Most Indian businesses write press releases in English by default, then wonder why regional publications ignore them. Regional and Hindi language media reach audiences English business press does not, and they are far easier to get into. This guide covers when a regional release is worth doing, how to handle translation without creating problems, and the mistakes that make translated releases unusable.
When a regional release is worth it
Not always. English is the working language of national business media, and for a funding round aimed at investors it is usually enough on its own.
A regional version earns its cost when:
- Your customers are regional. A retailer opening in Nashik, a manufacturer hiring in Coimbatore, a clinic expanding in Indore — the people who care read regional papers.
- The news is local. A store opening, a factory, a hiring drive, a local partnership. Regional desks actively want this and rarely have enough of it.
- You are hiring. Local-language coverage reaches candidates that a national business site does not.
- The subject is consumer-facing. Food, retail, healthcare, education, agriculture.
It is usually not worth it for B2B SaaS announcements, funding rounds aimed at institutional investors, or anything where the audience reads in English anyway.
Write English first, then translate
The sequence matters more than people expect. Write the English version, get it approved, then translate. Writing two originals in parallel produces two documents whose facts drift apart — and it is always the numbers that drift.
Once approved, lock the English version. Any change after that has to be made in both, or you end up with a Hindi release quoting a figure the English one no longer contains.
What machine translation gets wrong
Machine translation is fine for a first pass and unusable as a final draft. Four things break consistently:
- Quotes stop sounding like speech. A translated quote reads as translated, and editors notice immediately. Quotes should be re-written in the target language, ideally by the person quoted, not converted word for word.
- Numbers change format unpredictably. Crore and lakh, decimal placement, and date order all get mangled. Check every figure by hand.
- Job titles get literal. “Chief Operating Officer” translated literally often produces something no Indian company actually uses. Keep designations in English if that is how they appear on the business card.
- Company and product names get translated. They should not be. Lock proper nouns before you translate.
What to keep in English
Even in a Hindi or regional release, these normally stay in English because that is how readers encounter them:
- Company, brand and product names
- Designations, if that is how the company uses them
- Regulatory terms and certifications — GST, FSSAI, ISO, WHO-GMP
- The website URL and email address
- Technical terms with no settled regional equivalent
The test is simple: if a reader would search for the term in English, keep it in English.
Numbers in regional releases
For a domestic regional audience, crore and lakh are clearer than millions and there is no reason to convert. Use the Indian numbering system consistently and do not mix formats within one document.
State the financial year explicitly — FY 2025-26 rather than “last year” — for the same reason as in English: the Indian financial year does not match the calendar year, and “last year” means different things to different readers.
Which languages, practically
Do not translate into ten languages because you can. Pick by where your customers and your operations are:
- Hindi if you operate across the north or want the widest single regional reach
- The language of the state you are announcing in — Marathi for a Pune facility, Tamil for a Chennai store, Gujarati for a Surat plant
- One additional language at most for the first attempt, so you can see whether it produces anything before scaling
Two well-translated versions outperform six machine-translated ones, and cost less to maintain.
Publishing both versions
Publish them as separate pages, not stacked on one. Two languages on a single page confuses both readers and search engines about what the page is for.
Link them to each other so a reader landing on one can find the other, and make sure the facts match exactly. A discrepancy between your English and Hindi versions is the kind of thing that gets noticed at the worst possible moment.
Frequently asked questions
Should I write my press release in Hindi or English?
English by default, because that is the working language of national business media. Add a Hindi or regional version when the news is local, the customers are regional, or you are hiring in that state — those are the cases where regional desks actively want the story.
Can I use Google Translate for a press release?
As a first pass only. Machine output breaks quotes, mangles number formats, translates company names that should stay fixed, and produces job titles no Indian company uses. Every figure and every proper noun needs checking by a person before publication.
Should company names be translated?
No. Company names, brand names, product names, website URLs and usually designations stay in English. The rule of thumb is that anything a reader would search for in English should remain in English.
Is it easier to get regional media coverage in India?
Generally yes, particularly for local news such as store openings, factories, hiring drives and local partnerships. Regional desks have fewer submissions of genuine local business news than national business desks do, and their readers are often closer to your actual customers.
Should the English and regional versions be on the same page?
No, publish them as separate pages and link them to each other. Two languages on one page confuses readers and search engines about the page’s purpose. Keep the facts identical across both, because discrepancies get noticed.
Publishing your release
Start from our Indian press release samples, check the draft against the rejection reasons, then submit it. The free tier costs nothing if you want to test the process first.