Hong Kong Newspaper

The Sunday Examiner

2008-09-24T08:16:00.001-07:00

The Sunday Examiner is a newspaper owned by the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. The newspaper is published weekly and is available every Sunday at the Catholic churches in Hong Kong. The medium of the newspaper is the English language, whereas ''Kung Kao Po'', another publication produced by the Diocese, is published in .

The Star (Hong Kong)

2008-09-24T08:15:00.009-07:00

The Star was Hong Kong's first tabloid newspaper, founded in 1965 and closed down in 1984. It was founded by Graham Jenkins, an journalist, who was the newspaper's editor until 1979. After the , Graham decided to add a Chinese language edition. The newspaper was printed and published by Consolidated Newspapers Ltd. When the newspaper was closed, 120 employees lost their job virtually overnight. The news came as a shock because the newspaper had increased its readership in the years before the closing.

Reporters include: Alfred Lee , San , Kenneth Ko, Christine Chow, Christina Xu .

Photographers include: Norman Lam, Norman Lau, Thomas Chan.

The Standard

2008-09-24T08:15:00.007-07:00

The Standard is an free newspaper of Hong Kong. It was called the Hong Kong Standard and changed to HKiMail during the Internet boom, but it changed back to The Standard in 2001.

From 10 September 2007, The Standard, which was originally sold at HK$6 each, became a free newspaper. It is now Hong Kong's first and only free English newspaper, which has seen the editorial direction shift towards a more controversial "tabloid" style of coverage, whilst also shifting to a more pro Government, pro-cartel, nationalistic position.

The South China Morning Post and the International Herald Tribune are its main local competitors.

Format

''The Standard'' is printed in tabloid-format rather than in broadsheet, unlike other English-language newspapers in Hong Kong. It is published daily from Monday to Saturday.

''Weekend Standard'' was published during weekends before The Standard became a free newspaper. The issue, which covers both Saturdays and Sundays, comes out on Saturday. Certain sections, namely the ''Market'', ''Entertainment'', ''Focus'' and ''Opinion'' sections, are not published in ''Weekend Standard''.

Ownership

''The Standard'' is published by Sing Tao Newspaper Limited, which is also the publisher of ''Sing Tao Daily'' and ''Headline Daily''. This enterprise is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation Limited, a firm owning other businesses including media publications, human capital management and Broadband service. The Global China Group Holdings acquired 51% of Sing Tao Holdings Ltd. in January 2001 and changed its name in 2005. The Chairman of Sing Tao News Corporation Limited is Ho Tsu Kwok, Charles .

History

''The Standard'' was originally named the ''Hong Kong Tiger Standard''. The newspaper was founded by Tycoon Aw Boon Haw after the end of the Chinese Civil War. On the backs of financially successful Sing Tao Daily and Tiger Balm, he attacked the English-language newspaper market by launching the paper on 1 March 1949 to give a Chinese voice to the world, and to advance the interests of Chinese in all their endeavours and defend them against all kinds inequalities, challenging the pro-colonial establishment press. It started life as a broadsheet, largely be edited and run by Chinese, but without the exclusion of other nationals.

Circulation fraud

In August 1996, the in Hong Kong found out that 14,000 copies of the paper had been discarded in Wan Chai pier and therefore started an investigation. The ICAC discovered that from 1994 to 1997, the circulation figures of the ''Hong Kong Sunday Standard'' and the ''Hong Kong Standard'' had been routinely and substantially exaggerated, in order to attract advertisers and to raise the revenue of the newspapers. Circulation figures had always been somewhat obscure, due to the Sing Tao group's longstanding agreements with Hotels and clubs where the newspaper was distributed free.

As a result, the ICAC arrested three staff members of the ''Hong Kong Standard'' and charged Aw Sian as co-conspirator. This case was examined and deliberated from 23 November 1998 to 20 January 1999. Finally, the three staff members were found guilty, and sentenced to jail for 4 to 6 months. Aw Sian was not prosecuted. The decision generated a large controversy among the public, and raised the question of legal discrimination and injustice environment in arbitration.

Nevertheless, the Secretary of Justice, Ms Elsie Leung justified her decided not to prosecute Aw Sian on the basis of insufficient evidence and public interest.

Other information

*The cover price of ''The Standard'' was HK$6, but it is now free.
*Its former slogan was ''TELLS IT LIKE IT IS''.
*The reformated freesheet version of the ''The Standard'' carries the slogan "First Past the Post".

The Epoch Times

2008-09-24T08:15:00.005-07:00

The Epoch Times is a privately owned, general-interest newspaper, originally published in . Its stated focus is coverage of China and human rights issues. Its editorial stance has been described as critical of the Chinese Communist Party and sympathetic to dissidents. The CCP blocks mainlanders from accessing the ''Epoch Times'''s website.

General

According to the newspaper itself, ''The Epoch Times'' was founded in New York in May 2000, following the arrest of a small circle of journalists in in 2000. On August 12, 2002, ''The Epoch Times'' launched its first daily in Washington, D.C..

In 2006, Eugenia Chien wrote in the journal ''New Media America'', that "''The Epoch Times'' now distributes in over 30 countries worldwide, with a weekly circulation of 1.5 million. Its circulation, like many ethnic newspapers, is not audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The newspaper's English edition launched in New York in 2004 and rapidly grew. In New York alone, the newspaper has a 150,000 weekly distribution, in addition to 40,000 home deliveries, according to the newspaper." The term Dafa disciple refers to practitioners of Falun Dafa; "validating the Fa" refers to resisting the persecution of Falun Gong in mainland China, at the same time .

According to Li, ''The Epoch Times'' is one of “three major media groups”—Sound of Hope and New Tang Dynasty TV are the other two—which most concern the Chinese Communist Party, because ''The Epoch Times'' has become “the platform and facilitator for the Nine Commentaries.” In 2005 Li said "if you want to do better, you need to cooperate and coordinate well, carry out each task responsibly and attentively, and through your collective effort make that media outlet stand out. If all of you do well, the media outlet is bound to do well, and it will have a greater effect."

Blocked from being accessed electronically or distributed in China, the Chinese version of ''The Epoch Times'' is mainly being distributed in overseas Chinese communities for free. It claims to have a weekly distribution of over one million copies in 30 countries worldwide. The paper has associated media services, including the television station New Tang Dynasty TV, the radio station Sound of Hope, which together with ''The Epoch Times'' form the Epoch media group. ''Minghui'' and ''Reminbao'' are two other news sources used by few if any other media, and that help contribute stories from a Falun Gong perspective.

As of April 2006, ''The Epoch Times'' was available in ten languages for its print editions and in 17 languages on the Internet. In August 2004, an English language edition of ''The Epoch Times'' was launched in Manhattan. English editions are distributed in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States. and editions were launched in late 2004. There are two language editions in Japan: Chinese language edition and Japanese language edition , office is located in , Tokyo.
More recently , , , , and editions have started up in print.

Also in 2006, Epoch Times reporter Wang Wenyi made international headlines by yelling protests at and during a White House lawn press briefing concerning the crackdown of Falun Gong. The Epoch Times later apologized, and Wang Wenyi asserted that she undertook the action on her own. On 5 July 2006, Dr. Wang attended a media conference at the National Press Club with two recently released Falun Gong prisoners by her side to accuse China of secret organ harvesting. "The civilized world must shout to China," said Wang."

Awards and Recognition

In May 2005, ''Die Neue Epoche'' received a special media prize from the International Society for Human Rights for "extensive and regular reporting about violations of ." In August 2005, the English version of the paper was awarded the top award by the Asian American Journalists Association for the category "Asian American Issues - Online." In September 2005, the Chinese version of the paper was recognized during the National Ethnomedia Week 2005 in Canada as a "strong defender of human rights and free democratic values."

Focus

''The Epoch Times'' originally targeted Chinese readers living abroad and reported on various alleged persecutions and abuses by, as well as the inner workings of, the CCP . The paper's reports on China are highly critical of the Chinese government, and its tone and commentaries towards the Chinese Communist Party are largely negative. It often refers to China's government as "Communist China" in its reports, including non-political articles. It has since grown to report on civil rights issues worldwide, and now appeals to a somewhat wider audience. The English edition represents itself as a general-interest newspaper that, although it maintains a large amount of China-related content, offers twelve other sections, including travel, science, sports, and regional and international news.

The paper is unique in giving a large amount of attention to Falun Gong's campaigns, particularly their attempt to sue former Chinese President Jiang Zemin under civil legislation for genocide. However the case failed to attract major media attention outside of the newspaper, and later the paper's stance shifted from being anti-Jiang Zemin to anti-CCP. According to tax records, the chairman of the paper's board, Kangang Xu, is a top Falun Gong spokesperson. A US Congressional report lists the newspaper as a Falun Gong affiliated media source.

It was one of the first newspapers to carry in-depth coverage of SARS, well before the Chinese government publicly admitted that there was an epidemic that went on to cause some 350 deaths. The paper also counters what it considers to be CCP propaganda through its own opinion pieces. The paper is very vocal in supporting dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners, pro-independence Taiwanese, American conservatives and all other traditional opponents of the CCP; their views are often expressed in the opinion page.

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party

In November 2004, the Chinese version of ''The Epoch Times'' published and heavily promoted a series of editorials and a booklet entitled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" . The editorials purport to give an alternate exposé of the CCP through its history, from its ascent to power under Mao Zedong to its present-day form, as well as a condemnation of communism in all of its forms. In it the CCP was criticized as an illegitimate institution who employed underhanded tactics to gain power. Later in the series, however, the direction seems to shift between the CPC itself, its leaders, and allots an entire chapter on the "personal jealousy of Jiang Zemin" and his attacks on Falun Gong. The Nine Commentaries won the “Asian American Issues - Online” category at the 2005 Asian American Journalists Association convention held in August 2005. The "Commentaries" were subsequently rendered into other languages.

According to China's Sina News, while praised by some Chinese dissidents as having an adverse effect on the political control of the CCP, the contents of the commentaries are disputed by some critics who call it historical revisionism and Falun Gong propaganda. Because such text is banned in China, the paper has been reported to often send unsolicited copies, disguised as lottery winnings, sexually explicit material, and free game or music downloads via email or Internet pop-ups to spread their message inside mainland China.^{Inaccurate reference: the Sina News didn't mention the Epoch Times or the commentaries at all}

In December 2005, the author of the "Nine Commentaries" was identified as Zheng Peichun, a Chinese dissident, who was arrested on the charge of crimes against the state and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. The paper has published a follow-up to the ''Nine Commentaries'', entitled the ''The Real Story of Jiang Zemin'', which portrays former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who Falun Gong believes is , in a completely negative lights, calling him a "lowlife who betrayed his own nation", depicting Jiang as a power-hungry political opportunist who sold China to foreign powers and created domestic chaos.

CPC Renunciations and Controversy

''The Epoch Times'' claims that the publication of the "Commentaries" and its subsequent call to CCP members to "erase the beastly brand" has caused more than 35.4 million CCP members to resign as of April 2008. ''The Epoch Times'' obtains this number by tallying renunciation statements submitted to them via Internet, fax, email, or telephone. This methodology is not scientific and widely disputed, and may not reflect the actual number of CCP resignations within China since anyone regardless of Chinese citizenship or CCP membership could submit their name and be counted as a person who has claimed to have renounced their CCP membership. Submissions include anonymous and unverifiable online signatures, duplicate signatures, and public declarations for people inside mainland China unable to access the website due to . The count also includes any renunciations of past or current association with any CCP-affiliated organization. At their Chinese language renunciation website, it was stated that "the evils of the Communist Cult will be punished by God at Judgment Day", and called on members of the CCP to burn Communist memorabilia. These renunciations are not recognized as valid and official by the CCP, as they are not conducted through the proper channels via the party.

This campaign calling for the renouncements of CCP members is also called the three Renouncements since it also encourages members of the two major subordinating organizations of the CCP, the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers of China, to renounce their memberships.

Worth noticing that according to the Constitution of the Young Pioneers of China , only children between the age of 6 and 14 are eligible to be a member of the YP. Those who exceeds this age limit exits the YP automatically. Similar age restrictions applies to the Communist Youth League as well . However, many participants renounces their membership of the YP and CYL even though they exceeds the age limits of these organizations and are no longer members. For example, the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi renounced his membership of CYL in 2005 at the age of 54 and was included in the tally.

Some says that the three renouncements has nothing to do with Falun Gong, but is just an independent campaign launched by ''Epoch Times''. However, Fei Liangyong, Chairman of the Democratic China Front and senior member of Chinese Free Culture Movement, explicitly mentioned that the three renouncements campaign was indeed initiated by Falun Gong in his speeches and his various interviews with Falun Gong related media such as ''Mingjian'' and ''Huiyuan''.

At their English language version of the renunciation website, the cumulative count of people who have allegedly quit the CCP appears as a sidebar to the Internet form which captures English language denunciations of the CCP. An official ''Epoch Times'' statement appearing at the bottom of the page appears to conflate denunciations done by non CCP members on this page with the renunciations done by CCP members on the Chinese language page: "All ''The Epoch Times'' Offices worldwide will provide assistance to anybody who wants to denounce/renounce the Communist Party .

