It was reported, but not believed. Even over the course of the few years back in Ohio, the Dayton newspapers wrote stories and reporters witnessed flights, but the rest of the world thought it was all lies.

EDIT - it should probably be pointed out that the Wright brothers didn't think that powered flight, in and of itself, was all the useful without a method to control the aircraft. That's what they really worked on and really their most important contribution. There were a lot of people working on flying machines all over the world, but the Wright brothers had radically different ideas on how to control the aircraft (and ultimately they were correct). So there was a lot of incentive for others in the flying community to discount their success until it was too late to deny it.

In France (5 years after Kitty Hawk), they were flying circles, figure 8s, etc and people were truly shocked by what they saw. And then they took men and women up as passengers to experience it. That's when they became famous.