HK Magazine
HK Magazine is a free, Hong Kong-based weekly English-language magazine focusing on "City Living”. It is a magazine printed on matt paper, and includes coverage of leisure activities in Hong Kong. It will have published 600 issues by November 2005.
History
The founders of HK Magazine are Greg Duncan, Stephen Freeman and Gretchen Worth. In 1989, since they considered Hong Kong as a suitable place to start a city living magazine, they began to establish a regular English-language magazine.
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.
Later in September, 1995, it became a weekly magazine printed by Premier Printing Group Limited with an increase in the variety of its contents to keep up with the pace of life in Hong Kong. Now, the magazine is 64-72 pages long and 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 local Chinese-speaking who have a good command in English.
It has around 236,000 readers per week with 60% female and 40% male. About 83% of the readers are in the age range of 20-44. According to a survey in 2004 by HK Magazine, 87% of its readers have at least one university degree and 75% earn more than HK$30,000 per month, supporting 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).
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.
Letters
Letters from readers who would like to have their voices heard are published.
Streettalk
Interviews with ordinary people on the streets of Hong Kong. For example, in an issue a newstand worker 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", discuss why SoHo is losing soul. The second one is usually about interesting events in our daily life, like the feature about the Mid-Autumn Festival in the same issue, also another issue about friendship.
Dish
This section includes features and reviews on restaurants, 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.
Nightlife
It writes about the nightlife of Hong Kong youths - where they chill out and what they do.
Film
This section provides synopsis and reviews of recently released movies, CDs and DVDs and also a film schedule.
First person
Interviews with famous people and 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 different kinds of classified advertisements and also Q & A sections called "Savage Love", where the readers pose questions on dating and relationship and the magazine provides answers.
In every issue
This part includes comics, astrology and so on.
Other Publication 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.
==== Nightlife guide ====１ Another attached publication with 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.
Other Services
HK Magazine had joined with "Relationship Network", an online personal network, in providing online meeting services and personals. Local residents can have advertisements printed in HK Magazine as part of the service.
Publisher
HK Magazine is a publication of the Asia City Publishing Limited (Lucky Still Limited is its former name until the coporation effectively changed its name into Asia City Publishing Limited on the tenth day of February, 1989). Established in 1989, the Asia City Publishing Limited is one of the media firms producing free-distribution publications in South East Asia. 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, 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
The current editorial team consists of:
Publisher and Executive Editor: Stephen Freeman
Managing Editor: Tom Hilditch
Production Manager: Blackie Hui
Advertising Director: George Christofis
Marketing Director: Michelle Fong
Group Financial Controller: Philip Wong
Contact
Asia City Publishing Ltd.
301 Hollywood Centre
233 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong
Tel: 852-2850-5065
Fax: 852-2543-1880
E-mail:[email protected]
External Links
About HK Magazine
See Also
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
Asia City Publishing Group.(2005).Retrieved October 8, 2005 from http://www.asia-city.com/group/acpg.html.
Companies Registry. (2005).Retrived October 11,2005 from http://www.info.gov.hk/cr/