During the summer of 2005, two diplomats, Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun, defected from the Chinese embassy in Canberra, Australia. The cases received international attention, and Chen Yonglin received some attention from ''The New York Times''. According to ''The Epoch Times'', their actions had been influenced by the Nine Commentaries. More recently, in a story beginning October 26th, 2006, Jia Jia, Secretary General of the Shanxi Provincial Expert Association of Science and Technology, has made ''Epoch Times'' headlines due to his supposed renunciation of the Communist Party of China.

According to ''Epoch Times'' interviews, his actions were directly influenced by the Nine Commentaries, and Jia asserts considerable discussion of the Commentaries and government dissatisfaction within China. Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Voice of America are among other media that picked up the story, interviewing Mr. Jia themselves.

Credibility

Orville Schell, dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, said "It's hard to vouch for their quality because it's difficult to corroborate, but it's not something to be dismissed as pure propaganda." Liu says the journal's credibility as media professionals has been damaged by the Wang Wenyi incident. James Bettinger, professor of Communications at Stanford University and the director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, said that their consistent writing about Falun Gong in the same perspective, without critical examination Falun Gong, contributes to people's perception that it is not credible.

Arthur Waldron, a leading China scholar and Lauder Professor of International Relations in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania says he finds ''The Epoch Times'' "particularly striking," and believes it is obvious that "its reports are drawn from a network of correspondents inside China, a network that the authorities have not been able to destroy." He recommends those who want to get a sense of what is really going on in China should "pay at least as much attention to ''The Epoch Times'' as they do to the ''People’s Daily.''"

The paper denies all accusations of bias, stating that "We are not funded by Falun Gong, we don't speak for Falun Gong, and we don't represent Falun Gong."

Ta Kung Pao

2008-09-24T08:15:00.003-07:00

Ta Kung Pao is the oldest active Chinese language newspaper in China. It is based in Hong Kong and has been funded by the government of the People's Republic of China since 1949. Widely regarded as the mouthpiece of Communist Party of China, it covers a range of , and topics.

In June 2002, ''Ta Kung Pao'' newspaper celebrated its 100th anniversary despite rumours that the PRC Government would cut funding for pro-communist newspapers after the 1997 of Hong Kong.

History

Ying Lianzhi founded the newspaper in Tientsin, China on 17 June, 1902 in order to, in Ying's own words, "help China become a modern and nation". In contrast to its present editorial style, the paper put forward the slogan ''4-No-ism" '' in its early years, pledging to say "No" to any parties, governments, commercial companies, and persons.

It stood up to the repression at the time, openly criticizing the and the leaders in China in the early 1900s, and promoted democratic reforms, pioneering the use of the . Readership fell after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and Wang Zhilong bought it in 1916. Still, the newspaper was out of print by 1925 due to the lack of readership. On 1 September 1926, however, Wu Dingchang , Hu Zhengzhi , and Zhang Jiluan re-established the newspaper in Tianjin. With "no party affiliation, no political endorsement, no self-promotion, no ignorance" as its motto, the newspaper's popularity quickly rose again because of its sharp political commentary, especially of the Japanese as the Second Sino-Japanese War/World War II began.

As the war waged on, the journalists fled to other cities, such as Shanghai, Hankou, Chongqing, Guilin and Hong Kong, to continue publishing, but local editions were abandoned as the Japanese captured more and more territory. After the war was won, Wong Wan San , the chief editor, re-established the Shanghai edition on November 1, 1945, in the original format and style of the old Shanghai edition. They had also planned to issue editions for other cities, including Guangzhou, but the Chinese Civil War forced this proposal to be shelved. However, in March 1948, the Hong Kong edition was re-issued. A major newspaper during the years, it continued to be influential after re-publication by Fei Yi Ming, the subsequent publisher in Hong Kongafter 1949, as one of few newspapers that survived foreign invasion and civil war.

The head office of ''Ta Kung Pao'' is located on Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, with many offices in mainland China, such as in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Inner-Mongolia and Guangzhou.

The paper was the earliest Chinese-language newspaper to establish a website "TaKungPao.com" in 1995.

Present

''Ta Kung Pao'' was regarded as a paper that published only positive news, to respect the PRC-HKSAR relationship. It has a favourable relationship with the Government, all Blue-Chips, and Pro- parties.

The exact circulation in Hong Kong is unknown, but it is among the three least popular newspapers with less than 10,000 copies being sold every day. Many people believe its quality is far below average, but in fact its readership is so small that very few, except a minority of old people, can actually tell how good or how bad it is.

South China Morning Post

2008-09-24T08:15:00.001-07:00

The South China Morning Post, together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an newspaper of Hong Kong, with a circulation of 104,000. Published by the SCMP Group, the South China Morning Post has a higher print circulation than its main competitors in Hong Kong, ''The Standard'' and the ''International Herald Tribune''.

The editor is CK Lau, who replaced the controversial Mark Clifford after he was ousted in April 2007.

History

Broadsheet

South China Morning Post Ltd was founded in 1903. The first edition of the paper published on November 6, 1903. In November 1971, it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It was privatised by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 1987, and relisted in 1990.

Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok's Kerry Media bought the controlling interest from News Corp in October 1993. His son, Kuok Khoon Ean, took over as chairman at the end of 1997.

Circulation and profitability

The paper has a circulation which has remained relatively constant at 104,000 copies since 2000, but is lower than a decade ago. The average audited circulation for the first half of 2007 stood at 106,054, while its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'' has a readership of 80,865. Its readership outside Hong Kong remains at some 6,825 copies for the same period, again, relatively unchanged. It also had the enviable position as the most profitable newspaper in the world on a "per reader" basis, profit declined since peaking in 1997 at HK$805 million, yet its growth potential is viewed as being largely dependent on its ability to penetrate the wider Chinese market.

The Group reported net profit of HK$338 million for the year 2006 , the operating profit of HK$419m was attributable mainly to the newspaper operation..

The selling price of the paper is HK$7 each from Monday to Saturday, and HK$8 for the ''Sunday Morning Post''. Discounted price is given for students' subscription.

Format

The printed version of the Post is in a broadsheet format, in sections: Main, City, Sport, Business, Classifieds, Property , Racing , Technology , Education , Style magazine ; the Sunday edition contains Main, a Review section, a Post Magazine, Racing, and "Young Post", targeted at the younger readers.

On 26 March 2007, the post was given a facelift, with new presentation and fonts.

Online version

''Scmp.com'' is a subscription-only service, which also allows the retrieval of archive articles dating back from 1993. It was launched online in December 1996. On May 30, 2007, scmp.com relaunched with a new look, features, and multimedia content. Headlines and the introduction to stories are now free to view, while the full articles are available to subscribers. Archive photos and articles are available for purchase.

On July 16, 2007, scmp.com launched its first-ever viral video marketing campaign targeting a global audience and highlighting the new multimedia features of the website.

Editorial

The Kuok family is known to be pro-, and questions have been raised over its editorial independence. There have been concerns, denied by Kuok, over the forced departures, in rapid succession, of several staff and contributors who were considered critical of China or its supporters in Hong Kong. These included, in the mid-1990s, their popular cartoonist Larry Feign, humor columnist Nury Vittachi, and numerous China desk staff, namely 2000-01 editorial pages editor Danny Gittings, Beijing correspondent Jasper Becker, and China pages editor Willy Lam, who departed after his reporting had been publicly criticised by Robert Kuok.

Cartoonist Feign was abruptly dismissed not long after Kuok's purchase of the newspaper, after running several cartoons about the alleged culling of human body parts from Chinese prisoners. His firing was defended as "cost cutting", but was widely viewed as political self-censorship during the jittery final years before Hong Kong's handover to the PRC.

Editorial page editor Gittings complained that in January 2001 he was ordered not to run extracts of the Tiananmen Papers, but was only allowed to after protesting "strenuously". The editor, however, believed that there had already been sufficient coverage.

At the launch of a joint report published by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and Article 19 in July 2001, the Chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association said: "More and more newspapers self-censor themselves because they are controlled by either a businessman with close ties to Beijing, or part of a large enterprise, which has financial interests over the border."

Mark Clifford, appointed Editor-in-Chief in February 2006, also enjoyed a turbulent 14 months in the job. He was responsible for the high profile dismissal of a number of journalists over an internal prank.

Sing Tao Daily

2008-09-24T08:14:00.001-07:00

The Sing Tao Daily is Hong Kong's second largest Chinese language newspaper. It is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation Limited, of which Ho Tsu Kwok, Charles is the chairman. Its English language sister paper is ''The Standard''. The ''Sing Tao'' also maintains the news website .

There are also at least 16 overseas editions of the ''Sing Tao Daily'', which are published by 9 overseas bureaus and circulated in 100 cities around the world. The overseas editions help facilitate easy access to homeland news for Chinese language readers outside China.

History

The parent company of the ''Sing Tao Daily'', the Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited, was founded in 1938 and is based in Hong Kong. The ''Sing Tao Daily'' was first published in the same year. It has one of the longest publishing histories among the Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong.

After opening its first overseas office in San Francisco in 1975, the ''Sing Tao'' set up International News Centres in New York, , San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, London and Sydney. In all, the company now has twenty-two offices globally.

In 1998, members of the management team were found guilty of falsifying market data. The Hong Kong government's decision not to charge the chairwoman Wu Sin for reasons of "public benefit" turned into a scandal for the Hong Kong legal system and was quoted as a reason for the million's march on July 1, 2003. Shortly after, financial problems forced Wu Sin to sell out her stock in the Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited.

Sing Tao's Toronto edition is partially owned by Star Media Group, the publisher of the Toronto Star.

Market

The ''Sing Tao Daily'' has chosen to refresh its image and editorial content by positioning itself as the newspaper of choice for the middle class, who demand a more high-brow content. Sing Tao Daily also targets students by offering them cheaper subscription editions.

The ''Sing Tao Daily'' overseas editions target Chinese immigrants in foreign countries such as the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Creation of editorial product

The ''Sing Tao Daily''’s editorial product is created using daily Chinese language internet feeds from Hong Kong, together with national feeds from its news bureau in New York and from various regional editorial staff.

The information is transmitted electronically to the various production facilities where prepress departments compose the pages using the Chinese electronic publishing system FounderFit , which allows the Chinese language to be digitally typeset.

In August 2007 the San Francisco office stopped using all FounderFit applications for Newspaper production. Sing Tao San Francisco now uses page layout, ad production, tracking and classified pagination applications from SCS of Nazareth, Pa. Adobe InDesign and Quark are used for news pagination. Sing Tao Toronto, Vancouver and LA have also switched to the SCS production applications.

The Information Services Department is a combination of the former Sing Tao Daily Main Library, Sing Tao Daily Business Library, Hong Kong iMail/Hong Kong Standard Library and the Sing Tao EDP Team. The department aids the production process through the following:

* News research support, e.g. the maintenance of photograph and news archives, company and land searches, etc.

* Acquisition of news content/services for publication and reference

* Compilation of charts and tables for publication, including horse racing results, stock listings, financial indices, property transaction records, shipping schedules, and weather data

* Handling applications for copyright permission

The Sing Tao Electronic Photo System acts as a complement to the Information Services Department. It provides wire photos from six popular news media, pictures used for daily publication, photographs taken by their own staff and photo archives. The photos are classified for easy retrieval.

News files, photos and other resources can be accessed through a web-based library resource catalogue.

Political stance

The ''Sing Tao'' has a pro-government history. Before the reunification of Hong Kong with China, it supported the ; and once Hong Kong turned into a special administrative region, it turned support to the Beijing government. This can easily be identified in the editorials, and it is also true for the overseas editions.

On 11 November 2001, the Quebec Supreme Court issued an injunction against the local edition of Sing Tao Daily for libel against the Falun Gong, which was outlawed in the People's Republic of China, a government that respects no religious freedom, as a "evil cult" and put under persecution.

Image promotion

The ''Sing Tao Daily'' has embarked upon many programmes to lift its brand positioning and stimulate its circulation and readership.

These have included the following:

* Editorial repositioning

* Opinion exchanges with readers

* A special edition with highlights of the ''Sing Tao Daily'''s core and enhanced content

* Special supplements, e.g. its series of supplements following the events of September 11, 2001, and pullouts

* Topical supplements, including ''Property Browser'' and ''Job Market''

* Support of campaigns such as

** the Angel Campaign

** the Inter-School Debating Competition

** the Leader of the Year Award

Some perceive the ''Sing Tao'' to be a traditional and conservative newspaper. It has recently launched a "daring and middle class" communication platform in an attempt to promote itself as being more contemporary.

Some firsts of the ''Sing Tao Daily''

* The ''Sing Tao Daily'' has the largest regional coverage among global Chinese communities and also has the second largest global coverage in the world, following the International Herald Tribune. Sing Tao pioneered satellite transmission and was the first newspaper available on opposite sides of the world on the same day.

* The Sing Tao Group is the only media group in Hong Kong that owns both Chinese and English language newspapers.

