Like Beijing, for example, which has resigned itself to the fact that Lai will remain a thorn in its side, regardless of how many local businesses pull their advertising from his irreverent Apple Daily newspaper.
Yet for all of his streetfighter mystique, Lai is self-professedly “mellow” when he finally agrees to be interviewed by Media, an event that has been a long time coming. Lai is famously reclusive when it comes to his own press, but the recent decision to star in the relaunch advertising campaign for the new incarnation of Easyfinder — as a bloodied figure of hate — points to a more relaxed climate.
His reasoning behind the starring role, meanwhile, may demonstrate that — despite his gentle assertions to the contrary — Lai’s pugilistic streak remains reassuringly close to the surface. “I think it’s probably better to be known instead of hiding as a mystery,” muses Lai. “All my rivals have been writing rubbish about me.”
The new Easyfinder ad campaign is a none-too-subtle reminder of the image of Lai that has gained widespread currency in Hong Kong — the pariah who dares to tread where others will not.“Our rivals have tried very hard to smear us about Easyfinder,” explains Lai, referring to the controversy that broke out when the magazine published voyeuristic nude photos of Hong Kong pop stars. “We have to improve but, at the same time we have to sell — if we can’t, we don’t survive. People should look at whether we have more sex and violence than our rivals — in fact, we have less than them.”
With some justification, Lai believes that a double standard is at work; one which holds his own titles to a higher one because of their overt support for full democracy in Hong Kong. “People think we should be more puritan,” he says. “But if our paper is not bought, we lose the voice of the masses.”
Still, this penchant for controversy should not detract from a business mind that may be the sharpest in the treacherous waters of Hong Kong’s media industry. “He’s a disciple of Friedrich Hayek,” says a media insider. “He truly believes in the marketplace; he understands what people want out of media.”
Not only does Lai understand this; in many cases, he embodies it. After founding and selling retail chain Giordano for a cool US$187 million, Lai built Next Media from scratch into the the city’s largest media conglomerate, and then successfully launched the operation in Taiwan. And he has done it with one eye firmly on a Hong Kong populace that revels in the rags-to-riches story which saw him escape from China at the age of 12 to work as a child labourer in the then-British colony. “This is a guy who is instinctively tough,” says a source. “When he arrived in Hong Kong, he did not know where his next meal was coming from.”
This iconoclasm may yet meet its match in his latest tussle, against a rival that will prove far harder to overcome than previous Lai foes. “The future of newspapers is at stake,” says Lai, launching into an impassioned diatribe about online newspapers. “The delivery is electronic, but the form and substance are not. The assimilation of information today is much more image- and action-oriented, but no newspaper is doing this online.”
Lai’s outburst is, quite frankly, fun to watch. Like most of what he says, though, it is underpinned by considerable sense. “Our most important plan is to achieve a real electronic newspaper,” he explains, before adding a little enigmatically, “it’s not going as fast as we want, but once we hit the jackpot, it will. Wait one year.”
Lai’s restlessness for a solution becomes a little more understandable when you take Next Media’s disappointing 2006 results into account. Revenue at Apple Daily dropped, as did that of magazine titles, with Taiwan the only beacon of hope. “Content-wise, Jimmy is rarely wrong,” says the source. “But Next Media’s problem is about distribution.”
Perhaps, then, it is time to revise his political stance in order to bring back some of the big-budget advertisers that have deserted him in droves? “We are a pariah media as far as the establishment is concerned,” muses Lai. “But the advertiser boycott is very organised and more permanent now. I’m not an empire-builder — if I was, I would not have taken this stance. I’m still a bohemian. But maybe this is the cross I have to carry.”
Religious references dot Lai’s conversation, an enduring relic, perhaps, of his much-publicised Catholicism. “I never think I am not lucky, because I think that would be sacrilegious,” he notes.
It is one more example that Lai is not your average Hong Kong media tycoon. “I’m not an ordinary guy,” he agrees. “In a way, I do feel that I am a pariah.”
Additional reporting by Benjamin Li
Jimmy Lai's CV...
2001 Founder, Next Media Taiwan
1995 Founder, Next Media Hong Kong
1981 Founder, Giordano
1973 Founder, Kung Ming Spin Textile Factory