‘Support us and subscribe,’ Next Digital CEO urges as pressure from China looms
蘋果日報 2020/06/21 08:11
The CEO of Next Digital — the publisher of Apple Daily and Next Magazine — has urged Hong Kongers to continue to support the newspaper as it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Cheung Kim-hung said the government and big corporations were trying to punish the vocal newspaper by choosing not to place advertisements in the publication. He said big corporations had started boycotting the newspaper soon after Hong Kong’s sovereignty was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.
“Then there came the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Since then, major banks and medium-sized developers have also stopped placing advertisements with us. We have then been named and shamed by some high-ranking officials in the central government. Recently, even our website has been targeted,” he said.
Cheung said even some overseas companies were avoiding association with the newspaper due to pressure from the Chinese government. “We are getting fewer and fewer advertisements, so we started the subscription scheme,” he said.
Apple Daily and Next Magazine have accumulated more than 700,000 subscribers since last September, with a satisfied Cheung interpreting this as Hong Kongers being supportive of the company. He acknowledged that there was still some ways to go and the media platform would continue to do its best to deliver the best user experience for subscribers.
Cheung said there were internal disagreements as to how to balance the newspaper’s income and influence in the early days of the paywall. But they agreed to set the monthly subscription fee at around HK$50 (US$6.45), with the daily click rate only dropping slightly. The platform currently receives about 20 million clicks every day, he said.
The newspaper also recently launched an English edition, with the main motivation coming from the increased international attention on Hong Kong as the trade war between the United States and China continued. “The management felt that English media in Hong Kong are not providing a full picture of the city,” Cheung said.
The English edition — costing the company about HK$300,000 (US$39,000) a month — is currently available for free but a similar paywall could be implemented in the future, Cheung said. The initial idea was to allow Chinese-language subscribers to access the English content as well, he explained.
There was plenty in the pipeline for boosting advertising revenue and other income streams, with a plan to attract smaller Hong Kong businesses to advertise on its platform based on geographic location. This would be executed through app data, explained Cheung. There were also plans to launch an online store, with subscribers eligible for discounts. Next Digital would also host more seminars and activities for members to further boost revenue, he said.
Cheung said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the company had been softened by the pay wall, but normal advertising levels may not return for some time.
“But there is always a way out,” he said, adding that the biggest goal of the newspaper was to survive amid increasing suppression.
Apple Daily played an important role in resistance, he said, urging Hong Kongers to continue to support the newspaper. “With Apple Daily, the authorities would have to think twice before they impose any form of suppression, such as the national security law,” he said.
Cheung Kim-hung said the government and big corporations were trying to punish the vocal newspaper by choosing not to place advertisements in the publication. He said big corporations had started boycotting the newspaper soon after Hong Kong’s sovereignty was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.
“Then there came the Umbrella Movement in 2014. Since then, major banks and medium-sized developers have also stopped placing advertisements with us. We have then been named and shamed by some high-ranking officials in the central government. Recently, even our website has been targeted,” he said.
Cheung said even some overseas companies were avoiding association with the newspaper due to pressure from the Chinese government. “We are getting fewer and fewer advertisements, so we started the subscription scheme,” he said.
Apple Daily and Next Magazine have accumulated more than 700,000 subscribers since last September, with a satisfied Cheung interpreting this as Hong Kongers being supportive of the company. He acknowledged that there was still some ways to go and the media platform would continue to do its best to deliver the best user experience for subscribers.
Cheung said there were internal disagreements as to how to balance the newspaper’s income and influence in the early days of the paywall. But they agreed to set the monthly subscription fee at around HK$50 (US$6.45), with the daily click rate only dropping slightly. The platform currently receives about 20 million clicks every day, he said.
The newspaper also recently launched an English edition, with the main motivation coming from the increased international attention on Hong Kong as the trade war between the United States and China continued. “The management felt that English media in Hong Kong are not providing a full picture of the city,” Cheung said.
The English edition — costing the company about HK$300,000 (US$39,000) a month — is currently available for free but a similar paywall could be implemented in the future, Cheung said. The initial idea was to allow Chinese-language subscribers to access the English content as well, he explained.
There was plenty in the pipeline for boosting advertising revenue and other income streams, with a plan to attract smaller Hong Kong businesses to advertise on its platform based on geographic location. This would be executed through app data, explained Cheung. There were also plans to launch an online store, with subscribers eligible for discounts. Next Digital would also host more seminars and activities for members to further boost revenue, he said.
Cheung said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the company had been softened by the pay wall, but normal advertising levels may not return for some time.
“But there is always a way out,” he said, adding that the biggest goal of the newspaper was to survive amid increasing suppression.
Apple Daily played an important role in resistance, he said, urging Hong Kongers to continue to support the newspaper. “With Apple Daily, the authorities would have to think twice before they impose any form of suppression, such as the national security law,” he said.
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Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app
To know more: https://bit.ly/2yMMfQE
Apple Daily mobile app latest version DOWNLOAD NOW
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app
To know more: https://bit.ly/2yMMfQE
Apple Daily mobile app latest version DOWNLOAD NOW