Hong Kong Economic Journal - The Stance, Style and Characteristics

The Stance, Style and Characteristics

The reports and commentaries of the newspaper are always regarded as radical, objective, fair and well-balanced among the Hong Kong newspapers, since the editors are quite outspoken and bold to criticize the HKSAR and the Chinese central government in the 'Editorial' section. The editors usually hold skeptical views on government interventions and policies, reflecting their affirmation towards the Chicago school view of economics. According to a survey conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001, the Hong Kong Economic Journal as well as Ming Pao were regarded as the newspapers with the highest degree of credibility in Hong Kong.

As The HK Economic Journal mainly focuses on reporting government policies and financial affairs, soft news plays a minor role in it. The style it adopts is very different from other local newspapers in Hong Kong, such as Apple Daily, Oriental Daily News, etc., which stress their 'Entertainment' parts and sensationalize or exaggerate the harder news to promote sales. Unlike these tabloid-like newspapers, the HKEJ reports its news mainly by words, with few graphics. Detailed graphs showing the changes in the stock market are displayed precisely. Advertisements or story-like news are not found in the front cover. Due to all these elements, the Journal simply does not sell as well as these other 'popular' local newspapers.

One of the characteristics of the newspaper is that it mentions different business information to readers. This section can be found in the "Investment" part in which it discusses the changes in the market, no matter they are major or minor issues. For instance, it mentions some new services from the DHL Express as well as the musical contest launched by McDonald's. The newspaper provides their readers with much substantial information that they need.

The other characteristic of the paper is that it contains detailed information on the funding market, including interpretation on the fund market and changes in the fund market. These columns are relatively rare in other newspaper in Hong Kong.