* The ''Sing Tao Daily'' was the first newspaper in Hong Kong to launch a website. On August 23, 1995, www.singtao.com was launched.

* The ''Sing Tao Daily'' was the first newspaper in Hong Kong to develop a parenting section, which helps parents with advice for their children's growth and development.

Website content

The news on the website of the ''Sing Tao Daily'' is generally the same as what can be found in the printed paper. Different versions of the website customized with local content can also be accessed by readers in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.

Sing Pao Daily News

2008-09-24T08:13:00.007-07:00

Sing Pao Daily News is one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong and was first published on May 1, 1939 by the Sing Pao Newspaper Company Limited . It was initially published once every three days, and later once a day. According to Sing Pao, it circulates about 100,000 copies every day, with over 220,000 readers . People from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China can also buy and read it. In addition, people from all over the world can read Sing Pao anytime on the Internet simply by visiting its

The Newspaper

Sing Pao consists of various News Sections:
* — This section contains Hong Kong headlines, an editorial column, local news and related softnews, as well as a complaint board.
* — This section consists of international news, news from China, amusing international softnews, and profiles of international leaders.
* — In this section, one can find Economic headlines, news on Chinese Business, finance information, investment tips, and information on the property market.
* — In this section, there is wide coverage of local and international entertainment news.
* — This section focuses on football news, including football-gambling, , and other news.
*
*, such as Holiday, Foods and Drinks, Cars, Mobile phones, Computers and Software, Fashion and Beauty, Health, and Education.

Sing Pao especially targets teenagers and it has many school subscriptions. It has an editorial section for students, where young readers can summit their essays by post, fax or . Therefore, readers have a chance to share and learn from the essays of others. In addition, readers can get all sorts of useful information on education in Hong Kong, ranging from kindergarten to tertiary institutions at the Teacher and Student Corner. There are some articles about further studies overseas as well.

To give readers a clearer picture of what is happening in this constantly changing world as well as Hong Kong, Sing Pao also provides Weekly International News Highlights and a Corner about the . In this section, readers not only get a quick overview of current affairs happening around the world but also an opportunity to express their views.

Improvement in technology

In order to meet the advancement of the modern technology and the demands of people, Sing Pao introduced the By utilizing this channel, people using can download the most up-to-date news from the official Sing Pao website. It is convenient to readers who often browse news online, and it can further enlarge the circle of possible users.

Financial problems

Sing Pao experienced a change of ownership in 2000 due to a decline in sales. In 2000, the and China Strategic Holdings Limited bought Sing Pao and announced that the reporting style would remain the same, but the main focus would shift to entertainment news and advertisements in order to satisfy public interest. Furthermore, Chief Executive Officer Ng-Ching has been targeting the Chinese market to properly expand its service as an advertisement agent. But the date to initiate the circulation of Sing Pao is unknown at this time.

However, in 2002, there was another change of ownership. Sun Media bought Sing Pao Media Group for 1 billion . The company promised that they would re-structure the organization of Sing Pao and targeted the reduction of its loss in recent years until a balanced budget was reached.

The newspaper was under financial troubles again in early 2006, during which it was unable to pay the salaries of various employees on time. Eventually, in May 2004, 23 of its reporters -- led by Kwok Yin-Ling , the assistant chief editor -- took sick leave together as a measure/protest against the management. However, no agreement could be reached and the reporters resigned in the end . Some top-level executives have resigned after this incident. As of June 2006, at least 60 employees have left Sing Pao, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority is suing Sing Pao because of all the MPF Sing Pao hasn't paid, and the Labour Department is suing Sing Pao because of the unpaid wages.

The Labour Departnebt won and on 3 January 2007, Sing Pao was fined HK$4200. The media and the head of the Labour Department criticized the punishment as being too light. In face of the criticisms, the magistrate reopened the case on his own initiative the next day, as authorized by law . With the Magistrates' Courts, there is no functus officio; the magistrate can reopen his own case within 14 days. This led to other people criticizing the magistrate's decision to reopen, saying it gives the impression of popular and executive interference in the judiciary.

Reliability and Criticism

Although Sing Pao has a motto of reporting the truth fairly and objectively, it has faced criticism too. On 4 February 2003, a reader complained to the that Sing Pao published the full name, address, and picture of a victim in their paper, which violated their personal privacy.

Oriental Daily News

2008-09-24T08:13:00.005-07:00

Oriental Daily News is a newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969. It is one of the two newspapers published by the ''Oriental Press Group Limited'' , found by Ma's Family.

The founder of the newspaper was accused of committing heroin trades and series of corruptions in 70s by Hong Kong government, earning him the moniker 'White Powder'. He fled to Taiwan and never returned to Hong Kong.

In 1999, the newspaper was found guilty of "scandalizing the court", an extremely rare that the conduct would undermine confidence in the administration of justice . The charge was brought after the newspaper had abusive articles challenging the integrity and accusing it of bias in a lawsuit the paper had instigated over a photo of a Faye Wong. The paper had also arranged for paparazzi to track a judge for 72 hours, to provide the judge with first-hand experience with what paparazzi do.

While ''Oriental Daily'' targets at a more mature reader group, ''Sun Daily'' is more youthful and adventurous.

''Oriental Daily'' is referred by many as a tabloid because of its focus on soft news, i.e. news that edges towards entertainment in its form and content. It also adopts a sensational and critical style when reporting hard news.

The paper has been number one in circulation since 1976, with a record readership of over 3,100,000. ''Apple Daily'' is its main competitor.

Content

The paper does not differ greatly from other Chinese papers in terms of content. The newspaper provides daily coverage of various kinds of news, including local, international, financial, real estate, entertainment,and sports news. Information on horse-racing, soccer gambling, fashion trends and travel are also provided.

The ''Oriental Daily'' is credited for a couple of breakthroughs. In 1977, it was the first local paper to launch a complaint page. These complaints could be against both public agencies and private companies. Readers can phone, fax or even complain through the internet using realtime conference system. If the reporters find the complaints interesting, they investigate and report them, acting as a sort of ombudsman for their readers. This has contributed to local newspaper's role as an influential channel for citizens to express their ideas and articulate their antipathy.

The complaint page also reports on the response from the target of the complaints. It thus tries to stay neutral and fair, aiming only to arouse public awareness on the issues.

Facing keen competition, ''Oriental Daily'' tries hard to keep up with the city's pace. For instance, new columns like 'new arrivals' postbox' were set up to accommodate the needs of . A new soccer gambling page was also launched, with information on current .

Its editorial is one of a kind. It has two editorial everyday. The first one is called the 'Main Editorial' , which is styled like a typical newspaper editorial. The second one is called 'Kung Fu Tea' , which is written in the vernacular form of , is a daily critic of the misfits of the bureaucracy and reflecting the concerns of the grassroot population of Hong Kong.

Internet service

''Oriental Daily'', like many newspapers, has its own website. It provides readers free access to full version, up-to-date news. However, it only covers news of the day but not past issues.

Readers can, too, send e-mails instead of posting letters to editors. An electronic message board is out there to record their discussions.

''Orisun.com'' is the flagship website of the Oriental Press Group Limited. It was started in February 2002, and includes e-paper versions of ''Oriental Daily'' and ''Sun Daily''. The whole printed version is uploaded onto the web allowing people from all over the world to read. This helps promote online newspaper viewing. However, one point to note is that readers have to register and pay to subscribe to the e-papers. This is 'personal information as commodity', as readers need to provide personal information.

Competition and new developments

''Apple Daily'', established in 1995, is the paper's main competitor. They declared a price war against each other in December 1995. ''Apple Daily'' reduced its price to HKD$4 dollars. To retain its market share, ''Oriental Daily'' responded by reducing the price of newspaper to $2 dollars. During and after this war, six newspapers closed down due to persistent losses, driving out competitors such as ''Hong Kong Daily News'', ''Sing Pao Daily News'' and ''Tin Tin News''. The competition has led to changes in the paper's presentation, with more use of colorful photos and illustrations.

Competition also improved service quality, such as the introduction of customer service centres. Readers can report their complaints by visiting these centres in Tsim Sha Tsui and . Inside the centre, complaints can be lodged face-to-face to reporters via a digital video conversation system.

Recently, Oriental Press Group Limited would like to extend its business to America and Canada. Cities like New York and Toronto which have high population of Chinese will be its first target.

Contribution to society

Since 1980, ''Oriental Daily'' has contributed to society through the Oriental Daily Foundation. The foundation has helped thousands through financial assistance and scholarships. The paper's great number of donors promises a stable source of funding for the foundation. During the , the fund helped several newly-orphaned children, providing the finances to meet basic needs and continue their education.

In 2002, the fund raised over eleven million dollars. The cumulative amount collected since 1980 has exceeded $350 million dollars.

Newspapers of Hong Kong

2008-09-24T08:13:00.003-07:00

Hong Kong is home to many of Asia's biggest newspapers. The territory has one of the world's largest press industries and is a major centre for print journalism.

Overview

Popularity

By a significant margin, the ''Hongkong Standard'' is the most widely-circulated English newspaper. Among Cantonese newspapers, ''Oriental Daily'' and ''Apple Daily'' are the top sellers, while the ''Hong Kong Economic Times'' is the best-selling financial newspaper. According to independent surveys, ''Ming Pao'' and ''Hong Kong Economic Journal'' are the papers most trusted by local readers.

Paparazzi

The fact that '''' and ''Oriental Daily'' are among those with the highest circulation can be explained by their approach. Both use an informal style, concentrating on celebrity gossip and paparazzi photography, and written to some degree in colloquial Cantonese phrases. This style of writing, as in other markets, is popular with a large section of the public. The content is often exaggerated or outright fabricated in order to claim "exclusives". Although the subjects of these alleged falsehoods have tried to express their dissatifaction through actions such as refusing interviews or even suing the reporters, they have not succeeded in stopping the papers' activities.

Number and price

The number of newspapers in the market has been stable for a long time. There are occasional attempts at establishing new types of newspaper and theme-oriented papers, but most of these new papers cannot compete with the more mainstream papers. However, the entry into the market of free newspapers ''Metropolis Daily'', ''Headline Daily'', ''am730'', and ''The Epoch Times'' have spurred competition. In September 2007, The Standard changed its business model from a traditional daily into a free-sheet, distributed in commercial districts like and .

Most papers sell at the cover price of HKD$6, except the ''South China Morning Post'' . The economic recession brought about by in 2003 led to some resellers pricing at $1 below the recommended price. According to the HK Newspaper Hawkers Association, the situation has lasted through to 2008, and some 10% of sellers maintain the cut price despite the change in the prevailing economic climate. The Association urges a return to resale price maintenance.

Chinese-language newspapers

*''Apple Daily''
*''Hong Kong Commercial Daily''
*''Hong Kong Daily News''
*''Hong Kong Economic Journal''
*''Hong Kong Economic Times''
*''Kung Kao Po''
*''Ming Pao''
*''Oriental Daily News''
*''Sing Pao Daily News''
*''Sing Tao Daily''
*''''
*''Ta Kung Pao''
*''Wen Wei Po''

''Ta Kung Pao'', ''Hong Kong Commercial Daily'', ''Sing Pao'', and ''Wen Wei Po'' are all considered pro-Beijing and pro-government; ''Oriental Daily'', ''' and ''Sing Tao'' are considered as slightly pro-Beijing and pro-government; and ''Apple Daily'' often takes an anti-Beijing and pro-democracy stance. ''Oriental Daily'', ''Apple Daily'' and ''The Sun'' are known for their sensational style, often gory pictures , and frequent borderline obscene coverage . ''Ming Pao'' and ''Sing Tao'' are considered as "serious" papers and are favoured by students and intellectuals. ''Hong Kong Economic Journal'' and ''Hong Kong Economic Times'' are business-oriented.

English-language newspapers

*''South China Morning Post''
*''The Standard''
*''China Daily Hong Kong Edition
*''The Sunday Examiner''
*''CareerTimes''

''South China Morning Post'' and ''The Standard'' are both regarded as "serious" newspapers, and generally considered as neutral towards the government, though with the ''Post'' more "establishment-leaning" and the ''Standard'' a little more liberal in its editorial stance. ''The Standard'' now presents itself as a business paper, but also carries general news. From September 10, 2007 it switched to free distribution.

The regional English language newspaper ''The Wall Street Journal Asia'' is also published in Hong Kong; the Asian editions of the ''International Herald Tribune'' and ''Financial Times'' are also available in the city.

Free tabloids

*''am730''
*''The Epoch Times''
*''Express Post''
*''Headline Daily''
*''Metropolis Daily''

Free district posts

*''Ming Pao NT Edition''
*''Sing Tao Daily - District Post''
*''Take Me Home''
*''南區新聞''
*''美新報''

Relative reliability

According to the "Reliability of Hong Kong newspapers", research performed by the of the in 2001 , out of 10, Sing Pao received 6.48 from the public and 5.89 from journalists. Compared to the highest mark, 7.54 of Ming Pao, and the lowest mark, 4.45 of Sun Daily, the reliability of Sing Pao was above average.

