Ming Pao inks ad deal to tap China potential

One of Hong Kong's largest publishers, Ming Pao Enterprise Corporation, has taken another step to exploit China's strong advertising growth potential. The company has merged its key lifestyle titles -- Ming Pao Weekly, City Children's Weekly and Hi-Tech Weekly -- with Media2U Group, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based media company Redgate Media. A key aim of the tie-up is to boost advertising revenue, with the merger partners agreeing to share their database of advertisers. "When clients of Redgate in China want to advertise in Hong Kong, they can market their products in Ming Pao's titles and vice versa. I believe that luxury brands, information technology and digital products will be the major categories," said Terence Tung, general manager of Ming Pao's magazines division. Founded in 2003 by Peter Brack, the former publisher of AOL Time Warner's now defunct Asiaweek, Redgate has exclusive rights to publish the Chinese version of four western publications including Popular Science, Digital Camera, the BBC-owned motoring title Top Gear, and gadget magazine T3 in China. It is also understood that Ming Pao wants to capitalise on the robust mainland advertising market, which grew by 39 per cent last year, as it plans to list the merged entity in the near future to fund expansion. Media agencies were sceptical on how much revenue the titles could attract after Tung ruled out plans to circulate the magazines in China for the moment. "There is no official way to get the licence, therefore, we won't be selling the three titles on the mainland," said Tung. "However, we recognise that the Chinese media industry is growing at a very fast speed; we can expand our business into China through this merger." MindShare Hong Kong managing director K K Tsang pointed out that most mainland advertisers preferred using television and outdoor to build their brand image in Hong Kong. He said print titles faced a tougher sell in attracting China advertisers. "Mainland advertisers launch ads in Hong Kong because they want to make their brands more internationalised. Their target audiences are actually main- landers who travel to Hong Kong. As Ming Pao won't circulate the titles in China, it will be a big concern whether mainland advertisers will choose these titles for advertising," Tsang added. "But I believe that it is a good opportunity to establish a primary foothold in the Chinese media industry as the company can gain more experiences that would be useful for its future development." The merger follows Ming Pao's sale in 2001 of a 50 per cent share in Yazhou Zhoukan to Hong Kong multimedia group Tom in a bid to better promote the title through the latter's internet platform. Ming Pao's move into China follows the entry of Global China Group. The publisher of Sing Tao Daily distributes magazines in China through a joint-venture with People's Daily Press.