List of newspapers in Hong Kong

This is a list of newspapers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is home to many of Asia's biggest English and Chinese language newspapers. The territory has one of the world's largest press industries and is a major centre for print journalism.

Overview

Popularity

The Chinese language newspapers Headline Daily and Oriental Daily News have the highest shares in the Hong Kong newspaper market, while the Hong Kong Economic Times is the best-selling financial newspaper. The Standard, a free tabloid with a mass market strategy, is the most widely circulated English newspaper by a significant margin. Its rival, South China Morning Post, has the most paid subscribers among English-language papers in Hong Kong.

Apple Daily had one of the highest circulations before its closure in 2021. It had a feisty, tabloid style, concentrating on celebrity gossip and paparazzi photography, with sensationalist news reportage and a noted anti-government political position. The Chinese language publications were written to some degree with colloquial Cantonese phrases.^{[citation needed]}

Media landscape and pricing

The number of newspapers in the market has been stable for a long time. Occasional attempts to establish new types of newspaper and themed papers generally cannot compete with the established brands. However, the entry into the market of free newspapers Metropolis Daily, Headline Daily, am730, and The Epoch Times spurred competition. In September 2007, The Standard changed its business model from a traditional daily into a free-sheet, distributed in commercial districts like Central and Admiralty.^[1]

Most papers sell at a cover price of HK$9-10, except South China Morning Post (HK$9, while the Sunday edition, Sunday Morning Post, costs HK$10). The economic recession brought about by SARS in 2003 led to some resellers pricing at $1 below the recommended price. According to the HK Newspaper Hawkers Association, the situation lasted through to 2008, when around 10% of sellers maintained the cut price despite the change in the prevailing economic climate. The Association urged a return to resale price maintenance.^[2]

Chinese-language newspapers

Newspapers in Hong Kong are considered to follow a particular political stance, with most being either pro-Beijing or pro-democracy. A few are neutral, or are oriented towards finance or religion. There has long been a lively tabloid sector, including Oriental Daily, The Sun and (formerly) Apple Daily.^[3]

Daily print newspapers

Newspaper	Chinese name	Established	Type	Issued	Position
Ta Kung Pao	大公報	1902 in Tientsin 1938 in Hong Kong	Paid	Daily	State-controlled[† 1]
Sing Tao Daily	星島日報	1938	Paid	Daily	Pro-government
Wen Wei Po	文匯報	1938 in Shanghai 1948 in Hong Kong	Paid	Daily	State-controlled[† 1]
Sing Pao Daily News	成報	1939	Paid	Daily	Pro-government
Hong Kong Commercial Daily	香港商報	1952	Paid	Daily	State-controlled[† 1]
Ming Pao	明報	1959	Paid	Daily	Moderate
Oriental Daily News	東方日報	1969	Paid	Daily	Pro-government
Hong Kong Economic Journal	信報財經新聞	1973	Paid	Monday–Saturday	Moderate
Hong Kong Economic Times	香港經濟日報	1988	Paid	Monday–Saturday	Pro-government
The Epoch Times	大紀元時報	2001	Paid	Monday–Friday	Falun Gong, pro-democracy
Headline Daily	頭條日報	2005	Free	Monday–Saturday	Pro-government
am730	am730	2005	Free	Monday–Friday	Moderate
Lion Rock Daily	香港仔	2018	Free	Monday–Friday	State-controlled

Weekly or quarterly newspapers

Newspaper	Chinese name	Established	Type	Issued	Position
Kung Kao Po	公教報	1928	Paid	Every Sunday	Catholic, moderate
Christian Times	時代論壇	1987	Paid	Every Sunday	Christian, pro-democracy
Vision Times	看中國	2005	Free/paid	Every Monday	Pro-democracy
Passion Times	熱血時報	2012	Free	Quarterly	Pro-city-state

Newspaper-turned-online media

Media	Chinese name	Established	Printing ended	Type	Issued	Position
HK01	香港01	2016	2022	Paid	Weekly
Sky Post	晴報	2011	2023	Free	Daily

