Growing Potential of Free Dailies

出自香港新聞網 - 樹仁新傳系學生實習習作

While Sing Tao News Corporation announced its English-language newspaper, The Standard, turned free-of-charge this month, the landscape of Hong Kong newspaper industry started its revolution. Predicting the coming of this trend, the chairman of Free Daily AM730 Media Limited Shik Wing Ching and the director, Danny Fung had already determined to involve themselves in this potential market.

Rise of Free Tabloid Newspapers is a Trend

Shik on a weekly assembly in Shue Yan University pointed that the traditional newspapers are losing their readership. “People nowadays are less willing to spend money in buying a news source but rather downloading the instant information from the Internet,” said Shik. And this is the time for free dailies to offer free information and differentiated point of views to Hong Kong dwellers. “Compared with traditional papers, free Dailies can cover the largest group of people and are rather easy-to-read within a short transportation time,” Shik added.

Room for Further Development of Free Dailies

Without constriction of the newspapers traditions, free dailies can do better in boosting the diminishing circulation and ad revenue. In handling the daily design of the tabloid, Danny said he always tried to be innovative. “Instead of delivering news only, AM730 always wants to build relationship with the readers,” Danny emphasized. This is done so by including readers’ passages in the newspapers and imaging the columns writers by providing their photos. “The successive breakevens showed that we already had plenty of loyal readers,” both Shik and Danny are optimistic for the days to increase circulation.

Carol