Degree of Success
9.
Press
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M
Gauging the success of our effort is of course difficult. As indicated above we may have achieved some progress against the Britain-knocking which is chronic in Hong Kong as in some other colonial and ex-colonial territories or any spot where expatriates foregather in significant numbers. The main source of adverse publicity remains of course the continual flow of gloom from London publications (Financial Times and The Economist mainly) and correspondents (Reuters, London Express Service) reflecting the normal beating of the British breast. However, this flow is counterbalanced to some extent by our own material and we can measure our efforts by usage figures. About two-thirds of the regular COI material is placed and the success rate for our locally produced items is much higher (naturally being more newsy because of its local slant).
Simple statistics of our usage show that last year we picked up some 1,100 COI items in the press. The figures for the first seven months of 1974, amounting to some 825, indicate a rather higher success rate of 1,400-1,500 items for the year.
These figures do not include the 300-400 items published concerning the British Motor Show held here in February; nor do they include coverage of CUI and BTC produced 'stories' for visiting missions and
other trade events and local success stories, which
amount to several hundreds. They are also on the conservative side in that the BTC subscribes to only the more influential and prominent newspapers and periodicals and cannot hope to check usage in the
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/numerous