Two years after the weekly Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) relaunched as a monthly, online news site Asia Sentinel (asiasentinel.com) has rolled out eyeing upscale, high-net-worth individuals.
Editor John Berthelsen, former managing editor of Hong Kong daily The Standard, described the web as an ideal platform for a regional newspaper as it bypassed geographic limitations and allowed them to function at 10 per cent of the cost of a print version. "Online advertising is seriously picking up here, though still two years behind the US," Berthelsen said.
"It is very costly to print a regional news title and most don't survive because of their business models. We obviously don't have the resources that the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal have for breaking news, but on an individual basis, we believe we will be able to drill down further on the topics we choose."
Asia Sentinel has yet to confirm advertisers. Berthelsen said the site needed to concentrate on its editorial offering in order to achieve a certain threshold of readership.
In addition to Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel is helmed by industry veterans such as former FEER editor Philip Bowring, former Standard executive editor A. Lin Neumann and former Time Asia executive editor Anthony Spaeth.
In recent months, publications such as Wall Street Journal Asia, Financial Times and Time Asia have reportedly made staff cuts as they expand their online presence.
