The second Canadian offshoot of the Chinese-language Ming Pao Daily News has hit the streets in Vancouver, home to 180,000 Chinese and the city’s largest ethnic group.
Jimmy Hung, the paper’s assistant general manager, says he expects to sell 9,000 copies a day of his broadsheet at 55 cents a copy from 350 outlets in the greater Vancouver area.
Hung says he would like to see 20% of his sales from home subscription within three months.
Richard Yao, general manager at Ming Pao Daily News in Toronto, which began in May, says his paper sells 12,000 copies weekdays at 50 cents a copy and 15,000 copies at weekends at $1 a copy.
There are 260,000 Chinese-Canadians in Toronto, the largest number in the country.
A syndicated study released last month by DJC Research in Toronto found that despite high levels of English comprehension, more than half of Chinese-Canadians read a Chinese-language newspaper weekly.
Yao says the Toronto and Vancouver broadsheets are owned by Ming Pao Enterprises in Hong Kong, a publicly traded company in business for 35 years.
(Roughly translated, Ming Pao means ‘enlightened report’ in English.)
Hung says his paper – like the Toronto version – emphasizes local reporting, with coverage of events in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and the Pacific Rim.
Ming Pao papers are completely vertical operations say Yao and Hung, with their own reporters, production staff, ad sales and printing presses.
Yao says for the time being Ming Pao Daily News in Vancouver will concentrate its advertising sales efforts on local businesses that cater to the Chinese community.
