A prospective client recently asked a question I hear every summer: Is August a bad time to announce news?The thinking goes that too many people are on vacation, so smart companies should wait until September.
My answer surprised her: August might be the best month on the calendar to make news.
Here’s my case.
The empty newsroom is a myth.
Yes, Europeans famously take the month off. They ground themselves on a beach and let the economy sort itself out. Good for them.
But most American journalists don’t work that way.
Newsrooms keep publishing in August. Inboxes keep filling. LinkedIn keeps scrolling.
There is no moment when the news stops.
The competition actually does leave.
Because so many companies believe the vacation myth, they hold their announcements until fall. That means fewer stories competing for reporters’ attention in August.
It also results in a much more crowded field in September, when everyone’s pent-up news floods reporter inboxes at once.
If you announce in August, you’re walking into a quieter room. That’s an advantage.
Reporters have time to go deeper.
When journalists aren’t pulled in as many directions, they have time to do the kind of reporting they got into the business for.
I’ve watched VentureBeat go deep on a client’s story in August in a way that wouldn’t have happened during a packed news cycle, in part because the reporter had the room to do it.
A slower month can mean a fuller, richer story, not a smaller one.
AI never takes a vacation.
This is the part most companies haven’t factored in: Every story published about you now feeds the answer engines. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity read in August like they read in April.
AI never gets a day off.
Coverage you earn this month shapes how AI describes your company to buyers in September, December and beyond. Waiting to announce delays that compounding effect.
Your audience is still reading.
The person who asked me the question made this point herself: Even executives on family vacation are checking LinkedIn between beach trips. She is absolutely right!
Some are reading more, because they’re less buried in meetings.
Checked out of the office rarely means checked out of the feed.
So, what should you do?
If your news is ready, announce it. Don’t sit on a good story because of a calendar superstition.
And if your news isn’t ready, use August to sharpen your messaging, build the assets that take time and line up your commentary so you can react to breaking news the moment it happens.
Either way, August shouldn’t be a month you wait out. It’s a month you can win.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find the right image for this post.
I’m thinking Europeans bronzing in the sun.
