CReATION: Tom.com acquires 50% stake in Ming Pao publication

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing's group of companies has made an acquisition into print media through Internet company Tom.com, which acquired a 50 per cent stake in Ming Pao's Chinese weekly magazine Yazghou Zhoukan as part of its cross-media strategy to boost ad revenue. Yazhou Zhoukan is a Chinese-language current events weekly magazine, produced in print with a limited online version on Ming Pao's website, www.mingpao.com. Tom.com CEO and executive director Sing Wang said the acquisition was geared at boosting the company's portfolio of offerings to advertisers to help generate advertising revenue. "The addition of a prestigious print media asset is a perfect fit within our cross-media strategy. It will bring about new value creation with our existing complementary suites of both online and offline media assets," Mr Wang said. He added the investment would allow the company to provide an advertising package covering different channels and media platforms, including online, print, outdoor, events and television. "The investment will also strengthen Tom.com's print media profile and boost our advertising armoury, allowing us to offer an attractive 'one-stop' package covering the entire value chain of different media platforms including online, print, outdoor, events and television." However, the acquisition has raised questions of Cheung Kong Holdings' interest in print media. Cheung Kong owns a stake in ITC Corp, the parent company of China Strategic, which earlier announced the acquisition of Sing Pao. Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa also own Metro Radio. Meanwhile, Tom.com is looking to leverage on Yazhou Zhoukan's content to supplement its own. The company is to play an active role in improving the business IT and other business-oriented content of the magazine's printed version. The magazine's online content is also to be developed to make it an "authoritative voice, offering global multi-media news and current affairs, business IT research services and corporate rating services". The magazine, which was established in 1987, has a circulation of 100,000 in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and Southeast Asia. Both Tom.com and Yazhou Zhoukan stressed the editorial team and editorial independence would "remain unchanged". Meanwhile, Yazhou Zhoukan is expected to benefit from the acquisition through expanded marketing and distribution functions, as well an increased subscriber base in the region, particularly in mainland China. Yazhou Zhoukan, which translates to "Asiaweek" in Mandarin, was originally produced as a Chinese-language edition of the Time-Warner publication. It covers Greater China, international and regional news. Tom.com had earlier reported HKdollars 163 million in losses in the three months to September 30, fueled by advertising, promotional and Web development expenditure. The company has made several announcements of acquisitions in recent months.

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