Defunct newspapers

Newspaper	Chinese name	Established	Closed	Operated	Position	Notes
Chinese Serial	遐爾貫珍	1853	1856	2 yrs
Chinese Mail	華字日報	1872	1946	74 yrs
Universal Circulating Herald	循環日報	1874 1959	1947 1963	72 yrs 4 yrs	Pro-reform
China	中國日報	1900	1913	13 yrs	Pro-reform
The World News	世界公益報	1903	1917	14 yrs	Pro-revolutionary
	有所謂報	1905	1907	2 yrs
	大光報	1912	1932	20 yrs
	香江晚報	1921	1929	8 yrs
Kung Sheung Daily News	工商日報	1925	1984	59 yrs	Pro-Kuomintang
Wah Kiu Yat Po	華僑日報	1925	1995	70 yrs	Pro-Kuomintang
	香港小日報	1929	1930	1 yr
	南華日報	1930	1944	14 yrs	Pro-Japan
Hong Kong Times	香港時報	1939	1993	54 yrs	Pro-Kuomintang
	華商報	1941 1946	1941 1949	1 yr 3 yrs	Pro-communist
	新生晚報	1945	1976	31 yrs
New Evening Post	新晚報	1950 2012	1997 2014	47 yrs 2 yrs	Pro-communist
Ching Po Daily	晶報	1956	1991	35 yrs	Pro-communist
Hong Kong Daily News	新報	1959	2015	56 yrs
Tin Tin Daily News	天天日報	1960	2000	40 yrs
Express News	快報	1963	1998	35 yrs
	星報	1965	1984	19 yrs
Popular Daily	萬人日報	1975	?	?	Anti-communist
	兒童日報	1989	1990	1 yr
	香港聯合報	1992	1995	3 yrs
	現代日報	1993	1994	1 yr
Apple Daily	蘋果日報	1995	2021	26 yrs	Pro-democrat	[7]
The Sun	太陽報	1999	2016	17 yrs	Pro-communist	[8]
Metro Daily	都市日報	2002	2019	17 yrs
Sharp Daily	爽報	2011	2013	2 yrs	Pro-democrat	[9]
	快馬	2012	2013	1 yr

Defunct online media

See also: List of defunct media due to Hong Kong national security law

Media	Chinese name	Established	Closed
House News	主場新聞	2012	2014
Inkstone News		2018	2021
Stand News	立場新聞	2014	2021
Citizen News	眾新聞	2017	2022
FactWire	傳真社	2015	2022

English-language newspapers

Hong Kong is also the base of regional editions of foreign English-language newspapers. The The New York Times International Edition and the Financial Times are published in Hong Kong.

From 10 September 2007, The Standard switched to free, advertising-supported distribution. The South China Morning Post^[10] announced on 11 December 2015 that the Alibaba Group would acquire the South China Morning Post from Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok, who had owned it since 1993. As of 5 April 2016, the South China Morning Post's online content became free to read.^[11]

Newspapers	Chinese name	Established	Issued	Position	Position
South China Morning Post	南華早報	1903	Paid	Daily	Moderate
Sunday Examiner		1946	Paid	Every Sunday	Catholic, moderate
China Daily Hong Kong Edition	中國日報香港版	1997	Paid	Monday–Friday	State-owned
The Standard	英文虎報	1949	Free	Monday–Friday	Pro-government
Career Times		1997		Every Friday

Online only

• Hong Kong Free Press
• Asia Times

Defunct newspapers

Media	Chinese name	Established	Closed	Notes
The Friend of China	中國之友	1842	1859
The Hong Kong Register[12]		1843	1863
The China Mail	中國郵報, later 德臣西報	1845	1974
Daily Press	每日雜報	1864	1941
Hongkong Telegraph	士蔑報	1881	1951
The Wall Street Journal Asia	亞洲華爾街日報	1976	2017
The Star	英文星報	1965	1984
Eastern Express	東快訊	1994	1996

Newspapers in other languages

• Hong Kong Post (香港ポスト) (Japanese)
• Wednesday Journal (홍콩수요저널) (Korean)
• Suara (Indonesian)
• Filipino Globe (Filipino)
• The SUN (Filipino)
• Hong Kong News (Filipino)
• Everest Weekly (Nepalese)

See also

• Hong Kong portal
• China portal
• Cities portal
• Journalism portal

• Newspaper Society of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations
• Media of Hong Kong
• Censorship in Hong Kong
• List of newspapers in China

Notes

1. † The indicated news outlets are indirectly owned and controlled by the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government.^[4][5][6]

References

1. Standard to become free newspaper – RTHK, 3 September 2007
2. Diana Lee, "Plea to halt newspaper price war" Archived 29 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Standard, 28 March 2008, in 2013, the newspapers changed price to $7.
3. Hong Kong Early Tabloid Newspapers 香港早期小報, CUHK Library; accessed 19 May 2024
4. Betsy Tse (9 April 2015). "Basic Law violation seen as LOCPG tightens grip on HK publishers". EJ Insight. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
5. "《壹週刊》報導揭露中聯辦壟斷香港出版市場". The News Lens (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 8 April 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
6. "The Publishing Empire Helping China Silence Dissent in Hong Kong". Bloomberg News. 18 August 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
7. "Take care and don't give up hope: Apple Daily staff – RTHK". news.rthk.hk. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
8. "紙媒進入凜冬，17年歷史的香港《太陽報》4月起停刊". Initium Media (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 30 March 2016.
9. "Apple's free sister paper Sharp Daily folds after losing millions". South China Morning Post. 18 October 2013.
10. "Alibaba Buys HK's SCMP to Counter 'Western Bias'".
11. "Paywall down as Alibaba takes ownership of SCMP". 5 April 2016.
12. Sinn, Elizabeth (2002). Emerging Media: Hong Kong and the Early Evolution of the Chinese Press. Modern Asian Studies vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 421-465