Overview

• Hong Kong is a regional publishing centre, backed by a highly developed printing industry. Freedom of expression and a liberal attitude towards the press are important factors attracting a concentration of prestigious international publications in Hong Kong.
• Many major international publishers of newspapers, magazines and books have their Asian headquarters here.
• The publishing industry benefits from Hong Kong's excellent communications network. For example, satellite communications enable international publishers to transmit texts and high-quality images to Hong Kong for producing their Asian editions.

Industry Data

Range of Services

The range of products provided by the publishing industry can be classified as follows:

• Newspapers and magazines: Hong Kong is well served by a great variety of newspapers and magazines, in Chinese, English and other languages; and by both local and international publishers. A large number of international publishers use Hong Kong as the base to perform some or all of the functions of local market adaptations, printing, advertising sales and subscription.
• Books: these include mass market books as well as textbooks, reference books and specialist books by both local and international publishers.
• Non-book publications: this category mainly includes the fast growing sector of electronic publishing such as multimedia CD-ROMs and on-line publishing.

Service Providers

Newspaper and magazine publishers

At the end of 2007, there were 44 newspapers and 689 periodicals (including a number of electronic newspapers) in Hong Kong. Of the newspapers, 19 were Chinese, 13 English, 7 bilingual and 5 in Japanese. Of the Chinese newspapers, 14 focused on local and international news, 3 specialised in financial news, and the others were about horse racing.

Many international media organisations have offices in Hong Kong, which is also the base for a number of regional publications. For example, Hong Kong is the regional base for the Far Eastern Economic Review. The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Financial Times, USA Today International, International Herald Tribune and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun are also printed here.

Some specialist publishers produce trade publications either for local or international circulation. Many of them are also organisers of trade shows.

Book publishers

International book publishers operating in Hong Kong include Oxford University Press, Longman, Readers' Digest and Macmillan. These companies manage the production, marketing, and distribution of books for the Hong Kong market and export to other sister companies around the world.

In recent years, more foreign titles are being translated into Chinese. They include management, personal finance and self-improvement books as well as cartoons and popular novels, especially those which have been adapted to cinematic or TV screens.

Non-book publishers

CD-Rom publishing is an area of increasing interest. Many publishers also release their titles in CD-Rom form for easy storage, search and retrieval. Multimedia CD-Rom titles mainly belong to the educational and reference categories.

On-line publishing is becoming more popular. An increasing number of major magazines, regional newspapers, local newspapers and wire services are going on-line. There are also many pure Internet publishers.

Exports

In the first five months of 2009, Hong Kong's printing exports amounted to HKD 626 million, declining by 12% compared to the same period in 2008. The US, UK and the Chinese mainland markets together absorbed more than half of Hong Kong's total printing exports.

Hong Kong is a major centre for Chinese-language publications. Some local Chinese newspapers and magazines are also distributed in Taiwan, the Chinese mainland and overseas communities where there are significant Chinese population.

Industry Development and Market Outlook

Mainland market opening measures after WTO accession are restricted to the formation of Sino-foreign joint-ventures in the publishing business and distribution of publications. Meanwhile, setting up wholly-owned publishing or import companies on the Chinese mainland remains off-limit to foreign companies, including Hong Kong companies. Hong Kong companies' participation is now mainly focused on entering the market through copyright trade and establishing ties with mainland publishing companies in the importation and distribution fields. The huge potential of the Chinese mainland market is the focus of the world. Hong Kong publishers are at an advantageous position to market China studies to the world. There are growing opportunities for publishers to market trade journals to Western companies which want to establish or expand their presence in the mainland market.

The annual Hong Kong Book Fair is a major event of Hong Kong's publishing industry, attracting publishers, booksellers, distributors, writers and readers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world. Alongside Hong Kong Book Fair 2009, there is an Asian Publishing and Copyright Conference, with one of the focus being the region's recent publishing and copyright policies. In 2008, there were 485 exhibitors, including 100 international exhibitors, participated in Hong Kong Book Fair to showcase their publications, attracting 800,000 visitors to the fair.

Underpinning Hong Kong's publishing businesses is a highly developed printing industry. Meanwhile, many Hong Kong printing companies have relocated their factories to the PRD.  It is estimated that there were more than 1,000 Hong Kong printing factories in the PRD in 2006.

Under Supplement VI to CEPA, Hong Kong service suppliers (HKSS) can set up typesetting and production services companies in the form of wholly-owned, equity joint venture or contractual joint venture basis on the Chinese mainland, providing pre-press services such as proof-reading, design and typesetting of books for the country.

In addition, Supplement IV to CEPA allows HKSS to establish joint-venture enterprises on the Chinese mainland to conduct printing of publications and other printed matters. The shareholding of the HKSS should not exceed 49%.