Lankan firms urged to benefit from PR Newswire Asia

Following are excerpts of an interview with Rajkumar Kanagasingam, Partner of Selvasingam Consultants, who consults on regional and global promotional strategies, and an authorised promoter of the PR Newswire Asia:

Q: Can you explain what PR Newswire Asia and its services are about?

A: PR Newswire Asia (en.prnasia.com) is the Asian arm of the PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com), the global leader in news and information distribution services.

PR Newswire is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, public affairs and investor relations decision makers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences.

PR Newswire pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 56 years ago and today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimise and target content – from rich media to online video to multimedia – and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels.

PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. It has a global client base of 40,000 companies, organisations and government agencies, including over 50% of the Fortune 500 companies.

PR Newswire Asia will send clients’ press releases to hundreds of thousands of media points in 170 countries in 40 languages, as well as to investors worldwide, helping companies generate exposure, build brand awareness and attract potential clients, business partners and investors.

It simultaneously delivers every story to the “disclosure” media designated by NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ and LSE, including Dow Jones, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily and others.

Q: Can you explain how PR Newswire helps the client’s message reach Asia?

A:Asia is home to more than four billion consumers and spending is on the rise. Launching a product or service in Asia – or marketing the products and services you’ve launched – demands more than just editorial publicity. Getting media exposure in Asia is a matter of relationships.

PR Newswire has partnerships with Kyodo News Agency, Australian Associated Press, Yonhap News Agency, Press Trust of India, Xinhua News Agency, New Zealand Press Association, BERNAMA and many others. It has exclusive relations with all 13 national news agencies in Asia and reaches over 3,000 media in China, representing over 8,000 journalists.

You can decide which regions of Asia you want to reach, such as China only, all nations, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore or some other combination. You can mix Asia distributions with other parts of the world, such as trade media in Latin America plus online media in Europe or any other combination.

Q: Can you explain how the PR Newswire helps reach Europe?

A: Of the top 20 wealthiest countries in the world, 16 are in Europe. With 25 different countries, histories, cultures and languages across this diverse continent, reaching consumers there demands strategic guidance from experts who understand the local market dynamics.

PR Newswire has established offices in key European markets to expose your brand to audiences there. PR Newswire’s staff, some of whom are former journalists, speak 10 languages, including Dutch, Russian, German, French, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish. That translates to global media relations programs that help organizations connect the European continental dots, whether that’s overseas or just across the border.

PR Newswire introduces corporate stories to its exclusive press partners in Europe, newsaktuell/dpa, ANP, Adnkronos and ITAR-TASS.

Q: Can you explain how the PR Newswire helps reach the United States?

A: When you need to reach media and opinion leaders in the US, you need PR Newswire.

Whether you want to reach mainstream media in the US, disclosure media, special interest, multicultural, or public interest audiences, or you have a story that is timeless PR Newswire has the newsline that’s right for you.  

Q: Can you explain how the PR Newswire helps reach Canada?

A: The Canadian media opens the door to 33 million consumers. PR Newswire opens the door to the Canadian media through a partnership with CNW Group (CNW).

CNW handles about 70 percent of all news releases issued in Canada, including releases for all major Canadian banks, telecommunications providers and airlines, the entire Canadian auto manufacturing industry and the most significant players in Canada’s oil and gas industry.

Q: Can you explain how the PR Newswire helps reach the Middle East and Africa?

A: Consumer spending in the Middle East and Africa is still growing and international public relations efforts there are growing along with it. Successful PR in these markets demands a culture-centered approach that differs from tactics in the Western world.

PR Newswire’s Middle East and Africa distributions offer access to key general and trade media across this wide spectrum of nations. PR Newswire’s combination of distributions through prominent news agency partners such as Middle East News Agency, PANAPRESS and South African Press Association, as well as PR Newswire’s own regional distributions give its clients that meets their communications needs in these growing markets.

Q: Can you explain how the PR Newswire helps reach Latin America?

A: PR Newswire serves as your corporate news bureau to these Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations that boast a population of about 550 million. PR Newswire’s international press release distributions to Latin American countries help you to win the attention of news media – and consumers – across these diverse markets.

