CIRCULATION of the Japanese-language newspaper Nikkei has performed 30 per cent above expectations after its first month of publication in Hong Kong.
Nikkei, Japan's largest financial paper with a combined daily circulation of 4.8 million for its morning and evening editions, started publishing a satellite edition in the territory on February 1, with a target of 7,000 copies per day. Currently, the company is selling about 10,000 a day.
The paper is transmitted from Japan to the Dow Jones Asia printing plant in Wan Chai at 1 am and is delivered locally by 6 am.
The managing director of Nikkei Hong Kong, Itsuki Kobayashi, said 55 per cent of the circulation was bought by Japanese expatriates in the territory with the remainder going to China, the Philippines and Taiwan. The paper is delivered in Beijing and Shanghai at 3 pm the same day.
'The response so far has been excellent and it shows that Hong Kong readers are appreciative of the fact that they can read the news that day at the same time as businessmen in Japan,' he said.
The Hong Kong operation is the sixth satellite printing site for the paper, with other plants in Los Angeles, New York, London, Holland and Singapore.
The territory's 10,000 copies rank second behind the 15,000 printed in the US. In all, Nikkei sells about 45,000 copies through its satellite operations.
