Hong Kong English-language business newspaper the Standard will be relaunched on Monday with a new design as a free daily to boost circulation, its publisher said. The move is expected by observers to change the landscape of the Hong Kong media market.
"There is a worldwide trend towards free tabloid newspapers that deliver news in an easy-to-read, lively and no-nonsense style," Sing Tao News Corp chairman Charles Ho Tsu-kwok told a press conference Monday. "The time has arrived for Hong Kong's first free-circulation English newspaper."
Initially, 120,000 copies will be distributed daily at more than 80 high-traffic points in the main business districts, including Central, Western, Admiralty, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Quarry Bay, and Tsim Sha Tsui. Copies will also go to commercial buildings, residential areas, schools and universities, four- and five-star hotels, airlines and sports clubs, as well as locations in Macau.
"Turning the Standard into a free paper is not something that came about yesterday," Ho said. "We have been pondering this since last year, and are prepared to enter into this uncharted market."
Analysts said the move to produce the city's largest English-language daily newspaper by circulation could cause advertisers to leave rival publications (the only one), such as the South China Morning Post. "I think it will definitely have a negative impact on SCMP," said Deutsche Bank analyst Rebecca Jiang, referring to the paper's owner, "But it may take some time for the advertisers to really switch to the free paper."
The Standard's move, the newspaper reported, followed a change in the information disclosure requirements of the Hong Kong stock exchange, as listed companies are no longer obligated to place paid newspaper announcements, which comprised a significant portion of newspaper revenues. "The announcement of the Hong Kong stock exchange did have a substantial effect on the company," Ho admitted. "We had to change."
The Standard's switch also follows the introduction of two free Chinese papers by the parent company. Headline Daily is the largest-circulating free newspaper in Hong Kong at 700,000 copies, while Express Post is the top free weekend paper at more than 300,000 copies.
"The move will bring changes to the industry," Joseph Chan Man, a journalism professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told the newspaper. "With the Standard switching to free circulation, being the first English paper or the fourth local paper in the city changing to this business model, the trend of printing free newspapers is more obvious in the city."
SCMP may be forced to drop its advertising rates to prevent too many advertisers from moving away, Jiang predicted. "There's not much they can do to expand the readership," she said. "I think probably a more reasonable response is to cut the [ad] rates."
The Standard will double its circulation if a new competitor joins the fray, Sing Tao chief executive Lo Wing-hung said. "No matter what, we will be ahead of our competitors by at least two times their circulation," he said. "This is how Headline Daily secured a substantial market share."
The Standard was founded in 1949 by tycoon Aw Boon Haw and was a broadsheet until 2000 when it turned tabloid and was briefly re-launched as the Hong Kong iMail before switching back to its name the Standard. For years, The Standard has struggled to keep up with the century-old South China Morning Post, which sells just over 100,000 copies a day, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).
