Sex, gossip and free fruit: Apple Daily’s launch in 1995 and why Jimmy Lai had his sanity questioned
- ‘Is he just downright crazy?’ asked the South China Morning Post ahead of Jimmy Lai’s launch of his Chinese-language newspaper on June 20, 1995
- Ten days after the first issue, three 7-Eleven stores received anonymous calls telling them to stop selling the paper or their shops would be burnt down
“Entrepreneur Jimmy Lai has been called many things during his business career but orthodox is certainly not one of them,” reported the South China Morning Post on April 13, 1995, in anticipation of the millionaire businessman hiring pizza delivery boys as reporters for his soon-to-be launched Chinese-language Apple Daily.
“We feel that now with the worsening traffic jams, pizza delivery boys know how to arrive at the spot the fastest,” Lai said.
It was an unexpected move for the founder of apparel retailer Giordano to launch a tabloid, and the Post asked on April 30 whether the venture would “be his fortune or folly – or is he just downright crazy?”
Albert Cheng, who helped Lai set up Next Magazine, chimed in, saying, “Celebrities are boycotting [Apple Daily] before they even start because they will do British tabloid-style investigations and follow them around” and “with Hong Kong on the verge of 1997 […] people were tired of loud noises”.