☀️ Crypto journalism (and the weather) is bringing the heat ☀️
The best crypto and blockchain journalism and research from May (and some of June)
Howdy, fellow crypto journalists and researchers.
This newsletter is being written in the middle of a heat wave in New York (one that only promises to get worse in the next week), so I hope that you’re all staying inside, staying cool and not obsessing too much over Bitcoin’s price trajectory not exactly matching the rising temperatures outside.
It’s been a busy month for the ACJR, as we decided to tackle two big issues in the crypto space — how journalists can work with embargoes, and how to get all the media attendees of Consensus drunk in one room together. I believe that we succeeded at addressing both.
Photo of the ACJR media meet-up courtesy of Ray Salmond (thanks Ray!) — and thanks to our sponsors Hedera and the Filecoin Foundation
The ACJR has also begun to work on something even harder than embargos and drinking — crypto style. We’ve begun developing a Manual of Style to help everyone from the most ardent blogger to the crypto desks at major outlets present our ecosystem in the most consistent and unified way. The current stub is enough for everyone to start hacking on and making recommendations. Remember in the '90s when Wired's style guide caused the world to lose its mind over whether to hyphenate "email?" We hope to have similarly frothy discussions.
Please feel free to leave your feedback, criticisms, concern and praise on our ACJR Manual of Style here (brought to you by board member Phil Gomes).
Now let’s get started with the newsletter — expect some important stories, a recap of our ACJR embargo cheatsheet and maybe a little !
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Top crypto journalism in May (and some of June)
Our top pick for this issue comes from Danny Nelson at Coindesk and his incredibly deep and fascinating investigation into how “key opinion leaders” work in the crypto ecosystem — Influencer-investors get perks to pitch tokens: Inside crypto's 'KOL' economy.
This piece deserves a special call out because a different publication seemingly took Danny’s work as a jumping point for their own investigations, but failed to give him the credit. The ACJR tweeted a short statement in support of Danny’s work.
Journos, let’s always support journos as best we can — especially in this media environment.
Other top stories
Meet the crypto promoter who says he launched Caitlyn Jenner's Solana meme coin by Ryan S. Gladwin, Decrypt
Solana dev hospitalized with third degree burns trying to pump meme coin by Ryan S. Gladwin, Decrypt
*We know these articles look similar — but the memecoin news just couldn’t be stopped this month
Martin Shkreli copied one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album, lawsuit claims by Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev sentenced to 64 months: report by Elizabeth Napolitano, The Block
*this story was originally reported in more detail by Inbar Preiss of DL News — Tornado Cash dev Alexey Pertsev sent straight to jail after Dutch court found him guilty
Sam he is: An exclusive prison chat with S.B.F. by William D. Cohan, Puck News
How Coinbase is seeking to ease crypto’s credit crunch by Yueqi Yang, The Information
He taught at MIT, worked at Morgan Stanley, and convinced Bill Ackman and Galaxy to back his $200 million crypto fund by his early 30s. His future is now in jeopardy by Leo Schwartz, Fortune
And now — it’s research time.
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Top crypto research & policy in May (and some of June)
On GitHub, it describes itself as “a research project aimed at building a culture of privacy industry in web3: the most extensive database of privacy-enhancing solutions”
Transaction execution on Ethereum decentralized exchanges (DEX) from a legal perspective by Mikolaj Barczentewicz and Natasha Vasan
According to the abstract, “this paper aims to clarify the legal journey of Ethereum transactions, focusing on the stages of trade instruction and execution.”
Resistance Money by Andrew M. Bailey, Bradley Rettler and Craig Warmke
Sneaking in a quotation from my own book review:
In the incredibly argumentative crypto space that we find ourselves in, especially online, it’s refreshing to find those who are willing to openly debate ideas with evidence and logical reasoning (instead of proposing actual physical combat, for example). So if you fall on either side of the bitcoin issue — pro or against — and you’re up for a real academic exchange of views on how bitcoin affects the world, Resistance Money can satisfy that urge for you.
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Do you work in PR or comms in crypto? Take our salary survey now to see how the industry shakes out — all responses are anonymous and confidential.
Embargo time
We held a panel discussion last month with Dan Roberts, Kevin Dinino of KCD PR, Camila Russo of The Defiant and Trista Kelley of DL News on embargo best practices (inspired by this DL News op-ed): An embargo is an agreement, not a crypto PR hype tactic
Embargoes are a controversial tactic in the public relations and journalism world — especially in crypto.
Newsmakers and public relations professionals often say they use embargoes to give reporters enough time to develop a solid story before releasing news. Reporters often say embargoes are misused as marketing techniques, sent en masse to news outlets without regard for whether there is really a story there.
We’ve compiled the main takeaways of our webinar below.
Embargo Do’s and Don’ts
Don’ts
As a PR agent, send an embargo en masse to journalists without considering their beats/specialties
As a PR agent, send an embargo where there isn’t a solid reason why this story/information needs to be embargoed
As a PR agent, get angry if a journalist doesn’t cover your PR embargo with the exact angle you had in mind
As a journalist, break the embargo window
As a journalist, limit yourself to the information in the embargo for your story — instead, think about how to expand on the information and how it fits into the wider context of the news cycle
Do’s
As a PR agent, send embargoes to smaller news outlets even if they prefer to cover them as day-two stories, rather than publish at the embargo time — coverage is coverage
As a PR agent, work with your clients to understand whether their intent with an embargo is mass coverage or an exclusive story in one publication
As a PR agent, if a journalist breaks your embargo, have an honest conversation with them and their editor to understand what happened
As a journalist, make the decision that’s right for your newsroom when deciding to cover an embargo or not, especially if you are aware that another news outlet has an exclusive or earlier embargo window
Why do embargoes work well for PR/comms professionals and their clients?
If you offer an embargo to journalists who know you well and can operate within the agreement, a better, more in-depth article can come out of an embargo
If a client has news that legally cannot be shared before a certain date and time, an embargo allows news outlets to know there is a story coming without having to share all details before you legally can
Why do embargoes work well for journalists and newsrooms?
Journalists have ample time to understand a technically difficult story and ask follow-up questions
Journalists are able to interview people associated with the story when they have a longer lead time to publication
Proposed Alternatives for an Embargo-Free Future
Companies will post news on their blog with the idea that if the story is big enough, an outlet will cover it
PR agencies will send information in a press release to all journalists right as the news comes out, and outlets will need to be speedy in their coverage if they choose to cover
Crypto media sites will create a coalition to not accept embargoes and therefore end the practice in this particular industry
Watch the full webinar here:
And shout out to YAP’s Debra Nita and her response in DL News to the original embargo op-ed: Embargoes aren’t a nice to have, they’re a must-have in crypto
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Top crypto unhinged tweets in May (and some of June)
Source: https://x.com/gucciprayers/status/1791228407319072820?t=A-3Fphkqj-IlLS2BqGAHhg&s=19
Source: https://x.com/IGGYAZALEA/status/1798471807647068297
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Reach out to Joyce Pavia Hanson: @JPHanson on Telegram for any more questions.
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