You can distribute your press release to premium Latin America media outlets. No other communications solution offers a deeper distribution in Latin America. PR Newswire’s partnerships with Notimex, O Globo, CMA Brasil, Diario y Noticias and others mean your release is getting maximum exposure in every Latin American country. You can get complimentary translations in Spanish and Portuguese with every release.

Q: Can you explain PR Newswire’s multimedia news releases?

A: Only 13 per cent of Americans get their news from traditional newspapers and magazines, according to a Zogby poll. That compares to 40 per cent who turn to the internet and 32 per cent who watch news on TV. The growth of video on newspaper websites is explosive and the viral effect is well documented.

Many of today’s news consumers, editors, journalists, analysts and investors want more than text-only press releases. They want to engage with multimedia content anywhere at any time. They want a one-stop-shop where they can read information, watch video, download high-resolution photos and get background information on your organisation through accompanying links to product information, web pages and photo galleries. The message is clear, ‘multimedia public relations is not just the wave of the future. It’s the reality of today.’

MultiVu, PR Newswire’s multimedia and broadcast services division, offers a suite of audio, video and multimedia production, broadcasting and distribution services that bring new life to your communications. You can customise distribution of footage to video portals that reach more than 30 million viewers, including YouTube, Yahoo Video, Blinkx and AOL Video. You can broadcast on networks that target news and information consumers, including CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, FOX News, Discovery Times and National Geographic.

Q: How will facilities and features of PR Newswire help Sri Lankan clients?

A: PR Newswire can help key Sri Lankan industries and sectors reach out regionally and globally in many ways. Sri Lanka can attract potential investors to invest in listed Sri Lankan companies. There is a new resolution that institutions incorporated outside Sri Lanka and individuals resident outside Sri Lanka inclusive of Sri Lankan residents outside Sri Lanka are permitted to buy and/or sell shares in a listed company of Colombo Stock Exchange up to 100% of the issued capital of such company. This new trend could be spread globally using PR Newswire to reach international investors.

Tourist arrivals are picking up. For the last nine months ended in September 2010, tourist arrivals are up almost 50 per cent year-on-year. Tourism earnings too have kept pace with a 69 per cent growth according to reliable sources. It is expected that 15 per cent of the total population in the country will depend on tourism by 2016. Plans are being drawn to create 36,000 additional rooms by 2016 with a total investment of US$ 3,000 million.

India, UK, Germany, the Middle East, the Maldives, France, Australia, Canada, USA and the Netherlands were the top 10 tourist generating countries to Sri Lanka during the period January to August 2010. These countries accounted for 72.95 per cent of total tourist arrivals to the country during the period.

PR Newswire’s has strong rapport with the news agencies of these countries. By utilising PR Newswire, Sri Lankan hotels, resorts and other entertainment establishments can access more potential tourists from these countries.

Sri Lanka has ‘great locations for filming,’ says The Location Guide. The latest edition in 2011 has a separate focus on Sri Lanka, showing the island’s natural beauty and its reasonable production costs. Sri Lanka has an impressive history of filmmaking. It was the setting for such movies as ‘Bridge on the River Kwai,’ ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,’ ‘Jungle Book’ and ‘Tarzan the Ape Man’. By utilising PR Newswire services, Sri Lanka can reach filmmakers around the world to capitalise its beautiful and awesome wildlife parks, tea plantations and miles long pristine beaches.

Q: How can Selvasingam Consultants make a difference and what has your contribution been in the past?

A: Selvasingam Consultants is a network of consultants around the world from variety of fields and industries and connected independently. There are venture capitalists, film makers, automotive industry professionals, IT specialists and financiers from different parts of the world in our network to share their expertise.

We maintain good rapport with Asian Film Location Services, which is led by veteran film maker Chandran Rutnam, to support clients on commercial and feature film production. Selvasingam Consultants could be credited for an upcoming American film which is going to be filmed in Sri Lanka with the co-production of Asian Film Location Services.

We are currently involved consulting for a major environmental institution in India, a subsidised housing project in San Francisco and an international sports event in Sri Lanka on regional and global level.

I authored a book which was published in USA couple of years ago and utilised PR Newswire to issues the book release. The book release was republished by Reuters, Forbes, Yahoo – Finance, AOL, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter and other media.

(Selvasingam Consultants could be reached via [email protected].)