IMail challenging Post's dominance

The newly-launched English-language daily Hong Kong iMail is the latest combatant in a long line who have dreamed of carving market share off the all-powerful South China Morning Post. Hong Kong iMail is the reincarnation of Hong Kong's only other English daily the Hongkong Standard, under new leadership and new ownership since a circulation scandal broke more than two years ago virtually brought the owning company, Sing Tao, to its knees. Another English-language daily, the Eastern Express, launched by the powerful Oriental Press Group, folded in 1996 after two years. The Post, although seemingly confident that its position is unassailable, has already shown the first signs of concern by announcing the launch of a Friday magazine, one of the iMail's launch products. Meanwhile, Mr Nigel Oakins, formerly Asia-Pacific chairman of the International Herald Tribune, has been named publisher of iMail and a board director of Sing Tao. He told MEDIA that in recent history "the Post has had 99.99 per cent market share in display advertising. We're going to change that." Mr Oakins is also confident that the iMail's classified programme with Sing Tao, still known as the JobMarket and which appears every Friday in both newspapers, will make an impact. IMarket was aiming for 120-pages of classifieds during the first week of its launch and is gearing up for a regular classified section ranging from 40 to 160 pages. The Friday magazine in iMail had its display space booked out for the first three issues, an unheard of development for the former Standard which found it almost impossible to attract display advertising. "It's just a question of getting the ball rolling," said Mr Oakins. "If the newspaper is being read by the audience we're pitching to then the advertisers must follow." IMail's rates are enticingly low - HK$30,000 for a full-page four-colour and $20,000 for the weekly magazine. The SCMP's page rate is more than five-times that. But the SCMP has a proven circulation track record, something that iMail must move on rapidly. The iMail bills itself as a quality tabloid aimed at the 20-40 year old Hong Kong audience who may or may not currently read English newspapers. The aim is to hold on to the current Hongkong Standard audience plus a new audience that can and would read English newspapers if they were in tune with their needs. The main section of iMail will be 48-56 pages, the second section 56 pages and the classified section 40-160 pages, along with the Friday magazine. Mr Oakins commented on stories published in the Chinese press that the investment bank Lazards, the 51 per cent owner of Sing Tao was already looking for a way out of its involvement. He pointed out that Sing Tao was a strong company with no debt and HK$200 million in cash. Lazard's intention was to first turn the newspapers around and then sell at a substantial profit. Meanwhile, Sing Tao faces restructuring and manpower problems as it attempts to boost its recently-revamped Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily and the new iMail. IMail had a launch print run of 80,000 and sold 50,000, according to Mr Oakins, who added that its predecessor, the Hongkong Standard, had been selling around 15,000 copies in its final days. News-stand sales for iMail were five times that of the Standard and it had more display advertising revenue in its first week than the Standard had in the previous two years.

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