What are the specifics of the work of a foreign press service
Often, a company engaged in international activities faces the task of forming an information field outside the state of registration. Each of the countries of presence differs in its specific PR practices, stylistic techniques of journalism, audience sentiments, and ways in which information is absorbed by society. All this requires the launch of a foreign press service, which is organizationally part of a single corporate PR department, but at the same time takes into account the national characteristics of the country of presence in everything that it broadcasts about the company in the information field.
Unlike the press services of various government organizations, such as regional government bodies, departments, for example the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or court administrations, the tasks of a foreign business press service include not only informing about the activities of the institution, but also proactively developing the company’s image. This includes broadcasting its values, increasing attractiveness in the eyes of customers and partners, and crisis communications in the event of an undesirable information agenda.
A feature of this type of PR is that representatives of the company’s head office, in the vast majority of cases, cannot interact with the target audience in the same language at the level required to build a trusting communication. This necessitates the involvement of native speakers in the activities of the foreign press service on a contract basis, and if the budget allows – on a permanent basis.
The experience of Russian companies, largely focused on exporting or importing goods and services, shows that often the most rational choice is to organize the work of the main content division in an English-speaking, Arab-speaking or Spanish-speaking country. This depends on which language audience dominates among customers or partners. At the same time, strategic communication management remains in the country of business registration. This allows optimizing costs for the production of all types of information messages, negotiations and events, even if part of the content eventually has to be translated into another language.
In addition, involving native speakers in the work of the foreign press service simplifies the analysis of the information field of the country of business presence, as well as interaction, for example, with the press services of civil administrations, departments, and so on. This is especially important in crisis communications – often full-time specialists with extensive experience previously worked in local media, PR agencies or administrative press services. This means they have long known everyone they need to, at most one handshake away, and can quickly resolve any reputation problem for the business without wasting time.
