Richard Li, chairman of Asian telco PCCW and son of billionaire Li Ka Shing, plans to launch a subscription-based finance news and data service covering China’s burgeoning economy in the next month. As Asiasentinel.com reports, the Hong Kong-based China Indepth is the middle of a hiring spree, advertising for financial editors, researchers, analysts and sales staff before it begins selling its English-language datafeeds, news and reports to corporate customers and trading floor terminals.
Update: The company has contacted us to say the service will not be launching in October, as Asia Sentinel reported. We hope to get more details on the venture shortly.
The service’s executive editor is former New York Times China correspondent Craig Smith, who left the paper in July (via MediaBistro). He gives Asiasentinel an insight into the company’s plans: “Insofar as we are a niche player based on a subscription-model, we are part of a great migration away from general, advertising-based printed news products and toward something more economically sustainable.” He says China’s print media has not “felt the chill” that newspapers in the English-speaking world, but predicts it will soon.
Asiasentinel’s sources say that 28 bilingual editors will work on the project and Indepth will no doubt benefit from close ties with the Hong Kong Economic Journal and business magazine Ciajing — both part of Richard Li’s media empire. The company’s site says it was founded in 2007, so this has been a long time in the planning process.

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