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SCMP Reporter

The trend of free newspapers is spreading  and Beijing is catching on to it.
Beijing Star Daily or Xinbao  was a paid  tabloid published by the Beijing Daily Group.
On November 27, it became the first free subway newspaper in the capital.
The newspaper  put the transformation  down to the opening of new subway lines in the next few months.
Xinbao has the exclusive rights to be distributed in 70 stations on Beijing Subway.
'The new Xinbao will be a light but useful newspaper targeting young and energetic commuters,' the paper said in its first 'letter to readers' last week. 'We intend to interact with our readers.'
The initial print run for free distribution is 70,000 to 100,000 copies per day. The target is to increase to 300,000 copies a day in a month.
'We need to transform ourselves  to make the newspaper profitable, as there are so many similar tabloids in Beijing competing for the same pool of advertising dollars,' Xinbao publisher Bi Quin told the People's Daily.
'The new version now has a bigger captive readership as people will be on the road for 32 minutes on average,' Mr Bi said.  Advertising will the paper's 'only revenue stream',  and the target is to 'turn a profit by 2009'.
Weeklies catch on to inflation
The Financial Secretary is reported to have said that  inflation  is likely to increase next year.
This has led some weeklies   to raise their cover prices by up to 60 per cent.
Next Media, the city's biggest magazine publisher, raised the  price of its Face Weekly three weeks  ago to HK$8  from HK$5.  Its sister publication Sudden Weekly raised  its cover price to HK$12 from HK$10.  Rivals such as East Touch and Oriental Sunday have not yet followed Next Media's move.
Media Eye learned that the increase in cover price was due mainly  to the surge in production costs and staff salaries.
Asked whether  prices of newspapers would  be increased, a source said that would be unlikely: 'Competition among newspapers is too competitive so no newspaper would dare raise the price above HK$6  for fear of losing readers.'
Face,  a revamped version of Easy Finder that hit the street in May, cut its price from HK$12  to HK$10 two years ago and HK$5 in January last year to protect  its market position among younger and trendier titles. While claiming to be no longer a paparazzi weekly, it  still  focuses on gossip and star watching.
A friend of Media Eye said that the new weekly was more or less the same as  before.
Next Media's stock rises
Next Media's share price rose in the past two months ahead of its interim results announcement.
The stock  rose to  HK$2.90 yesterday after  hitting a 52-week  low of HK$2 in September.
Its  45 per cent surge from September  was better than the Hang Seng Index's  24 per cent gain.
Next Media chief executive Stephen Ting Ka-yu and executive directors Tung Tsuen-cheuck and Ip Yut-kin have approval  to subscribe to 4.2 million of the company's shares at HK$2.12 each.
Maybe this is the reason behind the  advance of Next Media's share price.



Beijing tabloid rides subway to go free