HKEJ asks print readers to go digital during Occupy Central

Starting 2am yesterday, the Hong Kong Economic Journal made its paid digital content freely accessible.It allows users to access two paid sections - "Today's Hong Kong Economic Journal" and "Reader's Intelligence" - on its website and mobile app that will tentatively run until 5 October.The newspaper will consider extending the period depending on whether the Occupy Central protests continue beyond that date.Originally a campaign scheduled for the last quarter of this year, Jordan Lau, head of business development at Hong Kong Economic Journal (HKEJ) says the newspaper decided to move it forward to coincide with the Occupy Central protests that create such a need for digital news for HKEJ's existing print newspaper readers."We are a financial newspaper and many of our print readers buy our newspaper from convenience stores or have it delivered to their offices in Central, Admiralty and Wanchai. Because of the Occupy Central protests, they may not be able to buy the newspaper or receive it at their offices like they usually do," Lau said."So if we launched the campaign at this time, it will help them keep up-to-date with breaking news as well as the in-depth analyses of the situation that is normally provided in our newspaper with protests that are going on in the areas near their offices."He denies that this is an opportunity to get existing print readers to switch to digital or to get more advertising revenue."We were not tasked with getting print readers to switch to digital and we haven't notified a ton of advertisers about this campaign. This is simply to provide a benefit to our existing print readers," Lau said.Users are not asked to give any information or given any other conditions to access the content that is normally behind a pay wall.