Special forces ready to tackle any mission
SPECIAL Reports has prepared and produced this grand opening supplement. It is an example of the type of project that comes under the umbrella of a section widely referred to as Special Forces.
The pseudonym variously describes the 'troops' who work for Special Reports and 'the-tackle-anything' nature of the work they carry out.
Editorially, Special Reports strives for independent content, so the sobriquet - the 'commercial arm of the company' - benevolently bestowed by the advertising department whose sales govern the actual number of pages in each special report - fits rather less easily.
An insight into the gamut of Special Reports' subjects can be gained by sampling this recent across-the-board 'menu' from one week in the life of the department.
Business and First Class Travel; Watches and Timepieces; Trading Fund Status for the Hong Kong Post Office; Hong Kong Leasing Guide; a 28-page China Financial Review colour magazine; 16 pages on the Hong Kong Awards for Industry winners; Chinese National Day; and a 12-page Fall/ Winter Fashion pullout.
In a perfect world, Special Reports would require an army of full-time writers with specialist skills to report on such diverse and wide-ranging topics. The fact is Special Reports has just one staff writer in addition to four sub-editors, a chief sub-editor, a deputy editor and an editor.
Therefore, it relies heavily on a large 'stable' of freelance reporters who are commissioned according to the fields in which they specialise.
Many of them, in fact, work for the Post and file copy in their own time: for example, Property Post reporters for property-related reports; or Business Post reporters for the increasing number of financial-related reports the section handles.
Alternatively, for fashion, a freelance writer with excellent contacts in the field will be commissioned; or, for travel, an expert in that field.
Ideas, however, germinate from within Special Reports. Writers work according to the guidelines outlined by the section and their copy is then laid out, sub-edited and headlined in a style similar to this grand opening special.
To produce this report, for example, Special Reports devised a story list then drew widely on the writing skills of staff of the Post in addition to a host of freelance contributors.
There is little doubt the section is generally perceived as a commercial vehicle but, irrespective of the topic it covers, Special Reports strives to make each subject appeal not just to those it directly affects but to the paper's readership in general.
Previously, ensconced in what was happily termed 'the bunker' in the SCMP's old premises in Quarry Bay, Special Reports - along with Young Post and Technology Post - are the only three editorial sections of the company to be based at the Morning Post Centre in Tai Po. The move to this elegant, hi-tech building has led to a happier, more pleasant and more functional working environment.
Indeed, considering the fact that Special Reports is next to the bevy of beauties who work in Classified Post, it is a more attractive one, too. But there is more to that than just the luck of the draw: according to the architects, one of the building's design features is to provide better interaction between staff.
