China media baron Thomas Shao launches two cultural titles
Mainland publisher is about to launch two high-profile publications that will help to raise the quality of cultural issues in the city
Mainland media mogul and avid art collector Thomas Shao is on a mission to meld the two great loves of his life and take media coverage of Hong Kong's booming cultural sector to a new level.
Shao is set to launch two international titles devoted to culture and arts in the city and says he believes culture is its future.
"Besides finance, Hong Kong has no other industry. Culture is Hong Kong's future, and to achieve this, it needs good media," says Shao, the chairman of Modern Media Group, the largest mainland private media company listed in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's arts and culture scene has grown tremendously in the past five years with art fairs, auctions and the West Kowloon arts hub project, but Shao said the media was falling behind.
"The development of cultural media is not healthy. It doesn't correspond to the city's cultural development," Shao says.
He says it was this that prompted him to license two international titles - The Art Newspaper and Businessweek - and launch Hong Kong editions in addition to mainland versions.
He says the Hong Kong editions contain local as well as mainland, Taiwanese and international content to satisfy the needs of a broad and international audience. "It's not a direct translation of the mainland edition," he says.