Defunct newspapers

*''Chinese Serial''
*''Sing Tao Evening News''
*''Eastern Express''
*''Hong Kong United Daily''
*''Television Daily''
*''Wah Kiu Yat Pao''
*''Hong Kong Today''
*''Hong Kong Times''
*''Ching Pao''
*''''
*''Tin Tin Daily News''

Newspaper Society of Hong Kong

2008-09-24T08:13:00.001-07:00

The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong , set up on May 10, 1954, is the largest newspaper industrial society in Hong Kong, found by Hong Kong's four largest newspapers at the time - Kung Sheung Yat Po , Wah Kiu Yat Po , Sing Tao Jih Pao and South China Morning Post . Existing members include 14 major newspapers, although Oriental Daily, the biggest local newspaper in terms of circulation, has chosen not to participate. The Society is the organiser for the widest-acclaimed news awards in Hong Kong.

External References

* Official website
* History of Hong Kong Newspaper in 50 years

Money Times

2008-09-24T08:12:00.005-07:00

The Money Times is a supplement to the Hong Kong Economic Times. It is published each Monday and presents advice on investment and personal finance. It has been published since December 1995.

Ming Pao

2008-09-24T08:12:00.003-07:00

Ming Pao is a Chinese language newspaper published by Ming Pao Group in Hong Kong. Since the 90s, Ming Pao has established four overseas branches in North America, each provides independent reporting on local news and collect local advertisements. The four editions are: Ming Pao Toronto, , Ming Pao New York and Ming Pao San Francisco.

It aims at providing comprehensive and accurate reports on political and economic issues in both mainland China and Hong Kong. The Ming Pao Group has published a number of newspapers and magazines. Well-known for its accuracy in language, many secondary schools in Hong Kong encourage their students to subscribe to ''Ming Pao'' in order to improve their Chinese language.

Ming Pao Group also runs magazines called ''Ming Pao Weekly'', ''Ming Pao Monthly'', and ''Yazhou Zhoukan'', all are publications with good reputation.

On November 7 2005, Ming Pao in Hong Kong received a box that contained an explosive substance , and 2 workers were injured. A letter accompanying the box demanded Ming Pao for HK$30 000 000 to be donated to the Community Chest of Hong Kong for "punishment". Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang strongly criticized the event. This was the first newspaper to be bombed in Hong Kong.

On 2 June 2006 Ming Pao in Hong Kong received an envelope containing some red powder. The letter inside claimed the powder was cyanide and complained about some horse racing commentator.

History

First published on May 20 1959, ''Ming Pao'' was founded by the famous Chinese wuxia novelist Louis Cha , known better by his pseudonym Jinyong , and his friend, Shen Pao Sing .

Standpoint

Ming Pao's style is somewhat more conservative compared to other newspapers, as well as its own previous incarnation. Some people view it as a pro-Beijing paper as Ming Pao is less critical of the PRC government than, for example, Apple Daily. Instead of writing sensational headlines designed to shock the readers, Ming Pao prefers to use moderate wording and seems to take a less aggressive approach. Thus, many readers find its articles to be fair and neutral. Entertainment news rarely make it to the front page on Ming Pao, unlike other papers such as Oriental Daily.

However, in recent years, Ming Pao has begun reporting some news in a "soft" way, meaning that the tone of some headlines and contents is less serious than the newspaper's initial tone, probably because of the trend of "infotainment" among both the local and overseas media. This "soft" reporting might be unavoidable, since it is the current trend in news reporting as sensational news and headlines tend to attract readers and boost readership. Nonetheless, Ming Pao is still best-known for being honest and responsible by publishing only the facts and not the exaggerated, gory photographs common in other newspapers that are unpleasant to readers, especially children.

Some Hong Kong people claim that Ming Pao seems to have become more "neutral", as it used to be quite opinionated and dared to pronounce its views on sensitive issues. These people attribute such changes to the pressure that the Beijing/Mainland government has allegedly put on Hong Kong's media as well as the more stable political situation in both China and Hong Kong. Others think that the free press in Hong Kong is changing of its own free will.

There have also been criticisms that Ming Pao has, in the last few years, become rather biased in its coverage of certain fields, in particular education and medicine-related news, where a certain tertiary institution has been habitually favoured. Commentators note that positive news coming from that institution usually receive substantial coverage in Ming Pao's pages, whereas negative news are seldom mentioned or receive a low-key treatment. Some suggest that the reason for such favouritism may stem from the fact that many of Ming Pao's editors and reporters, including its current chief editor , are alumni of that institution, which, coincidentally, has also placed a large amount of advertisements in the paper. There have been instances where results of surveys conducted by other organisations have been presented in such a way as to show off their favourite institution in the most favourable light, notwithstanding that such a presentation involves a certain amount of distortion of the original intention of those conducting the surveys. Some have observed that, by contrast, Mingpao has been particularly harsh on some rival educational institutions, and that there exist considerable double-standards in its journalistic attitude. Ming Pao also habitually favours the views of academics from the Chinese University in its pages and also has lots of collaborative projects with the latter. In any event, such an apparent partiality has made some doubt the neutrality and professionalism of the publication.

There have also been instances where Ming Pao's reports become rather one-sided or that their reporters have failed to follow-up on certain issues which they previously reported, leading to an incomplete coverage of events which can be misleading to readers. Some of their newer reporters are rather green, too, and it shows in some of their articles. The level of professionalism of Mingpao appears to have declined considerably in the last few years.

Kao Hsin-chiang, Ming Pao’s current editorial director, said that Hong Kong people needed to understand China better, to sympathize more and judge less. He also declared that Ming Pao wanted Hong Kong and Chinese interests to reach a balance, so it had to find that balance.

Style

"A newspaper is a trumpet expressing the views of the boss," Louis Cha said at his age of 72 and the motto was recorded in the book "''Jinyong and the Press''" of a famous journalist Cheung Kwai Yeung, though the book also acknowledges that the success of a newspaper does relate to the ''style, the standpoint and the reputation it built''. To have an in-depth understanding on how Ming Pao developed successfully, knowing the overlap of Ming Pao's and Louis Cha's style is of the utmost importance. Generally, the values they merged could be classified in the following aspects:

#Confucian value
#Strong nationalism
#Freedom
#Anti-war

These values determined the initial direction as well as the consolidated foundation of Ming Pao.

In the beginning, the original focuses of 'Ming Pao', built on the four values listed above, were the public interests, Chinese martial novel, and its unpopular style with clear and insisted political view against the left-wingers. It is not hard to see its covered values, from the Chinese martial novel to the editorial, which often gets into a debate with the other newspapers. For example, its editorial monitored by Louis Cha had come to a debate with ''Ta Kung Pao'' concerning the issue of refugees in 1964 . As the years passed, as well as the unpredicted political changes in China, the clear and firm position of ''Ming Pao'' brought it a high reputation from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. With its explicit and admirable values suiting the society of Hong Kong, where freedom is held in reverence as well as being the gate to China, ''Ming Pao'' has therefore been regarded as an independent and intelligentsia's newspaper from its earlier development up to now.

Due to changes in the society, the style of ''Ming Pao'' has also been adjusted in order to fit the social needs. As mentioned in the "standpoint" section, ''Ming Pao'' is now using a relatively soft and moderate title instead of the one before. It raises the question: Have ''Ming Pao'' values denatured? The answer is: Even though ''Ming Pao'' is now being more moderate and less aggressive, its existing and foreseeable development are still built on its traditional values, which are the elements that have brought Ming Pao to success. although such values are now rather compromised by certain biased/substandard reportage.

''See also:''

Reader groups

According to ''Ming Pao'', its main reader groups are the middle class, professionals, managers and corporate decision-makers. They are groups of generally higher income and education levels, making them a very important group in Hong Kong.

Ming Pao is also one of the favourite newspapers among educational institutions. Schools often list Ming Pao as a ''compulsory newspaper subscription'', and often offer special discounts for students in order to encourage them to subscribe to and read the newspaper more. The subscription price can be as low as about $2, while the usual selling price of a Hong Kong newspaper is HK$6.

Achievements

Awards won by Ming Pao Hong Kong in recent years:

Public Evaluation on Media Credibility Survey, conducted by the 2001-2006
* Most Credible Chinese Newspaper

:
* Excellence in Human Rights Reporting
* Excellence in Feature Photography
* Excellence in Magazine Front Cover Design
* Excellence in Opinion Writing
* The Scoop Award

:
* Excellence in Human Rights Reporting
* Excellence in Feature Writing \
* Excellence in Opinion Writing
* Excellence in Feature Photography
* Excellence in Explanatory Reporting
* Excellence in Reporting of Breaking News
* The Scoop Award

:
* Best in News Page Design - Gold Award
* Best in Photography - Gold Award

Awards won by Ming Pao Vancouver in recent years:
* in Best Chinese Reporting, 2003
* The Jack Webster Award in Best Chinese Reporting, 1998
* The Jack Webster Award in Best Chinese Reporting, 1997

Website

The homepage of Ming Pao was set up in 1995, one of the earliest newspaper websites in Hong Kong. The Ming Pao website won the of the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority. Only two news websites among the entire media industry in Hong Kong were given the award, which were said to encourage young people and children to visit websites with healthy information and make proper use of the Internet, and to motivate Internet content providers to create more healthy websites for young people by recognizing their efforts.

Ming Pao overseas

Ming Pao in Canada

''See also: Ming Pao Daily News ''

In 1993, the Hong Kong daily ''Ming Pao'' launched its first North American edition in Toronto. At that time, it was the third Chinese newspaper in the two countries after the release of ''Sing Tao'' and the ''World Journal''. Throughout its 37-year history, ''Ming Pao'' has catered to the wealthy, educated elite, so it quickly attracted the attention of educated, affluent Hong Kong immigrants.

Most of the staff and editorial workers at ''Ming Pao'' are graduates in journalism and were educated abroad. They have their own writing and reporting styles, which are very different from that of Hong Kong editors. For instance, staff are encouraged to report from the perspective of a Chinese-Canadian, as they want to educate their readers to live peacefully with people from different backgrounds in Canada. Moreover, when they write, it is important for these writers not to take sides. The idea is that readers are simply informed of the facts of an event, whereupon they can make up their own mind about their own opinions. Covering mainstream and Chinese society using only facts like this are considered to be very challenging.

The paper has no editorials, but it has a commentary column called "People's Talk," which runs Monday to Saturday. In this space, senior editorial staff write about many issues. The reason why ''Ming Pao'' in Canada does not have editorials is because of the lack of staff to write them. "We don't want to write editorials in a loose way," Vivian Chong, the news editor of ''Ming Pao'', said. According to Chong, in writing the editorials, the content needs to be analytical and comprehensive. But many of the staff are not very familiar with the local issues, so a lot of time has to go into research for editorials. So at the moment, ''Ming Pao'' is trying to help readers familiarize themselves with local issues in Canada first.

''Ming Pao'' was launched in Vancouver a few years later.

Overall, ''Ming Pao'' has become famous for its three weeklies, glitzy and colorful magazine supplements, even enticing some ''Sing Tao'' and ''World Journal'' readers. One of these is the ''Ming Pao Property Gold Pages'', a real estate buyer's guide which includes analyses of the property market, stories on mortgages, Canadian real estate law and interior design.

Ming Pao in the USA

Ming Pao Daily News, a subsidiary of Ming Pao Enterprise Corporation Limited, is committed to serving the Chinese American population. The cities in USA where Ming Pao is published are New York, Long Island, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and San Francisco. The readership is about 135,000 per day. Ming Pao Daily comprises a high readership profile of "high income/education professionals", which are also the target readers in Hong Kong.

Ming Pao Daily News offers headline news in the US, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Asian countries. Other content includes financial section with the latest stock market quotes and investment figures, entertainment news, lifestyle, community activities and events, in either the Chinese or English sections.

Ownership

In October 1995 Ming Pao Daily News was bought by a wealthy Malaysian merchant in the timber industry, Tiong Hiew King.

The Merge with Malaysia Sinchew and Nanyang Groups

On 29 January 2007, the owner of Ming Pao, Malaysian Tycoon, Tiong Hiew King revealed his proposal to merge the 3 newspaper groups he owns, the Sinchew group and the Nanyang group of Malaysia and the Mingpao group of Hong Kong into one. The merged group will be traded under Mingpao Group in the share market and listed in both Malaysia and Hong Kong stock exchanges. However all of the existing groups will remain their brands, independent operation and existing publications will be continued.

The merge proposal brought a strong wave of criticism and condemnation against the owner Tiong and the publications in both Malaysia and Hong Kong because of the concern of monopoly of Chinese media and control of speech. The merging plan continues regardless and on 23 April 2007, the merge became official.

Metropolis Daily

2008-09-24T08:12:00.001-07:00

Metropolis Daily is the Hong Kong edition of , which publishes free newspapers around the world with 25 editions in 16 countries in 14 languages. It is the first free newspaper in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong version was first launched on April 15, 2002; it is distributed for free in the racks located in 49 Mass Transit Railway stations except the Airport Station.

