Friday, February 13, 2009

spring a leak

A story from today caught my eye, but not for the actual content of the story. The actual story is about Starbucks planning to sell instant coffee. I noticed that the whole reason that there is a story is that someone with information leaked it to the press. That seems to happen a lot.

Why is it that more often than not, if a major announcement is going to be made, it is leaked to the press ahead of time? I am sure that is occasionally intentional by someone's calculation that the news will be considered more newsworthy if it appears that people aren't supposed to know about it yet. I don't think this is usually intentional, though. It seems that keeping things a secret until the actual announcement will help build curiosity from the target audience for the announcement.

It amazes me that some people feel it worthwhile to leak information. In this case, it appears to have been a Starbucks executive who leaked the information. If he (or she) was not supposed to leak the information, was it really worth risking his (or her) job? I don't see where the person leaking the information gets any tangible benefit in this situation.

One thing that you can count on is that I will never leak any important information to the press. That has more to do with me not actually having information to leak than anything else, though.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do you think starbucks intentionally is trying to keep it a secret or are they just waiting for the right time for the announcement. Also, is it a guy trying to leak the info or a reporter who is desperately trying to get the inside scoop and be the first to report the story. I guess you got to be careful who you talk to.