HK Magazine
HK Magazine is a free, Hong Kong-based English-language weekly magazine published by Asia City Publishing Limited. With its premiere issue published in 1989, it targets young metropolitans with a focus on "City Living". It offers discussions on latest social issues as well as comprehensive entertainment listings. New issue of the magazine is available every Friday in restaurants, bars and stores where local expatriates frequent. The 600th issue will be published on 11 November 2005.
History
The founders of HK Magazine are Greg Duncan, Stephen Freeman and Gretchen Worth. In 1989, considering Hong Kong as a suitable place to start a city living magazine, they decided to establish an English-language magazines.
The first issue of HK Magazine was published in June, 1991 by a local private company Asia City Publishing Limited. It had 24 pages and a circulation of 15,000. As the name of the magazine suggests, it is a magazine about life in Hong Kong. It started off as a monthly magazine and was originally called "HK: the indispensable Hong Kong Guide", as depicted on the cover, although it was also referred to as "HK Magazine".
In November, 1992, because of the ambiguity of the name and the change of the publisher's schedule, the magazine was renamed as "HK Magazine" and was published bi-weekly for almost three years.
Later in September, 1995, it became a weekly magazine published by Premier Printing Group Limited. There was also an increase in the variety of its contents to keep up with the pace of life in Hong Kong. Now, the regular number of pages is 64-72 and it has a circulation of 50,000.
Distribution
The magazine is available for free on every Friday from around 700 venues in Hong Kong. Most of the venues are restaurants, bars, coffee shops, bookshops, retail stores, and other venues that tend to be frequently visited by English-speaking people living in Hong Kong. Therefore the distribution outlets are most concentrated in the Central district and in the Tsim Sha Tsui district.
Readership
The magazine targets a young readership, especially the expatriates and also the local Chinese population who have a good command in English.
It has around 236,000 readers per week among which 60% are female and about 83% of the readers are in the age group of 20-44. According to a survey conducted by HK Magazinein 2004, 87% of the readers have at least one university degree and 75% of them earn more than HK$30,000 per month in support of its claim that its readers are in general the well-educated and affluent young professionals. (Source: HK Magazine 2004 Readership Survey, HK Magazine 2004 Distribution Survey).
Style
At the beginning, HK magazine mainly provided places for entertainment, such as what concerts, movies, art and so on were held in the month. As time passed by, the content of HK magazine becomes more and more diversified. It began to cover news related to Hong Kong, interviews with celebrities and detailed reports on delicacies.
HK magazine liberalizes stories that are not always discussed. For example, in one of the earliest issues, HK magazine had a feature about AIDS and the cover was a picture of a high-rise covered with a condom. It also talked about the acceptance of homosexuality while at that time homosexuality was illegal in Hong Kong.
Contents
HK Magazine covers mainly the reviews and reports of local venues and events of entertainment. It can be regarded as a lifestyle guide for the outgoing, energetic, active young residents in the city. It usually contains features about Hong Kong's local issues, and articles about music, fashion, dining and travel, etc. The cinema screening schedule and the extensive lists of eateries and bars are especially useful to tourists. Here are its main sections:
Letters
Short letters from readers who would like to comment on the magazine articles or its way of reporting stories are published.
Streettalk
Interviews with ordinary Hong Kong people on their choices of lifestyle and occupational environment. For example, in an issue, a news vendor was interviewed about his working condition and the habits of his customers.
Features
Generally, there are two features in each issue, both covering local issues and sometimes foreign issues. The first one is usually about social, political and cultural events. For instance, the issue published on 16 September, 2005 was about "the Destruction of SoHo", discusses why SoHo is losing her soul. The second one is usually about interesting events in leisure life, like the feature about the Mid-Autumn Festival in the same issue, and in another issue about friendship.
Dish
This section includes features and reviews on restaurants and cafes, introducing the latest news on where to find delicacies in Hong Kong. There are usually recommendations of a core indoor, an outdoor and a new restaurant in every issue. Sometimes, there will be a collected dishes recommendations on a selected country.
Where to go & what to do
There are six different catagories in this section
1.nightlife
It writes about the nightlife in Hong Kong. There is a list of clubs and bars in alphabetical order. Brief description of the events schedule, opening hours, location details and contact information of each specific club or bar is also included.