According to the Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations in September 2002, the daily circulation of the newspaper was 302,197 copies, making it the third largest daily newspaper in Hong Kong. The paper is distributed from Monday to Friday , by hand or from the newspaper stands in 49 MTR stations and 11 other key central locations, such as big shopping malls owned by MTR Corporation Limited like Paradise Mall, Telford Plaza, and Luk Yeung Galleria . Since it is free of charge and easily accessible, many people like to get one on their way to school or work. The paper attracts a younger generation of readers with a great purchasing power likewise, therefore many advertisers are interested in promoting their products on ''Metropolis Daily''. The operating costs of the paper are mainly covered by the classified advertisements in the newspaper.

However, the influence of the paper is not yet significant. Though around one tenth size of other newspapers printing local first-hand news reported by fresh journalists, its main news sources are actually the television, radio news, press releases and wired news. As one ''Metropolis''' reporter said, "Nobody seems to know that we made an exclusive story."

The paper is in in most parts, together with an English international section. According to ''Metropolis'', the paper can be read in a "19-minute commute" as the articles inside are usually short and laconic; readers can scan through the paper so quickly that they can grab a brief understanding of the news within minutes. Although the paper is a tabloid, i.e. a minute-sized newspaper giving the stories in a condensed form, it includes many sections, which make the paper very rich in contents.
These sections include:
*local news ;
*mainland news;
*international news;
*finance;
*sports;
*entertainment;
*side stories;
*English news digest;
*editorial column;
*television program schedule; and
*film section.

Readers can read the on-line edition of ''Metropolis'' all over the world by simply registering as users at its official site, and it is totally free. Besides, there is also a club called "''Club Metro''" offering discounts in films, sports and travel to its members. Readers can enjoy these benefits once they have joined the club. There are 700,000 worldwide members in this club.

Kung Kao Po

2008-09-24T08:11:00.009-07:00

Kung Kao Po — literally “Catholic newspaper” — is a Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong. Launched in August 1 1928, it is owned and published by the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong.

The newspaper is published weekly on Fridays in the tabloid format printed in traditional Chinese characters. News coverage includes local and international church-related news, plus various columns, editorials, and a youth-oriented supplement.

In addition to being distributed at Catholic churches in Hong Kong, the paper is also available by subscription; this allows the newspaper to be available in some Chinese Catholic churches outside Hong Kong. Partial contents of the newspaper are also available online at the official web site, which keeps 5 years of back issues.

Since October 192003, an audio edition of the newspaper, recorded in Cantonese, is also available in MP3 format from the newspaper’s web site.

In recent years, the ''Kung Kao Po'' has become known to the general populace of Hong Kong due to a number of its editorials on politics and social issues being reported by Hong Kong’s mainstream media outlets.

Hong Kong Post

2008-09-24T08:11:00.007-07:00

Hong Kong Post is a weekly newspaper published in Hong Kong every Friday. It is sold in shops such as c!ty'super.

Hong Kong Economic Times

2008-09-24T08:11:00.005-07:00

Hong Kong Economics Times is the largest Chinese-language financial newspaper in Hong Kong, with an average daily circulation of 82,000 copies
, having been found in January 26, 1988. It has been traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2005 as Hong Kong Economic Times Holdings Limited , incorporated in Cayman Islands.

History

The Economic Times is generally regarded as one of the "Serious Newspapers" along with Hong Kong Economic Journal, which are both known for its columns, economic news and analysis, but Economic Times has distinguished itself through the wider coverage on city, technology, human resources, health and pop culture news, and heavy color and graphical printing.

Although the paper has a relatively short history, it has become the largest financial newspaper in Hong Kong. It has been perhaps most notable when it disclosed the criminal record of Yu Bun Hoi, former public listed Mingpao chairman and marked a series of law reform on public-listing company in Hong Kong. Since 1997, it has won over 40 prizes from the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, the most prestigious award for journalism in the city, and took all top three awards on economic reporting in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2003.

The Economic Times does not have strong economic belief on liberal market or invisible hands, the paper mildly opposes controversial , strongly outcries the introduction of , and commemorates students died in 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident. It also controversially advocated the government to intervene the financial market during the Asian crisis in 1997 and 911 attack.

In 8 August 2006, Lawrence Fung Siu-por and his wife Alexandra Lee Suk-wai, owners of the paper, both social science alumni of the University of Hong Kong , donated 10% shares of the company to their mother school to establish Azalea Endowment Fund. . The shares are to be retained by the University for at least 15 years. During that time, dividend payouts, estimated at more than HK$3 million annually, will be used to support a variety of university projects. At the same day, a controversial ownership change took place at Hong Kong Economic Journal, which is currently co-owned by Lam Hang Ji, its reputed founder, and Richard Li, the son of the richest Chinese tycoon Li Ka-Shing.

Sections

The newspaper is consisted of five major sections:
;1. News : includes Financial, Commercial News, Property, International and Local.
;2. Opinions: includes Editorials, Commentary
;3. Investment: led by a famous analyst Arthur Shek, it includes market analysis and investment guides.
;4. Executive: Includes management and MBA-style interviews.
;5. Features : Includes Pop Culture, Travel, Foods, Arts, Parental Teaching.

Other Business

Publishing

HKET publishes a variety of magazines of which contents range from IT to property market. They are distributed free of charge to the newspaper readers or sold at low price if purchased individually. Magazine includes Money Times, e-zone, IT Times, Career Times, Property Times and recently, U Magazine.

E-Publishing

ET Net Limited, established in 1994, is now one of the biggest financial news providers in Hong Kong. Over 80% of Hong Kong's brokerage firms and 90% of banks are subscribing to ET Net's stock quotation and information terminals.

Other than Stock news, the Hong Kong Economic Times Group also focuses on providing news related to property market. It established EPRC in 1991 to provide professional property information including asking price and transaction prices as well as China property information for trade practitioners.

Careertimes.com.hk, an online recruitment website, was launched in 1999 by Career Times Online Limited, a joint venture of Hong Kong Economic Times and iBusiness Corporation. It has 300,000 members, 450,000 daily page views and over 6,000 corporate openings available online every week.

ezone.com is the online version of e-zone magazine which provides the latest news and information about different types of IT products like the most updated computer information and price comparison.

Books

It was long ago the HKET Press started publishing, annually, reference books of stock market analaysis. In recent years, a wider scope of books covering fields of investment, business, management and executive life style are also published. http://www.etpress.com.hk/

Education

The ET Business College, run by the Economic Times Group, provides courses related to Finance & Investment, China Business, Management and Information Technology, targeted executives and professionals in the markets.

Hong Kong Economic Journal

2008-09-24T08:11:00.003-07:00

The Hong Kong Economic Journal is a Chinese language daily newspaper published in Hong Kong by the Shun Po Co., Ltd. Available in both Hong Kong and Macau, the newspaper mainly focuses on economic news and other related issues. The newsjournal is also available to some air passengers - those travelling to the United States, Canada, and Europe. It is authorised by the Hong Kong government to publish announcements related to some law issues.

The history, the changes, and the founder

The ''Hong Kong Economic Journal'' was founded by Lam Shan-muk , commonly known by his pen name 林行止 , who first worked as a data collector for during the 1960s and later as an assistant editor for the evening version of Ming Pao -- and Law Chi-Ping -- who withdrew his shares later. Together they saw the possibility of developing an economic journal for the Hong Kong public in the early 70s (though some say that it was Lok Yau-Mui (, his wife, and not Law Chi-Ping who was the true co-founder) and the newspaper was first published on 3 July, 1973.

Unfortunately, shortly after the publication of newspaper, the Hong Kong stock market experienced the first historical huge fall as a result of the then global oil crisis. Nonetheless, the Hong Kong economy revived in 1976 and the newspaper eventually became one of the most influential newspapers in the Chinese media world.

Today the ''Journal'' is run by its current director Cho Chi-ming , who writes a daily editorial column called "Investor's Diary 投資者日記", and Joy Shan Lam-Kung , daughter of Mr. Lam.

The online version of the "Hong Kong Economic Journal" was launched in 2008.

The sections

The ''Journal'''s pages are categorized into "News", "Investment", "Technology", "Editorials" and "Supplement". These sections are further divided into the following subsections --

The "News" part contains:
* finance and economics
* changes in stock market
* economics and business
* property markets
* political issues
* China news and international news

The 'Investment' part contains:
* company interviews
* reports on stock market price
* stock market forecast and analysis
* international investment
* supplementary information on the events launched by businesses

The 'Technology' part includes:
* application of IT in the business areas
* problems faced by companies in using IT and possible solutions provided
* media and multi-media

The "Supplementary" part consists of:
* economics and business management
* columns and cultures

The " Editorial" part contains:
* China and international discussion parts
* the founder's special column

Professionals involved in economics also publish some of their articles in the Journal to express their views on the economy and related current events.

The stance, style and characteristics

The reports and commentaries of the newspaper are always regarded as , objective, fair and well-balanced among the Hong Kong newspapers, since the editors are quite outspoken and bold to criticize the and the Chinese central government in the 'Editorial' section. The editors usually hold skeptical views on government interventions and policies, reflecting their affirmation towards the view of economics. According to a survey conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001, the ''Hong Kong Economic Journal'' as well as Ming Pao were regarded as the newspapers with the highest degree of credibility in Hong Kong.

As ''The HK Economic Journal ''mainly focuses on reporting government policies and financial affairs, soft news plays a minor role in it. The style it adopts is very different from other local newspapers in Hong Kong, such as Apple Daily, Oriental Daily News, etc., which stress their 'Entertainment' parts and sensationalize or exaggerate the harder news to promote sales. Unlike these tabloid-like newspapers, the ''HKEJ'' reports its news mainly by words, with few graphics. Detailed graphs showing the changes in the stock market are displayed precisely. Advertisements or story-like news are not found in the front cover. Due to all these elements, the ''Journal'' simply doesn't sell as well as those 'popular' local newspapers.

One of the characteristics of the newspaper is that it mentions different business information to readers. This section can be found in the "Investment" part in which it discusses the changes in the market, no matter they are major or minor issues. For instance, it mentions some new services from the DHL Express as well as the musical contest launched by McDonald's. The newspaper provides their readers with much substantial information that they need.

The other characteristic of the paper is that it contains detailed information on the funding market, including interpretation on the fund market and changes in the fund market. These columns are relatively rare in other newspaper in Hong Kong.

The role of the HKEJ in Hong Kong and China

The ''HKEJ'' plays an important role in relating HKSAR and the People's Republic of China as many senior officials of PRC seem to regard the ''Journal'' as a true reflection of Hong Kong situation. For example, during July 2003 , Mr. Cho aligned himself with the democratic camp and announced that if the government implemented the Article, he would stop the publication of the ''Journal''. The reasons he provided were that it would be dangerous for the journalists to disclose the truth and express their own thoughts if Article 23 were to be implementated. He also opposed one of the terms in the Article, which states that the police can go into anyone's house to conduct a search or freeze anyone's assets without a court-issued warrant. The next day, the government made a concession by modifying some of the terms according to Mr. Cho's suggestions.

Additional information of the two special columns

There are 2 columns in ''HKEJ'' which deserve special attention: Mr. Lam's "Political and Economical Review" and Mr. Cho's "Investor's Diary" .

Since 1973, Mr. Lam has been writing the Journal's Editorial , but even before that, his insightful views on the economy were already recognized by Mr. Louis Cha during Mr. Lam time with Ming Pao. Mr. Lam's reviews are generally accepted as being objective, well-supported by facts and full of in-depth observations. One good example is during the 1989 4 June Tiananmen Square Massacre. Regardless of the anger expressed and protests taking place in every part of Hong Kong, Mr. Lam still gave practical and rational opinions about this issue. He had suggested ways to manage and organize the funds donated by the Hong Kong citizens to the Beijing students, as the contact between the two parties was blocked by the government of the People's Republic of China at that time. This conscientious action has surely contributed to the prosperity of the HKEJ.

After Mr. Lam stopped writing the editorial and started a column for himself in 1997, the style of his writing has then become more various. Apart from giving analyses on hard news, he also writes articles about some interesting economics theories. According to Mr. Lam, his goal is to educate the public about economics issues.

The other column of note, Mr. Cho's "Investor's Diary", is a highly respected analysis of the financial market. The column covers areas such as the worldwide stock market, oil prices, different financial tools and suggestions on best-buy equities. The column differs from the typical HKEJ style in that Mr. Cho seems to be fond of writing in Cantonese slang, probably because he thinks that it is more comfortable for the public to read. In addition, Mr. Cho likes making up nicknames for the government officials, one example of which is the acronym "IQT" for the Financial Secretary Mr. Henry Tang.

Related issues of the newspaper

A monthly magazine by the name of 'Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly' is associated with the newspaper. First published in March 1977, this magazine also belongs to Shun Po Co., Ltd. Its contents are mainly about Hong Kong, mainland China, and international economics and finance. Different from the newspaper, the magazine is sold around the world, including Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, Australia, and the United States. A total of 323 issues have been published as of February 2004. The current chief editor of the magazine is Mr. Man Cheuk Fei.

