Let Your News Travel the World

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To get the best outcome when sending releases to the overseas market, you need to ensure you have exercised three key points:

• Know your overseas audience: Do your research about the country and audience you’re distributing your news to.  Ensure you are aware of the media restrictions and sensitivities in the countries you are planning to target. For example, the Chinese government will not allow news with words or topics around “human rights”, “freedom”, “imprisonment” etc.
• Time your send: Yes, the news is 24/7, however when sending your news internationally it’s key to ensure you give attention to the time zones, holidays, local work schedule, and what is the breaking news of your destination. For example, in the US, most people are viewing the news (and keeping your news visible for the entire business day) generally at 8:00am to 10:00am local time which is at the opening or shortly after the local exchange. So you would aim to send your release to the US during this time for the best chance of coverage.
• Translating is vital: Choose your words carefully. This is the ‘be-all or end-all’ of your news in the overseas market. Just like any other document, you need to be careful to pinpoint potential miscommunication in different languages. For example, Braniff International Airways released a campaign to highlight customer’s “Fly in Leather” which translates in Spanish to “Fly Naked”.