Crossing the pond: Why your UK PR playbook won’t float in the US

How to break into the US market.

Lizi Sprague is co-founder and manager partner at Songue PR.

When I packed up my life in London and moved to San Francisco ten years ago, I thought I knew PR. I was already half a decade into my career and had built a solid network of contacts across print and digital media. I’d crafted stories and led campaigns.

PR in America, I assumed, would work the same as back home. How different could it be? We speak the same language, share cultural touchstones and in the digital age, we’re all swimming in the same global media pool.

Wrong.While they appear similar from the outside, UK and US PR are distinct worlds with meaningful differences both subtle and significant. With over 15 years in the industry now, I’ve witnessed firsthand how companies struggle making the leap across the Atlantic, clinging to their trusted UK media relations playbook only to find it insufficient for American media landscapes. My cross-market expertise was forged precisely because these differences matter in delivering successful campaigns on both sides of the pond.

The Atlantic divide

George Bernard Shaw once famously said, “England and America are two countries separated by the same language.” When it comes to PR, it’s especially true.

UK companies looking to spread their message Stateside usually take one of two approaches, both deeply flawed. They’ll either replicate their existing model in the US, using the same budgets and messaging with the only change to remove the surplus “u” from words like “color” and “flavor.” Or they’ll shift to the other extreme, treating the US as an almost alien environment and changing everything — separate messaging, budget, strategy — but not understanding the crucial regional nuances.

For obvious reasons, neither approach works. The fundamentals of PR — compelling stories, strong relationships and authentic messaging — are true on both sides of the Atlantic. What needs to change is the execution.

Three major differences

1. Budget reality
   It goes without saying that US PR is significantly more expensive than UK PR. The US media landscape can be 5-10 times larger than the UK’s, depending on your industry. Where you might have 20 key journalists in London covering a specific beat, you could face 200 in the US spread across four time zones.

It’s not just that the US media landscape is bigger. It’s also more complicated. Reporters change beats more frequently than they do in the UK. Although media is far from a stable industry back home, US newsrooms seem to be continually restructuring, locked in an endless cycle of hire-and-fire.

And just as America has more journalists, it also has significantly more PR professionals. The competition for coverage is fierce.

It’s here where the old adage “you get what you pay for” rings true. Just like in the UK, the best US PR professionals don’t just pitch — they have the relationships, the contacts and the smarts to make sure your story reaches the right journalist at the right time. They know how to craft your message so that it resonates.

This experience costs money — and perhaps more than you’re used to spending on a UK campaign — but in the long run, it pays for itself.

2. Timeline requirements
One of the biggest differences between the UK and the US is the pace of the news cycle and the lead times that journalists expect. While British journalists are often content with a few days’ notice to digest your upcoming product launch, their US counterparts — drowning in pitches, deadlines and an ever-growing workload — need at least a week for standard announcements and more for exclusives.

It’s not just that the American media landscape is bigger — although that’s a huge part of it. Newsrooms are smaller than they’ve ever been, and US tech journalists are churning out stories faster while covering ever-broader beats. Today’s tech reporter might cover AI regulation, then pivot to climate change’s impact on data centers — all before lunch.

The best thing you can offer a US journalist isn’t just a good story — it’s time. Give them advance notice, complete assets and breathing room. Last-minute pitches sink relationships quickly.

3. The US-centric current
Perhaps the biggest cultural shift that UK companies must navigate as they expand westward is the US-centric nature of the media. Unless international news directly impacts US shores, it rarely makes waves.

It doesn’t matter that your SaaS solution is used by the biggest banks in the UK or that your product is sold in every Tesco around the country. US journalists want US customers, US data and US proof points.

As impressive as your successes may be at home, the sad reality is that they carry very little currency in the US. The most successful UK companies recognize this from the outset and adjust their messaging accordingly.

Charting your course

From my experience, companies succeed when they recognize the similarities and differences between these distinct media ecosystems.

One UK fintech client came to us after an unsuccessful US media campaign that heavily emphasized their European success in their outreach. We repositioned with US customer stories, domestic market data and challenges specific to the US market. Within three months, they had landed coverage in major financial publications.

Another client, a sustainability startup, learned a hard lesson about timelines when they announced their US expansion with just 48 hours’ notice. We rebuilt relationships, adjusted their approach and their next announcement — with proper lead time — generated significant coverage.

These stories reflect the lessons that I learned when I moved to the States: that US PR isn’t the same as UK PR, but with different spellings and a bigger budget. It’s an entirely different culture.

The journey ahead

Yes, storytelling remains universal. Yes, relationships matter everywhere. But the execution, from budget to timeline to content, must transform completely.

The rewards justify the journey. The US market offers unparalleled opportunities for companies willing to invest properly. But respect the crossing. Pack appropriate resources, allow sufficient time and most importantly, adapt your approach to US currents.

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