ENG-1973 — Page 214

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THE MEDIA

scheme for journalists (in both English and Chinese languages) linked with a Journalists of the Year award scheme which enables four local journalists to travel overseas. The HKJA now has close links with journalist organisations in the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia.

Nearly a year's planning resulted, in December, in the establishment of the Hong Kong Press Club, a separate though closely-linked body providing social and working facilities for journalists and photographers. The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Central is also popular with local and visiting journalists, as well as advertis- ing, public relations and business people.

Hong Kong is the base of Southeast Asian operations for many international magazines, newspapers, radio and television networks. International news agencies. represented include the Associated Press of America, Agence France Presse, Kyodo, Reuters and United Press International.

Printing and Publishing

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Significantly, in just five years the value of Hong Kong exports of printed matter has more than doubled, from $52 million in 1968 to an estimated $135 million in 1973. During this period Australia has replaced Britain as Hong Kong's biggest overseas customer. Australians are said to read more books per head than any other nation, and more than half of all books published in Australia are now printed in Hong Kong.

Many printers have established themselves in the North Point district on Hong Kong Island, while others operate from flatted factories in areas such as the high-rise industrial satellite of Kwun Tong. About 75 per cent of Hong Kong's 1,200 printing firms use the letterpress method, producing mainly small-scale printing such as letterheads, posters, wrappers and textbooks. The remainder mostly use offset, and although they are fewer in number, their capital investment in mainly German or Japanese equipment is far higher, and their volume of production is much greater than that of letterpress. Many specialise in printing books, textbooks, periodicals, calendars and diaries; others concentrate on wrappings and industrial packaging.

The standard of offset printing is high, with printing and illustrative production techniques comparing favourably with those of the world's leading printing nations. Electronic colour-engraving machines are widely used and colour separation tech- nique is generally good. Two and four-colour printing machines are widely used; and leading printers introduced eight-colour rotary and web-offset machines as early as 1962.

During the past 10 years many overseas publishers have established offices or regional headquarters in Hong Kong where printing represents a substantial saving over other areas, and excellent distribution and communication facilities are readily available.

Many educational book publishers have also established their regional head- quarters in Hong Kong. These include Heinemann Educational Books, the Oxford University Press, McGraw-Hill Far Eastern Publishers, and IPC of London which has set up its regional headquarters in Hong Kong to handle the interests of its