Over 100 lose jobs as magazine goes monthly

More than 100 editorial staff on the weekly Cup Magazine lost their jobs yesterday after its editor announced it would relaunch as a monthly.

The lay-offs came less than two weeks after 80 staff were made redundant when one of Hong Kong's oldest English-language magazines, Asiaweek, folded.

Cup's chief editor, Lau Sai-leung, blamed a drop in advertising revenue sparked by the September 11 attacks.

'After the incident, the outlook for the entire publication industry has been dampened,' he said. 'We basically do not see any significant improvement in the immediate future, prompting us to consider the change.

'Advertising revenues for the first three months of the year are usually very poor, and when we added that to the terror attacks incident, we believe the situation can only get worse.'

Competition in the weekly magazine market also had become increasingly keen, he said.