Sing Pao Daily News (成報) is one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong and was first published on May 1, 1939 by the Sing Pao Newspaper Company Limited (成報報刊有限公司) once three days initially and later once a day. According to Sing Pao, it circulates about 100,000 copies every day, with over 220,000 readers (as of 2003). People from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China can also buy and read it. Besides, people from all over the world can read Sing Pao anytime on the world wide web simply by visiting its official site.

Table of contents
1 The Newspaper
2 Improvement in Technology
3 Change of Ownership
4 Reliability and Criticism
5 Contact Information
6 External Links

The Newspaper

Sing Pao consists of various News Sections:

  • Local -- It is made up of headlines, editorial column, local news and related softnews as well as complaint board.
  • International (including PRC and Taiwan) -- It consists of international news, China news, amusing international softnews and featurings of international leaders.
  • Economics -- There is Economic headlines, China Business, finance, investment tips and the property market.
  • Entertainment -- There is wide coverage of local and international entertainment news.
  • Sports --It focuses on football news, including football-gambling, NBA and other news.
  • Horse-racing
  • Supplementary Sections, such as Holiday, Food and Drinks, Car, Mobile phone, Computer and Software, Fashion and Beauty, Health and Education.

Sing Pao especially targets on teenagers and it is widely subscribed by schools. It has opened up an editorial section for students, where young readers can summit their essays by post, fax or email (school@singpao.com.hk). Therefore, readers can have a chance to share and learn from each other's writings. Besides, readers can get all sorts of useful informations about education in Hong Kong ranging from kindergardens to tertiary institutions at this Teacher and Student Corner. There are some articles about further studies overseas as well.

To let people have a clearer picture of what is happening in this changing world as well as Hong Kong, Sing Pao also provides Weekly International News Highlights and a Corner about Hong Kong Legislative Council. Then readers not only can have a quick revision of current affairs happened around the world but also have an opportunity to express their views in the Corner.

Improvement in Technology

In order to meet the modern technology advancement and the demands from IT people, Sing Pao introduced the PDA Channel. By utilizing this channel, people using PDA can download the most updated news (including politics, current affairs, international affairs, entertainment and even horse-racing information) from the official website of Sing Pao. It is convenient to readers who often browse news online and it can further enlarge the circle of possible customers.

Change of Ownership

Sing Pao had experienced a change of ownership in 2000 due to a decline in sale. The StarEastNet Limited (東魅網) and China Strategic Holdings Limited (中策集團) had brought Sing Pao and announced that the reporting style would be kept the same while the main focus would shift to entertainment news and advertisements in order to satisfy public interest. Also, the Chief Executive Official Ng-Ching has been targeting the China market to expand its service properly for being an advertisement agent. But the date to initiate the cirulation of Sing Pao is unknown at this moment.

However, in 2002, there was another change of ownership. The Sun Media ( 陽光文化媒體集團) used 1 billion to buy the ownership of Sing Pao Media Group (including Sing Pao). The company promised that they would re-structure the organization of Sing Pao and aimed at reducing the profit loss in recent years until a balanced budget would be reached.

Reliability and Criticism

According to the research of "Reliability of Hong Kong newspapers" done by the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001 (result is stated below), in the maximum of 10 marks, Sing Pao got 6.48 in the group of public and 5.89 in the group of journalists. Compared with the highest mark - 7.54 from Ming Pao and the lowest mark - 4.45 from Sun Daily, the reliability of Sing Pao is above average.

Result of the research of reliability of Hong Kong newspapers:

 Newspapers                               Reliability 
                      Average mark (public)	     Average mark (journalists)
 Ming Pao                     7.54                           7.27
 SCMP                         7.24                           7.47
 Sing Tao Daily               7.13                           6.78
 Sing Pao                     6.48                           5.89
 Wen Wei Po                   5.93                           5.92
 Oriental Daily               5.76                           5.14
 Ta Kung Pao                  5.64                           5.44
 Apple Daily                  5.15                           5.08
 Sun Daily                    5.13                           4.45

Although Sing Pao has a motto of reporting the truth fairly and objectively, it has faced criticisms too. On 4th Feburary 2003, a reader complained to the Hong Kong Journalists Association (香港記者協會) about Sing Pao for publishing the full name, address and picture of a victim in their paper, which was against personal privacy.

Contact Information

SING PAO NEWSPAPER CO. LTD.

  
Address: Sing Pao Building, 101 King's Road, North Point, Hong Kong.
  • Editorial Tel. No.: 2570-5129
  • Hotline: 2570-2201
  • E-mail Address: dailynews@singpao.com.hk
  • General Enquiry E-mail Address: contact@singpao.com.hk

  • See also:

    External Links