes the customers, and often a trade show date that can't move. This post covers what changes when the launch is hardware. For the general rules, including why you should never move an embargo once it's set, see our guide to how press embargoes work and how they break.

Key takeaways

• A hardware embargo usually covers more than the announcement: benchmark numbers and the method behind them, images, review hardware and sometimes customer names, so the offer should say exactly what may be published at the lift.
• For Tenstorrent's TT Deploy launch on May 1, 17 tier-one reporters held the release until it lifted.
• Time zones and languages belong in the plan from the start. TT Deploy Japan, eight weeks later, landed 18 earned pieces across 6 languages and 4 regions, with zero negative.

What changes when the embargo is for hardware?

Three things change for hardware: the claims get tested, the date is fixed, and more people outside the company know the news.

The claims get tested. A software launch can often get by on a demo. A chip or a system launch usually comes with performance numbers, and the reporters who matter will want to know how you got them. A benchmark without a method tends to read as marketing, so the method has to be ready when the embargo is offered.

The date is fixed. Hardware launches are tied to a trade show, a conference keynote or the day a product reaches general availability. That's one more reason the rule about never moving an embargo matters more here: if the date might slip, I'd wait to offer the embargo until it can't.

More is under wraps, and more people know. When we ran three launches for Tenstorrent in five months, every one came with hard rules, including no pre-breaking embargoed benchmarks or customers. Hardware also involves more outside parties than most software launches: manufacturing partners, distributors, early customers, event organizers. Our general guide makes the point that internal leaks break more embargoes than journalists do, and for hardware the list of people who count as internal is longer.

When is a hardware embargo worth it, and when should you skip it?

A hardware embargo is worth it when several outlets will want the news at the same moment, and you should skip it for minor updates or when one outlet reaches nearly all of your buyers.

I'd use an embargo for:

• A new chip, board or system.
• General availability of something reporters have already heard about.
• A launch across several countries at once.
• A funding round with a product story behind it, where several outlets will want it at the same moment.

I'd skip it for a minor update, like a new configuration or a firmware release, where an embargo suggests you've overestimated the news. I'd also skip it when one trade outlet reaches nearly all of your buyers. That's when an exclusive does more, as it did for Brickeye's Engineering News-Record exclusive. We tell that story, and cover which outlets reach which buyers, in trade press or business press.

Can you run an exclusive and an embargo together?

Usually you should pick one, and combine them only when the news is big enough for both.

Our general embargo guide says not to pair a tier-one exclusive with a wide embargo, and for most news that's still the right call, because you're creating the conditions that cost you the exclusive.

The exception is news big enough that the outlet with the exclusive still gets a story worth having and everyone under embargo still has a reason to write. Tenstorrent's $1.5B Series E was that kind of news, so we ran it as an exclusive plus an embargo. It earned 180 stories, and the news ran in 54 countries and 38 languages, with zero negative coverage.

Other companies do this too. In what coverage is available at your stage I describe a review of about 49 funding rounds in one client's market: the companies that did both had one outlet publish first, then a wave of coverage about 30 minutes later from reporters who got the release under embargo the night before.

If you're not sure your news is that big, I'd assume it isn't.

Who should get a hardware embargo?

Offer a hardware embargo to reporters at established outlets who have covered your category recently, and keep the list shorter as the news gets bigger.

Reporters at established outlets generally honor embargoes because their reputation depends on it. Smaller outlets can gain a lot of traffic by publishing a big story first, so the bigger the news, the shorter I'd keep the list. Check each name against a recent-coverage rule, like the 90-day rule we describe in our guide to choosing a semiconductor PR agency. That check matters more in hardware, where a reporter who covered chips last year may have moved to a different beat.

I'd put trade and business reporters under the same embargo and brief each one for what they need. For TT Deploy, the 17 tier-one reporters holding the release included The New York Times, WIRED, Axios, Semafor, The Register and Tom's Hardware.

Broadcast needs its own planning. Producers are booking a guest, so they need to know who's available and when. Tenstorrent's CEO Jim Keller was on BNN Bloomberg and NYSE TV the same week TT Deploy launched.

How do you share benchmarks and review units under embargo?

Offer the embargo first, send the detail only after the reporter accepts, and say in writing exactly what the embargo covers.

Sending everything and then asking a reporter to hold it is a request they're free to ignore. Once they've accepted, the terms for a hardware launch usually cover:

• Which benchmark numbers may be published at the lift, and which are background only.
• The test method: the workload, the configuration, and what you compared against.
• Images and video, and whether reporters can use their own photos of review hardware.
• Customer names, and whether reporters may contact customers or analysts before the lift.
• Pricing and availability, if they're part of the news.

Review units need their own terms: who gets one, when it ships, how long the reporter keeps it, what they may publish before the lift and when it comes back. A reporter who wants to test hardware needs it early enough to do the work, so the shipping date often sets the whole timeline.

An early technical embargo can also help the trade side of a bigger launch. Tenstorrent's first launch, the QuietBox 2 workstation, ran under a tight embargo with technical outlets, and review requests were already coming in by the time TT Deploy arrived. We describe how Tenstorrent ran its trade and business coverage across all three launches in trade press or business press.

What does the timeline look like?

The timeline for a hardware embargo starts about six weeks out, with embargoes offered three weeks before the launch.

