A Journal's Headache

A landmark study showing that aspirin can help prevent heart attacks was good news for most Americans last month. But the headlines came one day too soon for the influential New England Journal of Medicine, which published the original report. Newspapers and magazines routinely receive advance copies of the Journal each week on Monday but abide by an agreement not to report its contents before Wednesday at 6 p.m. The London-based Reuters news service seemed to violate the embargo by reporting the aspirin study on a Tuesday, more than 24 hours early. The incident has provoked a heated dispute over a widespread journalistic practice.

Angered by the premature report (which prompted other publications to break the embargo), the Journal announced it would drop Reuters from its press mailing list for six months. Reuters, insisting that its aspirin story was based on independent reporting and not the Journal's article, vowed not to adhere to the embargo during its suspension. "When we have access to a copy of the Journal, we'll treat it as we do all other news sources and publish on merit," said Desmond Maberley, executive editor of Reuters in North America. Since other news organizations would probably follow suit to stay competitive, such action could shatter the Journal's control over the release of medical news.

That would not be bad, say some medical reporters, who feel the publication has overdosed on power. The Journal defends its embargo as necessary to ensure that complex medical information does not reach the public before it is read and digested by physicians. Says Editor Dr. Arnold S. Relman: "The embargo is important to help doctors take good care of patients." Diagnosis: a standoff between Reuters and the Journal. Prescription: take two aspirin and call each other in the morning.