Sing Tao Daily
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The Sing Tao Daily (traditional Chinese: 星島日報) is Hong Kong's second largest Chinese language newspaper. It is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation Limited, of which Ho Tsu Kwok, Charles (何柱國) is the chairman. Its English language sister paper is The Standard. The Sing Tao also maintains the news website singtao.com.
There are also at least 16 overseas editions of the Sing Tao Daily, which are published by 9 overseas bureaus and circulated in 100 cities around the world. The overseas editions help facilitate easy access to homeland news for Chinese language readers outside China.
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[edit] History
The parent company of the Sing Tao Daily, the Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited, was founded in 1938 and is based in Hong Kong. The Sing Tao Daily was first published in the same year. It has one of the longest publishing histories among the Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong.
After opening its first overseas office in San Francisco in 1975, the Sing Tao set up International News Centres in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, London and Sydney. In all, the company now has twenty-two offices globally.
In 1998, members of the management team were found guilty of falsifying market data. The Hong Kong government's decision not to charge the chairwoman Wu Sin for reasons of "public benefit" turned into a scandal for the Hong Kong legal system and was quoted as a reason for the million's march on July 1, 2003. Shortly after, financial problems forced Wu Sin to sell out her stock in the Sing Tao Newspaper Group Limited.
Sing Tao's Toronto edition is partially owned by Star Media Group, the publisher of the Toronto Star.
[edit] Market
The Sing Tao Daily has chosen to refresh its image and editorial content by positioning itself as the newspaper of choice for the middle class, who demand a more high-brow content. Sing Tao Daily also targets students by offering them cheaper subscription editions.
The Sing Tao Daily overseas editions target Chinese immigrants in foreign countries such as the U.S., Canada and Australia.
[edit] Creation of editorial product
The Sing Tao Daily’s editorial product is created using daily Chinese language internet feeds from Hong Kong, together with national feeds from its news bureau in New York and from various regional editorial staff.
The information is transmitted electronically to the various production facilities where prepress departments compose the pages using the Chinese electronic publishing system FounderFit (produced by the Founder Group), which allows the Chinese language to be digitally typeset.
In August of 2007 the San Francisco office stopped using all FounderFit applications for Newspaper production. Sing Tao San Francisco now uses page layout, ad production, tracking and classified pagination applications from SCS of Nazareth, Pa. Adobe InDesign and Quark are used for news pagination. Sing Tao Toronto, Vancouver and LA have also switched to the SCS production applications.
The Information Services Department is a combination of the former Sing Tao Daily Main Library, Sing Tao Daily Business Library, Hong Kong iMail/Hong Kong Standard Library and the Sing Tao EDP Team. The department aids the production process through the following:
- News research support, e.g. the maintenance of photograph and news archives, company and land searches, etc.
- Acquisition of news content/services for publication and reference
- Compilation of charts and tables for publication, including horse racing results, stock listings, financial indices, property transaction records, shipping schedules, and weather data
- Handling applications for copyright permission
The Sing Tao Electronic Photo System acts as a complement to the Information Services Department. It provides wire photos from six popular news media, pictures used for daily publication, photographs taken by their own staff and photo archives. The photos are classified for easy retrieval.
News files, photos and other resources can be accessed through a web-based library resource catalogue.
[edit] Political stance
The Sing Tao has a pro-government history. Before the reunification of Hong Kong with China, it supported the British colonial government; and once Hong Kong turned into a special administrative region, it turned support to the Beijing government. This can easily be identified in the editorials, and it is also true for the overseas editions.
On 11 November 2001, the Quebec Supreme Court issued an injunction against the local edition of Sing Tao Daily for libel against the Falun Gong, which was outlawed in the People's Republic of China as a "evil cult"[1]
[edit] Image promotion
The Sing Tao Daily has embarked upon many programmes to lift its brand positioning and stimulate its circulation and readership.
These have included the following:
- Editorial repositioning
- Opinion exchanges with readers
- A special edition with highlights of the Sing Tao Daily's core and enhanced content
- Special supplements, e.g. its series of 9-11 supplements following the events of September 11, 2001, and World Cup pullouts
- Topical supplements, including Property Browser and Job Market (求職廣場)
- Support of campaigns such as
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- the Angel Campaign
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- the Inter-School Debating Competition
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- the Leader of the Year Award
Some perceive the Sing Tao to be a traditional and conservative newspaper. It has recently launched a "daring and middle class" communication platform in an attempt to promote itself as being more contemporary.
[edit] Some firsts of the Sing Tao Daily
- The Sing Tao Daily has the largest regional coverage among global Chinese communities (e.g. in North America) and also has the second largest global coverage in the world, following the International Herald Tribune. Sing Tao pioneered satellite transmission and was the first newspaper available on opposite sides of the world on the same day.
- The Sing Tao Group is the only media group in Hong Kong that owns both Chinese and English language newspapers.
- The Sing Tao Daily was the first newspaper in Hong Kong to launch a website. On August 23, 1995, www.singtao.com was launched.
- The Sing Tao Daily was the first newspaper in Hong Kong to develop a parenting section, which helps parents with advice for their children's growth and development.
[edit] Website content
The news on the website of the Sing Tao Daily is generally the same as what can be found in the printed paper. Different versions of the website customized with local content can also be accessed by readers in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Quebec supreme court orders newspaper to stop slandering Falung (sic) Gong, Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, 12 December 2001, - cited in Country Information and Policy Unit [CIPU] report (April 2002), UK Home Office
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Sing Tao News Corporation Limited
- Source:Pinyin translated with CozyChinese.COM
