The Hong Kong Economic Journal announced on Wednesday its first price hike in 12 years. The locally owned newspaper will raise its retail price to HK$8 from the present HK$6 - which is the newsstand cost of most local newspapers.

The price increase, beginning next Monday, is the first by a local Chinese newspaper since 2000.

The journal published an announcement on Wednesday, saying, the price hike is to "maintain the newspaper's high quality of content and service".

"I believe the readers still will be willing to pay more for the information really useful to them, with several new free newspapers joining the battlefield," said Chan King-cheung, chief editor of Hong Kong Economic Journal.

The newspaper, established in 1973, oriented itself as an elite publication, with relatively more commentaries than other mainstream newspapers. The newspaper raised its price from HK$5 to HK$6 in 2000.

In 2008, Hong Kong Newspaper Hawkers' Association suggested increasing the retail price of newspapers to HK$8. The proposal was withdrawn after it was met with strong opposition from newspaper hawkers and the public at large.

In February this year, the association again tried to negotiate with several newspapers to increase the retail price to HK$7, including Ming Pao and the journal.

Siu Sai-wo, chief editor of Sing Tao Newspaper Group, expressed his surprise over the journal's price hike. "Local newspapers have been considering increasing the retail price for some time, however, I didn't expect the journal to increase the price by HK$2," said Siu.

In response, newspaper hawkers contended the increase will not affect sales of the journal.

Cheung Tak-wing, vice-chairperson of the hawker association, described the price increase for the journal as normal. He said the target readers of the newspaper are executives and those with higher incomes. Thus, he predicted that the price increase would not have a great impact on the newspaper hawkers.

Cheung said he expected the other Chinese newspaper, including the horse racing forms, would raise their prices by HK$1 at most, in the near future.

A newspaper hawker, Tang Yup-ming, who has been selling newspapers in Jordan for about 40 years, said he won't cut down his order of the journal in light of the price increase. Tang explained that the journal now focuses on its electronic platform, therefore, its circulation has been decreasing. "Normally, most people coming to buy the newspaper are subscribers," added Tang.

Also supporting the newspaper's price hike, Clement So York-kee, professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the increase is the right direction for the newspaper.

So said the journal has a clear-orientation and there are not many substitute publications. The readers of the newspaper won't be as sensitive to the price increase since the newspaper is not targeted at the middle class or at mass readership.

So believed that other newspapers will follow the price adjustment in one or two months, after they gauge market acceptance of the journal's price increase.

Echoing So, Keith Kam Woon-ting, the chair of The Newspaper Society of Hong Kong, predicted the price increase for the journal would result in other newspapers considering adjusting their selling prices. "The price increase of the newspaper would undoubtedly facilitate other newspapers to raise their prices," said by Kam.

Liu Chor-hong contributed to the story.

stushadow@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 08/30/2012 page1)