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SCMP Reporter

The battle between free and paid newspapers looks likely to move up a notch next year after Headline Daily, Hong Kong's largest free sheet, bumps up its print run.

Sing Tao News Corp, the publisher of Headline Daily, confirmed what Media Eye reported earlier this month - that it will spend HK$140 million to buy three presses.

A source tells us they will be at the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, which, coincidentally, is near the headquarters of Next Media, which publishes Apple Daily, the second-largest paid paper.

A market watcher said the new presses would boost Headline Daily's print run from 600,000 - already the largest in town - to more than one million per day.

'The trend is clear that Sing Tao wants to boost the circulation of Headline Daily and grab more advertising dollars in the process,' he said.

In Headline Daily's sights are Oriental Press Group's Oriental Daily, which sells 400,000 copies a day, and Apple Daily, with daily sales of about 300,000.

'Advertisers still regard the two largest paid dailies as their first priority in their budget allocations for newspapers, while the free sheets complement that,' the market watcher said.

'However, once Headline boosts its print run to more than one million, its readership figures will increase. Advertisers might begin treating Headline as their first choice and the paid dailies the second choice.'

According to  market research firm Synovate, Oriental Daily and Apple Daily have more than 1.2 million readers combined, while Headline Daily alone has 918,000 readers.

'Advertisers will allocate their budgets in accordance with reader numbers,' said Tsang Kam-keung,  chief executive of media agency Group M Hong Kong.

NOW THEY MEAN BUSINESS

Now TV's Business News Channel, which will celebrate its first anniversary next month, is already the most watched of the 17 news channels carried by the PCCW-owned cable operator, according to channel head Loh Chan, although he declined to reveal any numbers.

The Chinese-language service competes for viewers with the likes of CNBC and Bloomberg TV, its models in the business news segment, and general news offerings such as BBC World, CNN, Fox News and Sky TV.

Mr Loh added that management was considering opening a general news sister channel. Now TV currently carries a 24-hour news channel produced for it by Asia Television, but their contract will expire later this year.

He said the Business News Channel had received approval from the central government to open its first mainland news bureau next month in Shanghai. Its three journalists will focus on the stock market.

Competitor i-Cable, whose round-the-clock news channel is its top-rated service, is talking about beefing up its business coverage, too. I-Cable has learned to fear Now, which has snatched away its rights to the popular English Premier League matches starting from August.

CROSS-STRAIT HARMONIES

We're told that Music Nation Group, the Hong Kong-based entertainment firm that has red hot singer-actor Aaron Kwok Fu-shing under contract, has acquired a Taiwanese artistic management firm, giving it a true Greater China footprint. Music Nation is managed by legendary local promoter Frankie Li and privately owned by Richard Li Tzar-kai.

frederick.yeung@scmp.com



Sing Tao free sheet presses ahead in challenge to titans