Need opinions about starting a new newspaper in HK!!

I'd love some feedback. There's a franchise newspaper in southern California which is dedicated to health and fitness/well-being. I have a chance to start it over here but wondering how the popularity of it could be. It would basically be a localized paper giving a voice to all the places around HK who offer services related to health/fitness. This could include doctors, dentists, massage, chiropractor(not sure if it's spelled right), health food stores, gyms, yoga etc etc. It would be free for pick up like HK magazine and the money I would make would be from companies advertising in the paper. It would come out every 2 months. I realize HK magazine does include this info sometimes but not very much or detailed. More like an overview. As far as I know, there isn't a paper like this already around either. Please let me know if you think I should spend my money/time in getting this started over here or if it would be a waste. Thanks much!!

I think its a pretty good idea given how busy the various healthy food restaurants are - 360 also seems to be doing pretty well - and the gyms dont seem to be hurting.


The only concern I'd have is the publishing schedule - once every two months seems a bit long between issues.

I can agree with you there and I'll be sending concerns like this along to the franchiser as he will be helping me with market research before I actually make the jump. I thought about this too as sometimes even with HK magazine that it comes out once a week I think, sometimes if I've read an issue I can be a little impatient with the next one coming out. However, this being a franchise, I don't know if I would have the power to change things like the publishing schedule but any comments like this would be great. Thanks again Ed!

to be honest HK magazine looks the same every week to me, takes about five minutes too read each time and always garners a genuine yawn.

Thanks again for the comments! In terms of a darn good ad sales team, that would be ME. At least in the beginning anyway. Part of doing market research before I would even be allowed to bring the paper over here would be for us to find out just how many registered businesses there are in Hong Kong fit this niche. However, I think there's quite a few. This paper wouldn't really be competing with HK magazine or beats or any others for that matter. This would be totally devoted toward health related things around HK and I would even consider including Shenzhen and some other parts of China as well. I've certainly been one to head up to China for a massage and I LOVE it. Also, the main reason why I'd like to do something like this is because I've been into bodybuilding for a while now and I'd like to help others get the info they need in order to have a healthy lifestyle. I've been on a program from the states called www.musclenow.com where you are taught not just about working out BUT also dieting which is something I never really considered before. So many people think that getting big and/or in shape is about doing some running or going to the gym and throwing a few 5lb dumbells around while making a few grunts and talking on their cell phone using hands-free. I've learned that there's so much more to it than that and I've also had to learn the hard way about finding the right foods for myself and where to go for good deals on things because I can tell you right now that eating healthy and clean in HK is NOT CHEAP! I've had to learn so many things the hard way without something like a newspaper. I'm not saying that this could be a savior or trying to overestimate things here but just saying that I think it could be a big help as it offers HK businesses a voice to readers about health/beauty/fitness instead of hearing about some beautiful spa 10,000 miles away where you could be pampered for the lovely price of your monthly paycheck for 5 days. I will also do my best to ensure there will be some informative reading in it but remember it's not going to be an entertainment mag like HK mag where you can learn to get the best curry in town at a Wanchai Indian Hut. Personally for me, since I'm already interested in health/fitness, if I saw a paper like this especially for free lying around, I'd pick it up just to see if there's something new in there I could learn or at least think about.

I'd just like to know how many other like-minded people there are around.


Thanks again and keep the comments commin, Andrew

You have to be careful though, an English publication in Hong Kong is a niche publication to begin with, targeting one specifically to health and wellness, is another niche within the original niche, though it is a rapidly growing one. You may not get the readership to support high advertising dollar rates. That being said, you may also manage to sign up most if not all business that cater to that segment on account of you targeting the exact people those business's are targeting. Personally I feel there are to many free publications out there already and they cannibalize each other. But I also feel the quality of editorial is also pretty poor, which is the reason for that happening in the first place. So if you could put out a magazine which had high quality content, as is the case with all media, you will do well.