Detroit Free Press: The Walk of Shame Down Romenesko Lane

What's worse than running a pre-written story on page-one that ends up not happening?

Having that ugly mistake paraded in front of the ogling citizenry of Romeneskoville.

Letting the story tell itself, Romenesko simply points out that the Detroit Free Press corrections did not explain to readers how the mistake was made, instead of explicitly calling them on the carpet for blatantly dodging the issue with a classic non-correction correction.

Jack Flack has no inside information, but can generically speculate on the likely steps to ignominy.

1. Chrysler flacks offer to give an exclusive peek at CEO Bob Nardelli's remarks to DFP auto reporter Tim Higgins, one of the beat's lead dogs. They give the remarks to Higgins in advance so he can crank a thorough story, but embargo it for after Nardelli's appearance.

2. Higgins files. DFP editors hold the story for the next print edition and slot it for page one, knowing they have an exclusive on one of today's most-watched CEOs, not just in their own backyard, but nationally.

3. Nardelli gets a cold, or a friendly check-in call from Stephen Feinberg, or a warning from his astrologist that today is not a particularly good day for public speaking. He postpones his appearance by a day.

4. Chrysler flacks put an "oops" call into Higgins, who has gone back to the vacation he abandoned to do the story, and is paddling a sea kayak outside of cell range.

5. The story runs, and is submitted to Romenesko before dawn by DFP fans over at the Detroit News, who think such exclusives are wrong (when they go to the other guy).

The DFP blunder aside, why are such embargo exclusive negotiated so frequently?

The reporter gets an exclusive, which sometimes includes genuine news. The flacks sacrifice widespread but shallow coverage in exchange for a much bigger hit in a single outlet. Usually, the exclusive inspires a slightly more favorable angle, such as the DFP headline, "Nardelli leaps into action."

Why did Chrysler choose DFP in this case, as opposed to the WSJ or one of the wires?

Nardelli's message was targeted internally, and thus best suited for page-one in the local paper, which undoubtedly got mimicked on local radio as all the Chrysler employees drove into work.