Recent Development about the Selling of the Newspaper by the Lam's family

It was reported that, as early as 10 January, 2006, the Lam's family was in negotiation with Richard Li and another local mass-media company for the sale of the newspaper. On August 9, 2006 Li bought a 50% stake in the newspaper.

Hong Kong Commercial Daily

2008-09-24T08:11:00.001-07:00

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily is a business-oriented newspaper, published in broadsheet format. Established in 1952, it was the first financial newspaper in the Chinese language, with its electronic format available on the Internet. It is one of the few newspapers authorized by the Hong Kong to publicize legal announcements, and also the only Hong Kong newspaper allowed to be circulated freely in mainland China. With a branch office in Shenzhen, it has the largest circulation among Hong Kong newspapers in China.

History

Establishment

The ''HKCD'' was founded on 11 October, 1952. The first issue was published on a Saturday with the selling price of only HK $0.10. In the foreword of the newspaper's launch, the paper claimed to aim at serving as the voice of the local Hong Kong commerce as, "everything to consider the Hong Kong people, everything to serve the local commerce". The paper aimed at candour and accuracy, and a focus on worldwide economies, especially in Hong Kong and China, in order to inform merchants and businessmen on the ever-changing economies around the world. In the earliest publications, the newspaper contained also the latest horse racing news from Happy Valley, Hong Kong, and on
weekends, columns and serial short stories with pictures were also published for the entertainment of the readers.

In the 70s

In the early 70s, the government asked ''HKCD'' to stop publishing its horse and dog-racing page, so ,as not to promote capitalism. The disappearance of those popular topics led to a severe decline in its at that time.

In the 80s

In December 1989, its largest shareholding went to the Joint Publishing Company Limited at the price of 160 million Hong Kong dollars.

In the 90s

In 1995, ''HKCD'' co-operated with the mainland publishing companies to co-publish its special mainland version. This helped in building up its news network and expanding its mainland newspaper market. Since 1996, its electronic version has been available on the internet.

In 2005

In May 2005, the paper was upgraded. Its standard selling price was $3 Hong Kong dollars within Hong Kong and overseas countries. In Mainland China, it is sold at $3RMB within Guandong Provinces and $5 RMB in other provinces.
The new version of the paper emphasizes news tailor-made for investors and business executives mostly from Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Economic Regions. It mainly focuses on economic issues so as to facilitate business between Hong Kong and China. The intention of the paper is to serve as a bridge, connecting both sides of the border. The content is more diversified. It contains the latest horse racing information, sports news, focusing on soccer and basketball, entertainment news and Hong Kong tourist information in a section called "Tour in Hong Kong” .

A typical edition contains about 30 pages. The largest the sections are:

News

*News highlights

*China News

*Hong Kong News

*World News

Business

*The Stock and Property market of China
*Analysis of oil prices, stock markets in Hong Kong, China and the world
*Public announcements and disclosure of revenue of companies in Hong Kong and China

Property

*Analysis of property market and investment opportunities in Hong Kong and China
*Latest Development of Chinese provinces

Special Features

* Interviews - special features on successful and outstanding businessmen in Hong Kong and China

Sports

* Horse Racing news
* World news

Leisure

*Food and restaurants
*Travel in China
*Book review

Techonology

*A special issue called '' I.T.Net '' is published every Wednesday along with the newspaper.

Editor

Cheng Xi Tian

Mr. Cheng Xi Tian is the current chief editor of the ''HKCD''. Cheng was born on ''8th February, 1941'' in Shanghai. Before he became the Chief Editor and Deputy of the ''HKCD'', Cheng had been the editor of ''Shenzhen Publishing Group''. At present he is also a part-time professor in Renmin University of China and Wuhan University. He is a graduate from journalism of Renmin University of Chinain 1966 and has been working in the field of journalism for more than thirty years. Since he has written a number of newsletters, argumentative writings, reports, biography and prose etc, he was given the title "Unique Journalist" by Deng Xiao Ping in ''1992''. On ''26th March, 1992'', Cheng’s Chinese publication 《东方风来满眼春》highlights the success of his career. This publication has won a lot of distinguished awards in the press media of mainland China, e.g. "The first award of Chinese News" , "Speical Price of Guangdong News" , etc.. In 2000, he was awarded the most honorable prize in the press in mainland .

Board

Chairman and CEO

Huang Yang Lue

Mr Huang Yang Lue is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as the CEO of The HKCD. He was born in Suwen, Guangdong and graduated from Zhongshan Universityin 1982. Immediately after his graduation, he entered the Xinhua News Agency in the Guangdong branch, where he worked as a reporter, assistant director and vice-president. He also is a part-time Professor at the Business School of Jinan University. In September 2002, he was appointed head of the Shenzhen News Group.

Advisory Board

There are more than 50 contributing advisors of the ''HKCD''. For example: Dr. Tsang Hin Chi, Dr. Leo Lee Tung-hai, Dr. Vincent Lo Hong-sui, Dr. Robin Chan Yau-hing, Mr. Timothy Fok Tsun-tingand Mr. Chan Wing-kee .

Readership

Target reader groups

The target reader groups include investors and business executives in both China and Hong Kong, mainly from the Pearl River Delta and especially the Special Economic Zones. Employees of some Hong Kong which have based their businesses in mainland China, and -minded individuals with an interest in the HKSAR- relation, are also an important target group. Its worldwide readership includes people from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the USA, Canada, Australia, , Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, etc..

Ranking by readers

According to a survey done by the Department of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, the credibility of HKCD is ranked 23rd among the media in Hong Kong, scoring 4.9, while the most credible is the Hong Kong Economic Journal.

Readers' perception

RTHK and Breakthrough have conducted surveys and questionnaires for Hong Kong readers and journalists in Year 1998 and 2001 respectively. The findings reflect the credibility, political stance and popularity of a number of Hong Kong newspaper among the public.

The result of the surveys has been shown in the diagram.

Publication

Installments

In addition to reporting up-to-date business and financial issues, it also contains intellectual . For example, many of the martial arts novels written by Jinyong from the 1950s like "''The Sword Stained With Royal Blood''"《碧血劍》in 1956, ''The Legend of the Condor Heroes''"《射鵰英雄傳》in 1957 etc, were published as installments in the ''Hong Kong Commercial Daily''.

Books

''HKCD'' also publishes various kinds of books, while most are in Chinese, including "''The Last episode of Ten Colonels''"《十大元帥大結局》、"''The Mystery of Xiaoshan''"《韶山之謎》、"''The Last 28 days of Cultural Revolution''"《文革最后的28天》、"''Horror and Anti-horror''"《恐怖與反恐怖》、"''Human and Ghost''"《人鬼神》、"''Force of China''"《中國力量》. Many are on current political and economic issues. For its 30th anniversary in 1982 it published a book called "Knowledge of living" with useful information on health care, electrical appliances and useful telephone numbers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou etc.. Some feature stories and articles in the newspaper are later collected and published as books.

Website

The ''HKCD'' website was launched in 1996. It is written in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese characters. The news is updated at midnight, before publication of the paper. People from all over the world can access freely the on-line news about Hong Kong, Mainland China and the world . Past news and feaures are accessible through a searchable archive.

Headline Daily

2008-09-24T08:10:00.007-07:00

Headline Daily was launched on July 12, 2005 by Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited and became the second free Chinese newspaper published officially in Hong Kong . The paper is only distributed on weekdays and is aimed at the working class. The estimated average daily circulation of the paper is around 500,000. The paper provides local and international news as well as articles on business news, entertainment, lifestyle and sports.

Reasons for the launch of the newspaper

The newspaper was launched as the Chairman of , Charles Ho Tsu Kwok, felt there was room for the further development of free newspapers in Hong Kong in terms of content, distribution network and advertising formats.

The pace of life in Hong Kong is so fast and people are so busy that ''Headline Daily'' was established to meet the people's needs by providing them with first-hand information on the hottest daily topics in a manner as concise and lively as possible, while attempting to portray a "positive" and "lively" image to readers.

In terms of market competition, the ''Headline Daily'' was also launched in a bid to gain a greater market share of the territory's for and to explore a new source of income for the corporation.

Distribution

Daily issues are distributed during morning peak hours from Monday to Friday, except on . It is distributed in more than 600 different places, among which there are now three fixed distribution media: , , and nearly 500 residential estates. Moreover, the papers are distributed at more than 100 fixed or non-fixed spots, including commercial buildings, bus/mini-bus stops and shopping malls all around Hong Kong. Readers may simply get a free issue from the eye-catching red shelfs at most locations or from the staff at certain locations.

Readership

The newspaper targets the working population, who are usually too busy to read a large number of pages nor to read every piece of news in detail. However, these people are likely to grasp every chance to read newspapers for a short period when travelling or having breakfast.

In August 2005, a market research survey was conducted by , comparing the readership of 3 free newspapers in Hong Kong. The result shows that in the first three weeks of August, ''Metropolis Daily'', ''Headline Daily'' and ''am730'' respectively achieved 16%, 18% and 8% of the market shares. ''Headline Daily'' gains the leading readership of 893,000, compared with ''Metropolis Daily's'' 820,000 and ''am730's'' 401,000.

"Headline Daily" shares news sources with the ''Sing Tao Daily''.
The paper aims to present the most important news of the day in a concise way so as to provide readers with up-to-date, yet comprehensive, news and information on different areas in a short read. It usually has around 24 to 30 pages and has a layout similar to the following formats:

*Headlines
*Local Mews
*China News
*International news
*Financial news
*Sports news
*Lifestyle
*Entertainment
*The remaining pages are used for advertisements.

In a comment by Sing Tao chief executive Lo Wing-hung, he claimed that the average number of pages could be increased to 40 pages if its readership increases significantly over time. However, so far, more than three months after the first publication, the newspaper only consists of around 24 pages on the average.

Marketing strategies

As more and more free newspapers are appearing to fight for room in the local newspaper market, ''Headline Daily'' distinguishes itself by bringing new experiences to its readers. It tries to be competitive by implementing marketing strategies to attract readers' interest, such as:

* ''"lucky draws"'' & ''""''

* ''"apple-shaped pellet"'': a , which working class readers can use to relax themselves and relieve their stress, was once offered to readers along with their newspaper

* ''"happy lucky reader"'': one reader is randomly-chosen in public areas and awarded HK$500 on a daily basis

Moreover, to extend the market to overseas, a softcopy version ''Headline Daily'' is made accessible on line.

Public relations

In order to build up a good relationship with readers, ''Headline Daily'' invites readers to submit news articles for publication in return for rewards as a sign of its cooperation with the public. According to the , readers can become reporters for ''Headline Daily'' by handing in any information. While this information should be deemed to be news-worthy, other guidelines are provided on what type of news should be submitted. Particularly, the paper states that it has no interest in collecting any commentaries from the public. Meanwhile, the usage of any material submitted is solely dependent on the newspaper's discretion. The paper rewards any readers whose materials are published or utilized with a one-time sum of $100, regardless of how many times the paper utilizes these pieces of news.

Controversies raised

Professionalism of the free press

On the first day of its publication, ''Headline Daily'' claimed that "Headline news is important news, and different sections of the newspaper should have headlines. Not only the serious news has headlines, but also for entertainment news, let alone love affairs." This statement raised a controversy on whether ''Headline Daily'' is providing good journalism, which requires verification and objectivity rather than exaggerating the facts by making them headlines.

Reduction of newspaper hawkers’ income

Two days after the first publication of ''Headline Daily'', the Hong Kong Newspaper Hawker Association accused ''Headline Daily'' of having an adverse impact on the business of newspaper hawkers. They claimed that the free distribution of ''Headline Daily'' had resulted in a general drop in newspaper transactions of around 10% to 20%.

Effect on price and selling of the current newspapers

In addition, the Hong Kong Newspaper Hawker Association pointed out that under the current market conditions, it might be infeasible to decrease the prices of newspapers in order to maintain or increase their sales. Subsequently, they claimed to have considered taking ''Sing Tao Daily'' off their shelves in order to counter the threat posed by it.

On another front, the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Newspaper Hawker Association, Lam, gave an example of the impact. Ten years ago, an ice-cutting competition which was initiated by ''Apple Daily'' had resulted in the elimination of several old-fashioned newspapers. Drawing a parallel with that phenomenon, Lam speculated that if the current situation of free distribution of newspapers continued, newspapers run by small corporations might eventually be eliminated. This might in turn result in the undesirable situation of reducing choice for newspaper readers.

Three months after the launch of ''Headline Daily'', ''The Sun Daily'' was the first newspaper that initiated a price-cutting campaign as a response. On October 19, 2005, The Oriental Daily Group followed suit by cutting down the price of ''The Sun Daily'' to 50% from $6 to $3.

After the launch of the two new free papers, ''Sing Tao Daily's'' advertising revenue dropped by 12% in August , while ''Ming Pao Daily News'' and ''Sing Pao Daily News'' also suffered from a reduction in advertising revenues of 7% and 5% respectively.

Nevertheless, research figures indicate that the majority of free newspaper readers are 'new' readers or readers of both paid and free papers. The research concludes that even though the launch of free newspapers seems to have a negative causal effect on single copy sales of paid newspapers, the overall effect on readership and choices of newspapers might not be detrimental.

