Fast Media sets sights on suburban markets
Hong Kong - A new publishing venture Fast Media has launched a monthly lifestyle magazine targeting the affluent residents of Sai Kung and Clearwater Bay.
Sai Kung, launched by former group editorial director of Asia City Publishing Tom Hilditch and business partner and property specialist Helen Rigby, aims to tap into highly-affluent professionals who work in Hong Kong but raise their families in the outer suburbs of the territory.
The monthly title will have a print run of 10,000 and has secured distribution with some 80 partner venues including Starbucks, Pacific Coffee, Park n Shop as well as local schools, property agents and a range of health and fitness centres.
Online will play a crucial role in the brands development and Fast Media has secured the saikung.com portal.
Pre-launch research showed that its 27,000 readers are affluent families who invest in property, are passionate about education, possess high level of disposable income and are ready to make purchase decisions.
"Sai Kung is a rapidly evolving community. One of the strengths of [the magazine] is that it is embedded into the community," said Hilditch.
"We are finding news and rooting ourselves in the community and that will always have value."
Hilditch said Sai Kung will be a mix of print and online.
"I left Asia City because they were not really getting it together with the online stuff. If you don't own the dot com of your own magazine then you don't own the brand. What swung me to Sai Kung was that we were able to buy saikung.com," he added.
The title will be given away for free and is relying on advertising to monetise the brand.
As part of its commitment to advertisers, Fast Media will publish the receipts from its printers to show that it is actually printing 10,000 copies of the magazine each month.
"There is major money in Sai Kung," Hilditch added. "Our relationship with advertisers is everything."
The launch of Sai Kung also sees Hilditch return to the publishing world after an 18 month hiatus.
A former senior staff writer for Asiaweek, Hilditch also served as City Scene editor for the South China Morning Post and was group editorial director for Asia City Publishing. In 2005 he launched The List magazine with Asia City publisher Stephen Freeman.
He said Fast Media had several other ideas for magazines and websites, but he said it was still too early to layout his plans.
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