The product launch timeline holds for hardware: decide the story six weeks out, build and check the reporter list four to five weeks out, offer embargoes three weeks out, and brief interested reporters two weeks out. Three weeks gives reporters time to schedule, test and interview. One week is the minimum. A one-day embargo rarely gives a reporter time to test hardware, so it mostly works for news nobody needs to check.

Hardware adds work before the first offer goes out. The benchmark method, the images, the review units and the spokespeople all need to be ready before you ask anyone to hold anything. A reporter who accepts and then waits a week for the method is a reporter you've made less likely to say yes next time.

If you're bringing in an agency for the launch, two months before the milestone is ideal, and six weeks is the minimum. Less than that and the embargo window starts to close before the materials are ready. What that costs is covered in semiconductor PR cost.

How do embargoes work across time zones and languages?

Set one lift time in one time zone, and list the local time for every market in the first line of the offer.

"8:00 a.m. Pacific, Tuesday" is clear in San Francisco and ambiguous everywhere else. In June, that same moment is 4:00 p.m. in London and midnight in Tokyo, already Wednesday. Check daylight saving for each market too, since the US and Europe change their clocks on different dates and Japan doesn't change them at all.

A single global lift time always favors some markets over others. A morning lift in California lands in the middle of the night in Asia. If Asia matters to your buyers, it may be worth running a separate launch there. That's what TT Deploy Japan was: eight weeks after San Francisco, we localized the whole launch for Tokyo, across Japanese, Chinese, Korean and more. It landed 18 earned pieces across 6 languages and 4 regions, with zero negative, in outlets that move Asian semiconductor coverage such as PC Watch, Mynavi TECH+, IT Home and DigiTimes.

Translate the release and the briefing materials, not just the headline, and line up a spokesperson who can take questions in each market's working hours.

What usually works in the first hour after an embargo breaks?

What usually works is to confirm what broke, lift the embargo for everyone, and tell each reporter who held it before they hear it somewhere else.

Our own rule, from our embargo guide, is to lift for everyone within minutes, and the reporters who honored it hear first. Embargoes usually break in one of three ways: an outlet publishes early on purpose, someone on the company's side posts too soon, or someone reads the time zone wrong. That guide also covers why the damage can be worse than the leak.

The steps that usually help:

• Confirm what actually broke. A full story, a partial leak and a social post are different problems, and a time zone mistake may only need a quick correction.
• If the substance is public, lift for everyone. Our general guide's rule is to do it within minutes, because holding the other reporters to the agreement only hurts the people who kept it.
• Tell every reporter who held the embargo, one by one, that it's lifted.
• Publish your own materials: the release, the blog post, the product page. Make sure your spokespeople can take calls.
• Tell your own people, partners and customers that the news is out.

Afterward, note who broke it and why, and let that shape the next list.

On the legal side, press embargoes are professional agreements and usually not legally binding. They hold because the reporter accepted them and values the relationship, and a reporter who never accepted one isn't bound by it. This is general practice, not legal advice.

What goes in a hardware briefing pack?

A hardware briefing pack opens with the embargo line: date, time, zone and the local time for each market. After that:

• The release.
• A spec sheet.
• The benchmark method.
• Images and video, labeled with the embargo time.
• Pricing and availability.
• Spokesperson availability, technical and business.
• Customer contacts who have cleared speaking to press.
• A press contact who will be reachable at the lift.

Our post on what goes in a media kit covers the rest. If you're planning a launch like this, our page on semiconductor and hardware PR explains how we approach product launch PR for chip and hardware companies.

Common questions

What is a press embargo? A press embargo is an agreement that a reporter gets news early and publishes no earlier than a set time.

Are press embargoes legally binding? Press embargoes are usually not legally binding. They are professional agreements that hold because the reporter accepted them and values the relationship, and a reporter who never accepted one isn't bound by it. This is general practice, not legal advice.

How far ahead should you offer a hardware launch embargo? A hardware launch embargo should be offered about three weeks ahead so reporters have time to test, ask questions and interview, with one week as the minimum, and review hardware has to arrive early enough for that testing.

Can you share benchmarks under embargo? Benchmarks can be shared under embargo if the test method goes with them and the offer says exactly which numbers may be published at the lift.

Should a hardware launch use an embargo or an exclusive? A hardware launch should use an embargo for breadth across trade and business press and an exclusive when one outlet reaches most of your buyers. Both together work only when the news is big enough, as Tenstorrent's $1.5B Series E was.

How do embargoes work across time zones? Embargoes work across time zones when you set one lift time in one zone and list the local time for every market in the first line of the offer.

Sources

• Salient PR, Three Launches. Two Continents. Wall Street Watching: Launching the Chip Company Built to Take On NVIDIA, Tenstorrent case study
• Salient PR, The Jobsite That Shut Off Its Own Water at 2am, Brickeye case study
• Salient PR, PR Embargoes: How They Work, and When to Use One
• Salient PR, Product Launch PR: The Timeline, and Why Most Launches Miss It
• Salient PR, What Coverage Is Actually Available at Your Stage

Salient PR has worked with semiconductor and hardware companies including Tenstorrent, Density, Brickeye and Arable, and has run programs from pre-launch through growth stage since 2015.