2.Art
It provides details of different gallaries in Hong Kong, including the content, address and opening dates and hours.
3.Stage
It writes about concerts, dance and theater. It includes the date, time, venue and the price of the shows.
4.Sport
There are two parts, namely spectator sports and get physical, which includes all the sports events taken place in Hong Kong for the week.
5.Stuff
It writes about the different classes, seminars and workshops in Hong Kong.
6.Film
It provides synopsis and reviews of recently released movies, CDs and DVDs and also a film schedule. It includes not only movies shown in cinemas, but also in Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Space Museum etc.
First person
Interviews with celebrities such as Sam Lee(李燦森), a local actor and Joey Tang(鄧建明),vocalist of a local pop-rock band "TaiChi"(太極) from the 80s.
Black + White
It is attached as another booklet, containing mainly classified advertisements including "Personals", "Flat Finders", etc and also Q & A sections, where the readers pose questions and the magazine provides answers. It allows free ads in "Personals" of 30 words for 2 weeks.
In every issue
This part includes comics, astrology and short paragraphes about significant cutural events happened around the world.
Other Publications Attached
Restaurant Guide
HK Magazine is attached with a booklet called "Restaurant Guide", which is an annual publication providing information about restaurants in Macau and Hong Kong. It can be bought seperately for $50.
Moreover, "Restaurant Guide" holds a "Dish Award" every year, which gives opportunities to many fantastic restaurants to make their debuts to some new consumers. For example, Hong Kong's Habibi Restaurant, which provides authentic Middle-eastern cuisine, won the 2003 HK Magazine Dish Award. (see more information at Habibi Restaurant)
Nightlife guide
Another attached publication of HK Magazine is the "Nightlife Guide". It is also an annual publication. It provides information of bars and discos around Hong Kong with short description. It can also be bought seperately for $30.
Health and Beauty guide
Other Services
HK Magazine had joined with "Relationship Network", an online personal network, in providing online meeting services and personals.
Publisher
HK Magazine is the publication of an international company, entitled Asia City Publishing Limited. Established on Feb 10, 1989 in Hong Kong, the Asia City Publishing Limited becomes one of the media firms producing free-distribution publications in South East Asia. Its former name was Lucky Still Limited until the corporation effectively changed its name into Asia City Publishing Limited on May 23, 1989. It aims at introducing new lifestyle to readers in different regions through a variety of publications. After 16 years of development, it now has branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur and recently in Shanghai as well. Along with the HK Magazine, Asia City Publishing Limited also publishes "Where HK", a free tourist guide, as a supplementary of the HK Magazine.
Sister Publications
HK Magazine is one of the magazines under the "Asia City Living" project of the Asia City Publishing Group. Others publications under this project include Singapore's "I-S Magazine", Bangkok's "BK Magazine", and Shanghai's "SH Out Every Friday".
Editors and Directors
Publisher and Executive Editor: Stephen Freeman
Managing Editor: Tom Hilditch
Senior Associate Editor: Jane Steer
Associate Editor: Bruce Dawson
Assistant Editor: Zach Hines
Arts Editor: Alexandra Carroll
Production Manager: Blackie Hui
Advertising Director: George Christofis
Marketing Director: Michelle Fong
Group Financial Controller: Philip Wong
Contact
Address: 301 Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 28505065
Fax: (852) 25431880
E-mail:asiacity@asia-city.com.hk
For personal ads, tel: (852) 25349500
For text ads, tel: (852) 25349552
See Also
External Links
About HK Magazine
Articles from HK Magazine
- Street Talk: The Book, Man - Interview with Nick Lovatt, by Patrick Suen
- The Dish On Dining - Restaurant Review, 11/09/1995
- The Dish On Dining: High Food - Restaurant Review, by Reggie Ho, 31/08/2001
- Interview with Mani Rao - About echolocation, by Andrew Sun, 08/2003
- The Fifth Annual Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival - About Jewish Film Festival, by Scott Murphy, 19/11/2004
References
Companies Registry. (2005).Retrived October 11,2005 from http://www.info.gov.hk/cr/