According to ESWN Foxconn has reduced the damages requested to 1 yuan. Roland is citing a very brief Netease report, and I am not sure how authoritative it is. But if it is true, then it means that Foxconn has taken one of the possible paths I outlined yesterday: reduce the damages to a symbolic level but proceed with the lawsuit. Apple also interceded in the dispute, as I suggested they should. I'd like to claim credit for remote PR genius but, a) it's not genius, it's common sense; b) Foxconn and Apple are probably not reading this blog and c) we'll see how things play out for Foxconn in the Chinese press over the next few days.

Just as interesting as the Foxconn scandal itself is a sideline discussion that has broken out over the newsworthiness of the story with regard to western audiences. Roland was originally disappointed with slow uptake of the story by Western media. Do read his post above, which offers his point of view on this and lists many of the foreign news sources that eventually did carry the story. Then be sure (especially if you're a China PR pro) to read this post from Richard Spencer, bureau chief of UK newspaper the Telegraph. Richard keeps one of the best journalist blogs in China and he explains very clearly what news value this story has and doesn't have with regard to his (middle-England) readers. I should send this post to my clients when they ask why I don't pitch their China business stories to general-interest Western media like the Telegraph, as opposed to specialist business media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Business Week.

I'm a technology PR man so I think in terms of brand and reputation with regards to technology companies. I wrote the story for my CNET Asia blog, but then I have a specific China technology mandate, no editing to speak of, and write for an Asian readership specifically interested in technology. More generally, I tend to judge a story this way: "If I was that company's PR man, would I be worried?" For me this story had potential legs overseas for one reason: Apple. Apple is a hot brand that just navigated a China PR scandal involving Foxconn. With an Apple press story as the origination of the of the lawsuit this is potentially interesting to foreign audiences and thus a PR risk for them. If was Apple's PR man, I would have been worried.

I see that a lot of the overseas coverage was fairly narrow. Some of it is in journalist blogs (as in Barron's and the San Francisco Chronicle) and much of it in specialist technology news (Slashdot, VNUNet, MacWorld) interested specifically in the Apple connection. I put "Apple" in my own CNET headline. Most of what might considered mainstream coverage with a broad impact is either from the wire services --which covered the story widely-- or business media (The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times), many of which ran the wire coverage. That's understandable; Foxconn is a large, listed company and a major supplier to many enormous, Western technology firms, so there are business implications.

So it was a story outside of China, but a particular kind of story. It's interesting what crosses borders and why. When I do internal training in foreign media relations for my company I spend some time on what different kinds of foreign media consider an interesting "China story". It always raises some eyebrows among my local colleagues.

A closing thought. I love my summer PR scandals. Last year: the Songhua River. This year Foxconn. Gotta love those crazy August days.

Disclosure: I am not Apple's PR man.

Update: Xinhua has run a story on Foxconn's claim reduction:
Foxconn said it lowered the compensation claim so that the public could focus on the fact that "the untrue reports had damaged the reputation of our company," and not just on the 30 million yuan compensation claim, Sina reported, citing company spokesman Edmund Ding.
Damn straight. And the newspaper reports aren't the only thing damaging Foxconn's reputation now, and it's a little late to refocus the public's attention. Next they think they have been libeled, they can sue the newspaper. Then, if they win, the newspaper can discipline the reporters and it won't be their problem. Hard lessons learned. Note that I have no opinion on whether the journalists did libel Foxconn or not. That's something for an (ahem) impartial  court to work out.

Previously:
What was Foxconn thinking?
Foxconn shoots themselves, Apple in the foot.