Hong Kong Commercial Daily
The Hong Kong Commercial Daily (香港商報) is a broadsheet business-oriented newspaper. Established in 1952, it is the first financial newspaper written in Chinese, which can be read on the Internet. It is one of the few newspapers authorized by the Hong Kong SAR government to publicize legal announcements, and also the only Hong Kong-based newspaper allowed to be circulated freely in mainland China. With a correspondence bureau in Shenzhen, its circulation reaches the top among Hong Kong newspapers in China.
History
Its Establishment
The Hong Kong Commercial Daily was founded on 11th October, 1952. The first issue was published on a Saturday with the selling price of only HK $0.10. In the foreword of the neswpaper's launch, the paper aimed to serve 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 maintaining its government attitude towards the truth of events, putting focus on worldwide economies, especially Hong Kong and China economies, in order to inform merchants and businessmen on the ever-changing economies around the world. In the earliest publication, the newspaper contained also the latest horse racing news in Happy Valley, and during weekends, serial short stories with pictures (e.g. the West Journey) were also published for the entertainment of the readers.
In the 70s
In the early 70s, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily was requested by the government to stop publishing its Horse-racing pages and Dog-racing pages in order to prevent any promotion of the idea of capitalism. It then led to a severe decline in its circulation at that time.
In the 80s
In December 1989, its largest share was bought by the Joint Publishing (HK) Company Limited (the joint company of The Commercial Press (H.K.) Ltd, Chung Hwa Book Co. and Joint Publishing)at the price of 160 million Hong Kong dollars.
In the 90s
In 1995, Hong Kong Commercial Daily co-operated with the mainland publishing companies to co-publish its special mainland version. It helped in building up its news network and expanding its mainland newspaper market. Since 1996, its electronic version was available on the internet.
In 2005
In May 2005, the paper has been upgraded. It is now sold at $3 Hong Kong dollars within Hong Kong and overseas countries. Whereas in Mainland China, it is sold at $3RMB within Guandong Provinces and $5 RMB outside. The new version emphasizes the fact that it is tailor-made for investors and business executives mostly from Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Economic Region . It mainly focuses on economic issues so as to facilitate business between Hong Kong and China. The mission of the paper is to serve as a bridge connecting both sides of the border. The content is more diversified. It contained the latest horse racing information, sports news, focusing on soccer and basketball, entertainment news and Hong Kong tourist information in a section called "traveling Hong Kong” (香港游).
Its Contents
The newspaper contains about 30 pages. Some of the divisions are:
- <The Main News>[[1]]
- <Chinese News>[[2]]
- <Hong Kong News>[[3]]
- <International News>[[4]]
- <Economy of Hong Kong>
- <Sports News>
- <Entertainment News>
- <The Financial and Share market of China>[[5]]
- <China's provinces>[[6]]
Besides, < I.T.Net > is publicated on every Wednesday together with the newspaper.
News
- Current Affairs in Hong Kong
- Business Development in China
Economics
- Mainly focus on the economic situtation of Hong Kong and mainland.
- Statistics and data of e.g. currency, stock markets and property markets in Hong Kong and China
- Analysis of investment opportunities
Special Features
- Interviews with sucessful and outstanding businessmen from Hong Kong and China
Sports
- Latest Horse Racing news
- Football news worldwide
Leisure
- Food and restaurants
- Column articles
Its Board
Chairman and CEO
Huang Yang Lue(黃揚略)
Mr Huang Yang Lue is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as the CEO of The Hong Kong Commercial Daily. He is also a part-time Professor of the Business School of Jinan University(暨南大學). He was born in Suwen, Guangdong and had graduated from Zhongshan University(中山大學)in 1982. Immediately after his graduation, he entered the Xinhua News Agency Guangdong branch. He had been a reporter, assistant director and the Vice-President of the Guangdong branch. In September, 2002, he was appointed the Head of the Shenzhen News Group[[7]].
Advisory Board
There are more than 50 members as advisors of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily. For example: Dr. Tsang Hin Chi(曾憲梓), Dr. Leo Lee Tung-hai(李東海), Dr. Vincent Lo Hong-sui(羅康瑞), Dr. Robin Chan Yau-hing(陳有慶), Mr. Timothy Fok Tsun-ting(霍震霆)and Mr. Chan Wing-kee(陳永棋) .