Also, it is suggested that readers who buy a paper everyday for its style and reputation are unlikely to change. Free newspapers would only lead to the repositioning or position enhancement of an individual newspaper. Free newspapers focus on the low-end market, while the priced newspapers target the middle-income class and professionals.

An obstacle to human traffic

The Hong Kong Newspaper Hawker Association suggested that the free distribution of ''Headline Daily'' outside MTR stations might affect the smoothness of human flow along the passageways. The Association suggested that Sing Tao News Corporation should improve the method of distribution and requested the government to interfere and deal with the problem seriously.

Environmental problems

Moreover, some critics also think that free distribution may lead to greater wastage of paper. For example, a family with a few sets of free newspapers might end up throwing all of them into the dustbin directly without using them for other purposes as they did not pay for the newspapers. According to Friends of the Earth, on average, only 32% of newspaper-readers will dump their unwanted newspapers into recycle boxes. Since there are 500,000 issues of ''Headline Daily'' published every Monday to Friday, the wastage of paper and disposal problems may contribute significantly to the worsening of Hong Kong's pollution.

Articles

*'''' - ''The Standard'', Mark Lee.
*''''- ''The Standard'', Wong Ka-chun.
*'''' - '''', Frederick Yeung.
*'''' - ''Asia Review'', James Borton.
*'''' - ''JINN'', Coral Hui.

Eastern Express

2008-09-24T08:10:00.005-07:00

Eastern Express was an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, started by the Oriental Daily group in 1994.

It was the third English language daily in the territory . The editor at its founding was Stephen Vines and the operation included two dozen reporters, mainly veterans of the ''South China Morning Post'' , The Standard and the ''Far Eastern Economic Review''.

Stephen Vines boasted openly about the salaries paid at the Eastern Express, which at HK$25,000 a month for a news sub-editor were very much above the industry standard of the time. Staff also enjoyed a private bar and other comforts. On the territory's TVB News programme, Vines stated: "If you pay peanuts, you tend to get monkeys".

The newspaper concentrated on large, high-quality photographs, witty headlines, amusing features by accomplished journalists such as the Australian Jason Gagliardi and a controversial, even argumentative stance on public affairs in columns such as "Dystopia". In this, Liam Fitzpatrick would accuse various civic leaders of being "misguided" or "sociopathic". It put its support firmly behind pro-democracy activists such as Martin Lee and Szeto Wah and against the emergent cadre of pro-China businessmen. It also criticised anti-British gestures such as the banning of the BBC channel from Robert Kuok's Star TV . This was in stark contrast to the SCMP and Standard, which had become somewhat circumspect in their criticism of China in the runup to the end of British sovereignty on June 31, 1997.

Although the newspaper's sleek design and editorial boldness quickly made a favourable impression among expatriates and gained the second-largest newsstand sales, it was not able to gain a significant share of the market. The SCMP at this time was one of the wealthiest newspapers in the world, mostly because of its Saturday classifieds section which often ran to 300 pages. The English-speaking Chinese readership, moreover, remained loyal to the SCMP. The Eastern Express closed operations suddenly at the end of 1996.

Chinese Serial

2008-09-24T08:10:00.003-07:00

Chinese Serial was the first newspaper in Hong Kong, since the Treaty of Nanjing. Founded in August 1853 and published by Ying Wa College in binding-book style, it introduced Western history, geography and sciences to Chinese readers, as well as reporting the latest news in China and the West. The paper was written mainly in Chinese, although some stories were in English. The paper is the first Chinese newspaper to have s.

Walter Henry Medhurst, a London-born missionary to China, was the first editor-in-chief of the paper. The publication terminated in May 1856 as Medhurst's successor James Legge, the then principal of Ying Wa College, was occupied by school management.

A complete facsimile edition of the paper has been published in 2006.

Studies

* 松浦章，內田慶市，沈国威，『遐邇貫珍の研究』，吹田市: 関西大学出版部，平成16 .

Career Times

2008-09-24T08:10:00.001-07:00

Career Times, an -language recruitment weekly for business executives, has been published by Hong Kong Economic Times Limited every Friday since 1997. With an average weekly circulation of 210,000 copies, it is currently the market leader in quality job postings especially in the Banking & Finance, Engineering, Information Technology, Merchandising and Sales sectors.

Careertimes.com.hk, the online version of Career Times was launched in 1999 as an alternative recruitment and information portal for jobseekers and human resources professionals. It offers full editorial contents in sync with Career Times, including recruitment related information, self-improvement, industry insights, exclusive interviews and many more. With more than 435,000 members, 673,000 daily page views and thousands of corporate openings, careertimes.com.hk has come a long way and become one of the leading recruitment portals in Hong Kong.

Apple Daily

2008-09-24T08:09:00.008-07:00

''This article is about the Hong Kong version of the newspaper. For the Taiwan version of the newspaper, see Apple Daily ''

Apple Daily is a Hong-Kong-based newspaper that was founded by in 1995 and is by its company, Next Media. A sister publication carrying the same name is published in Taiwan under a joint venture in Taiwan between Next Media and other companies. The publications take an unrelenting stance of economic and political freedom, as a consequence the publications are banned in China and websites blocked by the great firewall of China.

''Apple Daily'''s main sections include "Local News", "Foreign News", "Finance", "Entertainment", "Sports" and "Others"—including technology, travel, eating, cooking, fashion and more provocative material generating much of its popularity and controversy. Apple Daily's popularity as Hong Kong's second best selling newspaper, according to AC Nielsen, is derived from its concentration on celebrity coverage, brash news style, sensationalist news reportage and its anti-government political positions.

Its founder brainstormed the name of this newspaper, stating that "if Adam and Eve didn't eat the apple, there would be no evil or wrongdoings in this world, which made news a non-existing term".

History

Apple Daily was founded by Jimmy Lai Chee Ying on June 20, 1995. Unlike newspapers at that time, it used colour printing on all pages of the newspaper and didn't allow advertisements covering the complete frontpage. Since then, it attracted a large amount of readership. Other newspapers followed its suit and a few were forced to close due to intense competition by Apple Daily.

The newspaper uncovered many political scandals, including a former member for not reporting conflict of interest in 2000, former Financial Secretary Antony Leung for tax evasion on a which saved him HK$50,000 , and many others, which caused those individuals went into jail or forced to resign.

Just prior to July 1, 2003, the newspaper encouraged people to go on the street and protest against the government. On that day of protest, it prepared banners and newspaper front pages for the public to carry and protest. The 2003 protest drew 500,000 citizens to the Hong Kong July 1 marches. Since then, it was viewed as the newspaper that helped carried the message of protest against the government.

Others

David Tang, ''bon vivant'' and founder of Shanghai Tang writes a weekly column for Apple Daily in English, a selection which were published in book as An Apple a Week.

In September, 2003, veteran columnist To Kit joined the newspaper, and publishes his daily column "The Golden Adventure" and a weekly editorial called "Sunday Rest" at the newspaper.

Popular food critic, travel writer and former movie producer Chua Lam writes a regular column for the newspaper.

Popular writer/doctor Au Lok Man also writes articles for the newspaper's leisure section on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Am730

2008-09-24T08:09:00.007-07:00

am730, operated by AM730 Media Limited, is the third newspaper in Hong Kong, the prior two being ''Headline Daily'' and ''Metropolis Daily''. Shih Wing-ching, chairman of the ''Centaline Holdings'' property agency, is the founder of the newspaper. Shih introduced the new paper due to the unprecedented success of ''Metropolis Daily'', the pioneer in this market. ''Metropolis Daily'' was founded in 2002, and was so successful that it broke even in only fourteen months. Realising the profitability of the market, Shih established ''am730'' in late July 2005

Shih believes free newspapers have become a worldwide trend that will gain more and more market share. He agrees that free newspapers will in the near future become the way people are informed about daily events around the world, as a free newspaper avoids the conflict of interest which exists between the for-pay newspapers and their readers. As the primary income of a free newspaper is the advertisements and the income of those who advertise comes from the readers, this suggests that a newspaper's mostly valuable asset should be its readers; thus, readers should not be charged for the news.

Overview

am730 launched its first publication on July 30, 2005. Initially, ''am730'' was scheduled to be launched in September, but it was re-scheduled to July 30th for two primary reasons. First, it intends to keep up with one of its competitors, ''Headline Daily'', which was launched on July 12, 2005. Second is the convenient coincidence that the date of July 30th corresponds with the name of the newspaper. Two hundred thousand copies of ''am730'' were issued at its first publication and its current volume is around three hundred thousand copies daily.

The name of the newspaper is intended to suggest a fresh approach towards the methodology of naming newspapers. It does not incorporate the term "daily" because this word reflects the conventional way of naming a news journal. The name literally states the newspaper's aim to distribute the publication during rush hour, which is approximately 7:30am.

According to Shih, the newspaper is tailored to young people. 7:30am is about when the sun rises; it signals vitality, just like the young people who are at the start of a long journey through life. It is a new vision aimed to change the old quality of Hong Kong newspapers. In its first week, ''am730'' sold one hundred thousand copies. Eventually, it aims to increase circulation to three hundred thousand copies, which is similar to the other two free newspapers

Language and style

''am730'' tends to adopt internet slang and other expressions which are widely used on the Internet and popular among youth. The newspaper official says it is advisable to use internet slang and does not think that colloquial expressions in newspaper articles will affect young people's language proficiency. What is more crucial is using popular language to convey messages. ''am730'' intends to offer a fresh sensation in news to its readers; it aims to widen the horizon of its readers, both internationally and culturally, and to promote an optimistic outlook on life and hopes for the future.

While being consistent with market regulations, ''am730'' is a real newspaper which offers more attention to principles. Unlike numerous other newspapers, ''am730'' is against the idea of indecent news as the selling point. It wants to provide a newspaper with accurate, simple news reports targeted to youth who have just begun their careers. The fresh, youthful style of ''am730'' is designed to encourage more young people to read newspapers. Shih hopes that through this free newspaper, young people in Hong Kong will cultivate a greater interest in the news and in the future of Hong Kong.

''Headline Daily'', a newspaper which belongs to ''Sing Tao'', is the primary competition for ''am730''. Shih admits that ''Headline Daily'' has more resources than the privately investigated ''am730'' because of its attachment to ''Sing Tao Daily'', but that dependence on Sing Tao would harm the independence of its organization.

In many ways, ''am730'' is similar to a traditional newspaper. Like most newspapers, the contents of the paper include local, China, international, financial, entertainment and sports news. Additionally, Shih Wing Ching writes a column called "C Viewpoint" in which he gives his daily commentary on local or international news. "730 Angle" is also a commentary column, but for people from all walks of life. Differing opinions are welcome for critical discussions. Moreover, "Snapshot Hong Kong" is a column which cold-contacts youngsters on the street to ask their opinions. Hence, there is no doubt that the major target of ''am730'' is the young working class and it defines itself as a youth publication in the newspaper market. The reason for this, in Shih's own words, is because young people are full of hope: "Local papers follow the view in that they will only report bad things, as if there is no hope in this world, yet hope is what young people mostly need." The design and layout of the paper are colourful and appealing.

The detailed layout of the newspaper is as follows:

*Front page
The lead story of the day occupies almost the entire page of the paper, filled in with colourful illustrations. The other stories vary from local top stories to China and international news.

Similar to a traditional newspaper, on the left corner is a column which briefly highlights the news of secondary importance that is available inside the paper. The highlights vary, including local, China, international, entertainment and sport news. At the bottom of the column is a display of the Mark Six results.

*Local
Typically, around three to four pages are allocated to the local news section. More important news such as politics and policies are reported in greater length than city news such as accidents and events. To maximise space usage, even the banner at the top of the page is used to cover brief news accounts. Shih's personal column, "C Viewpoint," can also be found in this section.

There is also a column for weather forecasts for local, China and international locations. The banner of this section is sky-blue in colour.

*China
News from China and related to China's interests takes up about one to two pages of the paper. The banner colour of this section is khaki.

*International
The international section covers major news around the world. The banner colour of this section is dark blue.

*Features
When this section appears, it is placed in the middle of the paper and covers two pages, but it is not always printed. At times, the middle pages are occupied by a full-page advertisement. Feature stories, when available, offer in-depth reports and analysis.

*Finance
This is a short, concise one-page section on financial and business news, both locally and on the international arena. The banner colour of this section is dark green.

*Sports
The Sports section covers both the local and the international sports scene. On average it provides a scoreboard summary of final scores and, on occasion, a brief schedule of live sports coverage on television. The banner colour of this section is light green.

*I.T.
The section is dedicated to news of advancement and electronic products, including mobile phones, computers, television and much more. Not to be missed is news of the Internet and recommended websites. The banner colour of this section is light green.

*Notes
The Notes section usually offers articles of interesting, sometimes absurd events happening around the world. The banner colour of this section is purple.

*OL and Health
This section is dedicated to young working women, similar to those offered in popular women's magazines. Besides tips and advice on women's health and beauty, there is also a section dedicated to relationship advice for women readers with personal problems. The banner colour of this section is pink.

