Embargos (at least the kind used in media / PR) don't make any sense in this time and age. It has no teeth, and the benefits of the embargo are dubious at best.
I wholeheartedly agree with the "randomly break embargo" strategy - because once you give a story to a reporter, you can't say - oh wait - don't publish it until we say so ... or until we farm out the "embargo breaking" lead position to the highest bidder (for favours, good reviews, gifts, etc).
Embargoes represent corruption and collusion in the media - and killing them makes media and news sources / makers more accountable.
While I understand your points, I still think embargos still have value -- especially from an entrepreneur's perspective. As someone who has worked for TechCrunch and now have since started my own company, I completely get the power of press and how hard it is to get if you're not a Quora, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
When you have news as a burgeoning startup, it is like gold. Your startup's traction may be in large part due to having people just know you exist -- which if you've ever started a website/company, you know how hard that is.
That being said, for the press to break embargos just to have reported the news first seems sort of unfair to the entrepreneur who worker his/her ass off to get to the point to even be in a position to have press. Usually the reason the press breaks embargos is so they can "break the news first". Then, no other blog/press will cover it because its "dead news" regardless of it may have value to their readers -- even if they're a few minutes behind.
Obviously, its a bit of a gray area. However, to me, the majority of the time its competition amongst the press to "break the story" that really ends up hurting up-and-coming startups.
I wholeheartedly agree with the "randomly break embargo" strategy - because once you give a story to a reporter, you can't say - oh wait - don't publish it until we say so ... or until we farm out the "embargo breaking" lead position to the highest bidder (for favours, good reviews, gifts, etc).
Embargoes represent corruption and collusion in the media - and killing them makes media and news sources / makers more accountable.