Its Editor
Cheng Xi Tian(陳鍚添)
Mr. Cheng Xi Tian is the current chief editor of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily. Cheng was born on 8th February, 1941 in Shanghai. Before he became the Chief Editor and Deputy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Cheng was the editor of Shenzhen Publishing Group. Besides, he is also a part-time professor in Renmin University of China(RUC)(中國人民大學) and Wuhan University(WHU)(武漢大學). He is a graduate from journalism of Renmin University of China in 1966 and has been working in the field of journalism for more than thirty years. While 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(鄧小平) 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 had won a lot of distinguished awards in the press media of mainland China, e.g. "The first award of Chinese News" (中國新聞獎一等獎), "Speical Price of Guangdong News" (廣東新聞獎特別獎), etc.. In 2000, he was awarded the most honorable prize in the press in mainland (韜奮新聞獎).
Readership
Target reader groups
The target reader groups include investors and business executives on both sides of the border, mainly from Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, especially the Special Economic Zones. Employees of some Hong Kong companies which has based their businesses in mainland China, and politically-minded individuals with an interest in the HKSAR-PRC relationship, are also the target readers of the paper. Its worldwide readership also includes people from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, Holland, Norway, etc.
Ranking by readers
According to the survey done by the Department of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the credibility of Hong Kong Commercial Daily is ranked 23rd among the media(for example, newspapers and magazines)in Hong Kong, scoring 4.9,while the most credible one is the Hong Kong Economic Journal(scoring 7.38).
Readers' perception
RTHK[8] and Breakthrough[9] have conducted surveys and questionnaires for Hong Kong readers and journalists in Year 1998 and 2001 respectively. The findings somehow reflect a number of the Hong Kong newspapers and publications' trustworthiness, political stance and popularity among the public.
The Hong Kong Commercial Daily has also been reviewed, and the result has been shown in the diagram.
Hong Kong Commercial Daily is being reviewed and considered as "in support of the PRC government" by the public as seen from the graph. Therefore, its trustworthiness is affected as having political bias and deflection and it caused a very low score. From the surveys, the popularity of the Commercial Daily is relatively low among the citizens. It is more popular among the so-called “talents” and the “upper-class”. Therefore, there is only less than 1% of the citizens reading the newspaper according to the surveys.
When Chen Shui-bian was elected as the new leader of Taiwan on May 20,2000,Hong Kong Commercial Daily published an article headlined 'Taiwan independence' will never be allowed by Chinese people in its main editorial. Most of the public do not think that this is a neutral statement and too politically biased. Thus the Commercial Daily is said to have the "pro-China standing". Besides, it is also considered by people that it is as "pro-Beijing" (supporting the Beijing Government) as other 'right-wing' newspapers such as Ta Kung Pao,Sing Pao, Sing Tao and Wen Wei Po.
Publication
Intellectual serials
In addition to reporting up-to-date business and financial issues, it also contains intellectual serials. For example, many of the martial arts novels written by Jinyong(also known as Louis Cha) like "The Sword Stained With Royal Blood"《碧血劍》"'in 1956,Eagle Shooting Hero Feasts" 《射鵰英雄傳》(first published in 1957)etc, were published in installments from 1950s.
Books
Besides, The Hong Kong Commercial Daily also publishes various kinds of books, while most are in Chinese, inluding "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. It also publishes books on some special featuring stories posted in the newspaper that are later on collected as a series.
Website
The Hong Kong Commercial Daily website (香港商報電子版-中國窗)[10] was launched in 1996. It is written in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese characters. The news is updated at mid-night, before the paper is published everyday. People from all over the world can access freely to the on-line news about Hong Kong, Mainland China and International issues. Apart from that, with the help of the search engine, readers are able to read news and special features in the past.
The website is linked to its publication partners in mainland including Shenzhen Special Zone Daily(深圳特區報)[11], Shenzhen Economics Daily(深圳商報)[12], Shenzhen Daily[13], Shenzhen Times(深圳都市報)[14], Shenzhen Week(本色生活)[15], autonews(汽車導報)[16] etc.
Contact
Email: cnwnc@szszd.com.cn
Public Entries: hkcd@cmmail.com
Readers Contact: pr@hkcd.com.hk
Address: King's Road 499, North Point, Hong Kong
Telephone no.: (852)25640768; Fax: (852)25658947
See also
External link
Notes and references
Hong Kong Commercial Daily [microform] (香港商報 [縮微資料]). Hong Kong Special Collection, Main Library of University of Hong Kong, 1952.
金庸茶館[17]
[RTHK]][18]
Hong Kong Commercial Daily(香港商報電子版-中國窗)[19]
Hong Kong Print Awards [20]