*Entertainment
This section offers entertainment news regarding celebrities, music and movies. There are usually two pages dedicated to this section. One page focuses on local Hong Kong celebrities, while the other covers international celebrities. There are occasional extras in this section such as movie reviews and basic introductions of a foreign language. The banner colour of this section is mustard yellow.

*Readers
"730 Angle" offers letters and readers' opinions on various issues. There is also a small section on events and book reviews. On the right hand corner is a "snapshot" section dedicated to teen fashion and trends, including the mobile phones they use.

*Leisure
This section that relates tips and overviews of leisure activities. Generally this section contains comics, western horoscopes, predictions of the future, and cooking tips and recipes.

*Television
This section provides a selected schedule of programmes offered on both local and cable television. At the bottom section, there is a review of some recommended programs. Last but not least are the credits of the editorial team as well as a list of contacts for the newspaper.

*Back page
The back page of the paper is typically occupied by a full-page advertisement.

Generally, the news accounts presented are brief and limited, due at least in part to space limitations. As ''am730'' is a free newspaper, the operating cost largely depends on the advertisement revenue. A full-page advertisement appears on every other page, mainly placed between the local news section and the finance section. Smaller advertisements are scattered throughout the newspaper. Nevertheless, the newspaper remains an effective and rapid way to inform commuters about current issues in Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

Editorial team

Currently, the editorial team consists of 50 people. The key players of the team are :

*President: Alan Lo
*Vice President: Danny Fung and Ricky Lo
*Sales and Marketing Director: Ray Lee
*Associate Managing Editor: Dominic Leung
*Marketing Manager: Agnes Chen
*Chief Reporter: Kenneth Dai
*General Chief Reporter: Ray Tsang
*Photography Director: Edmond Wong
*Arts Director: Spring Kwok

Shih once said that ''am730'' would only be a success depending on the efforts of the staff. If the revenue and expenditures could be balanced within the first year, Shih promised he would pay his staff seven more months of salary.

Distribution points

''am370'' is widely distributed from Mondays to Fridays at around 287 locations. Distribution locations include railway stations along the and , the entrances of Mass Transit Railway stations, private residential areas, and many points in the Central business district .

Due to limited human resources and the specific target group of ''am730'', early distribution points were not as efficient. Its main focus is now in the commercial districts of Hong Kong such as , Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Operation Cost

The initial launch of the newspaper cost up to HK$100 million. It was Shih's private investment. At the first stage, working capital was just HK$50 million; another HK$50 million will be invested if the operation proves successful. Shih Wing-ching expects that revenue and expenditures will be balanced after a year of publication.

As a free newspaper, the major operational revenue is gained from advertisements. After the first month of publication, the revenue gained from commercial advertisements was HK$100 million while ''am730'' still needed to bear HK$100 million to HK$200 million in losses everyday. The advertising rates in ''am730'' are estimated to be HK$24,000 - HK$30,000, 30% to 40% lower than ''Metropolis Daily'''s rates of HK$32,000 to HK$40,000. This is a strategic action to attract more advertisements.

Other Services

Online papers

''am730'' is also easily accessible online for the IT-savvy public. Besides viewing the most recent issue, readers can also view archived issues of ''am730'' online. The is formatted in such a way that it resembles the actual printed paper.

Club 730

''Club 730'' invites its readers to become involved with activities organized by the newspaper. Membership in this club gives the readers special benefits and privileges. It also cultivates brand loyalty among the readers. The application form for ''Club 730'' can be downloaded from the ''am730'' official website; membership cards will be delivered around two weeks after submitting the form. Members enjoy benefits like shopping discounts and will be invited to join exclusive activities organized by ''am730''.

Other special offers

''am730'' frequently offers free coupons. Readers can enjoy special offers by cutting the coupons published in the paper. One example was the ''Delifrance'' tea set offer on October 10th, 2005.

Impact of ''am730''

According to Shih, free newspapers represent the future trend of print news because they avoid conflict between readers and newspapers. The fact that ''am730'' is convenient and free of charge has attracted a large group of readers away from the conventional newspapers. Besides the advantages of large circulation and a large group of readers, free newspapers attract many advertisers. According to a survey, ''Metropolis Daily'' advertisements ranked 6th in Hong Kong newspapers. It has thus become a big challenge for traditional newspapers to keep up with free newspapers. Starting October 19th, 2005, '''', one of the newspapers under the Oriental Press Group Limited, cut the retail price for each paper to HK$3. It is believed to be responding to the emerging competition brought up by free newspapers. Other newspaper press groups declared they would not follow this action, but would closely monitor the situation.

With the emergence of ''Headline Daily'' and ''am730'' into Hong Kong's print media industry in July 2005, the competition among the numerous newspapers is becoming increasingly stiff and unhealthy. In fact, the existence of free circulated tabloids in general can be seen as a form of "self killing" in the industry, in which free tabloids are "killing off" the traditional broadsheets in terms of readership and advertising revenue. Besides this, the saturated market of three free tabloids in Hong Kong can also result in non-profitability for weaker competitors.

Another effect of the entry of ''am730'' and other free tabloids into the market will be on the advertising revenue for traditional broadsheets. Being highly dependent on advertising revenue, traditional broadsheets now face intense competition from free tabloids that are also dependent on advertising revenue as a primary source for their survival. A major advantage of ''am730'' is its easy accessibility to its readers. This means that despite higher advertising charges, companies might be willing to advertise in these papers to guarantee a higher exposure level for their products.

There are 3 main Chinese free newspapers and millions of copies are issued every day . In a survey conducted by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong in July 2005, by interviewing 1006 residents, 60% to 65% reported they had taken free newspapers, but 48.7% would throw the newspaper into rubbish bins instead of a recycle box. This practice is not only creating waste, but is also causing damage to the natural environment; for every metric ton of paper used, 17 trees are brought down and 1,500 litres of fuel oil are consumed.

Readership

A survey on Hong Kong free tabloid readership by Synovate, a leading research company, was conducted between 1 August 2005 and 21 August 2005. ''Metro Daily'', ''Headline Daily'' and ''am730'' have 16%, 18% and 8% of the total market share, respectively. From these figures, one can see that ''am730'', with a low circulation of around 260,000 in comparison with the other two tabloids, is performing reasonably well for a starter.

Demographics

*Target readers
''am730'' aims at expanding the readership of the young working class. With its primary target of readers in the younger demographic range, ''am730'' has achieved its target; 65% of its readers are below 45 years of age, according to the survey. This could be seen as an achievement for the free tabloids whose professed aim is to raise awareness of current issues for the politically apathetic younger generation.

*Occupation
''am730'' is able to get a majority of its readers from the full-time working class, accounting for 81% of its readership according to the survey. This proves that the distribution of papers at railway stations does help in gaining accessibility to working class readers who commonly use public transportation.

Also, ''am730'' has a low readership from people in managerial positions, according to the survey. This is also true for other free tabloids. Generally, the percentage of professionals reading free tabloids only made up 7% of the total readership. In making their stories short and brief, ''am730'' and other tabloids are definitely seen as lacking depth among higher-educated individuals.

Newspaper vendors are upset because of falling sales in traditional newspapers, which directly harms their income. Hence, the vendors are seeking a deal with publishers of free newspapers to distribute the papers for a fee, and threaten to mount a noisy campaign if their requests are denied.

Wen Wei Po

2008-09-24T08:09:00.005-07:00

Wen Wei Po is a Hong Kong-based Chinese language newspaper, which was first established in Shanghai in January 1938; its Hong Kong version was launched on September 9, 1948.

The publishing of ''Wen Wei Po'' aims at supporting the ''New China'', that is the People's Republic of China and delivering the latest development of the Mainland to readers, especially that of the recent 20 years. A rare exception was the 1989 editorial board openly objected the use of force in 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, and as a consequence the editorial was replaced shortly thereafter.

Apart from this, ''Wen Wei Po'' also delivers the latest news and development of Hong Kong in all aspects, with comments and editorials on these issues.

''Wen Wei Po'' is an officially recognized newspaper for publishing legal advertisements under the direction of the government of .

Content

''Wen Wei Po'' has around 48 pages everyday and a variety of sections, including news, sports and entertainment. Compared with other newspapers in Hong Kong, it has more coverage of mainland China's politics, economy, society, education and culture, but fewer entertainment or human interest stories. Recently the newspaper has started sending journalists to gather news about PRC leaders' visits around China.

Space and military news

The ''Wenhui Journal'' is known to periodicaly leak first hand informations about the PRC's and military build up. Typical examples are the advanced launch date of the mission, information revealed on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the journal's establishment, or aircraft carrier program.

In this regard, the ''Wenhui Journal'' shares the privilege of been provided with exclusive high-tech news with newsgroups targeting the same readership such as the Hong Kong '''' （《大公报》） or the ''Beijing Youth Daily'' （《北京青年报》）.

Market/Target

''Wen Wei Po'' is authorized for distribution in Macau and mainland China. Tourists can get copies of ''Wen Wei Po'' easily from hotels in large cities of the mainland. ''Wen Wei Po'' has a greater circulation in the mainland than in Hong Kong.

As one of the most popular Hong Kong newspapers in the mainland, ''Wen Wei Po'' publishes a lot of advertisements from enterprises of different cities in the mainland. Even for the online version, there are a lot of mainland advertisements, and the newspaper's advertisement revenue is mainly supported by the mainland China market.

Style

''Wen Wei Po'' is regarded as a newspaper which is pro- Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China government. Consequently, the reports are mainly on the "brighter" and the more positive side of China.

The paper is also considered as a "cleaner" paper as it includes fewer sensational reports and bloody pictures. Its reports on issues other than politics and China are considered as more reliable.

Credibility

The credility of ''Wen Wei Po'' can be shown in the survey conducted by the Department of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, entitled "Press Freedom and Political Transition in Hong Kong:A Summary of the Hong Kong Journalist Survey 1996". ''Wen Wei Po'' gained a mean of 4.68 mark, where the maximum mark is 10, among local media organizations.

''Press Freedom and Political Transition in Hong Kong:A Summary of the Hong Kong Journalist Survey 1996'':
*http://www.cuhk.hk/97event/research/renglish.html

Wen Wei Po in the world

Its 33 official agencies in the mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai and Yunnan, help the paper gather news in the mainland and establish relationships with local officials/advertisers. It also has correspondents in major cities in the world, such as Tokyo, London and New York.

''Wen Wei Po'' has 5 overseas editions. The latest edition is the Philippines edition, which was established in Manila on October 8, 2003. The other overseas editions are published in San Francisco , USA, Jakarta in Indonesia, Toronto in Canada and Bangkok in Thailand. It also has a European edition and a flight edition.

DVD Archives of ''Wen Wei Po''

''Wen Wei Po'' distributes a set of 13 DVD which contains all the content, including text, graphs and photographs of the newspaper in the period 1939-1998. Users can search the information they want by keywords.

Shanghai Wen Hui Bao

The Shanghai ''Wen Hui Bao'', with the same Chinese name 文汇报, is another newspaper and independent from the Hong Kong ''Wen Wei Po''. In 1997, ''Wen Hui Bao'' merged with the ''Shanghai Xinmin Evening News'' to form Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group ; the hearsay has been the fact that the former was in need of financial assistance.

''Shanghai Xinmin Evening News'' is the most popular evening post in China which has a huge market share. Shanghai ''Wen Hui Bao'', as an official newspaper in Shanghai which often contained conservative and dull ideas, had lost many of its readers. As a result, these two newspapers combined together under economic considerations, with a backdown of political considerations. Hong Kong ''Wen Wei Po'' has a different management team and does not belong to Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.

Universal Circulating Herald

2008-09-24T08:09:00.003-07:00

Universal Circulating Herald is the first Chinese newspaper, founded in 1874 by in Hong Kong.

Tin Tin Daily News

2008-09-24T08:09:00.001-07:00

Tin Tin Daily News was a newspaper in Hong Kong, published between 1960 and 2000. It was founded by the Wai family, who made their fortune in . It was the first colour-printed serious newspaper in Hong Kong - the first ever colour-printed newspaper of the region, a tabloid, was published in 1959.
''Tin Tin Daily News'' was forced to close due to a lawsuit. Several related newspapers, ''Everybody's Daily News'' , ''Hong Kong Globe'' and ''A Daily'' , soon followed. The former survived for 12 days, while the latter two became defunct by early 2002.

The Wall Street Journal Asia

2008-09-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal Asia provides news and analysis of global business developments for an Asian audience. It was founded in 1976 and is printed in nine Asian cities: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo. Average circulation for the first half of 2008 was 80,706. Its largest markets in order of importance are: Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, India and Vietnam.

The paper's main regional office is in Hong Kong, and its Editor, International is Daniel Hertzberg.

The first editor and publisher of the ''Asian Journal'' was Peter R. Kann, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Company.

The Wall Street Journal Asia can also be found at The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. The Wall Street Journal Asia is also published online in Chinese at Chinese.wsj.com.

Statistics

*Its readers are 77.9% Asian citizens, and 67.4% work in top management.
*Its readership boasts an average annual income of USD 229,000 and an average annual household income of USD 301,000.