In the last of our in-person events of 2022, Telum talked to the senior editorial team from HK01, Arthur Ngai (Ching Kong), Assistant Editor-in-Chief (Local News), Dylan Hui, Director, OTT and Content Strategy (Lifestyle) and Roger Wong, Chief Assignment Editor (Finance and Business). In a cosy evening chat, they shared exclusive insights about the editorial process at HK01 and tips for PRs looking to connect with journalists. Key takeaways below:

HK01 as an online media
HK01 focusses on getting news out as soon as possible to compete with TV and radio as online content is kept relatively short compared to news-making in print media. Progressing from conventional ways of understanding audience taste, the OTT team led by Dylan looks at data within HK01’s news app and decides the scheduling of news content, i.e. when and what gets pushed in the feed sequence within the app. In terms of readership, it sees the largest number of visitors in the morning around 8 am when readers commute to work and at night at around 9-10 pm.

Daily schedule and collaboration at HK01
At the local news desk, Ching Kong gathers journalists at 10 pm every evening to allocate assignments to the team. Assignments will take into consideration whether the news is urgent, involves public figures or with large audience interest.

There isn’t a strict deadline for receiving pitches at Roger’s financial news desk. If the news is timely and relevant to the audience, “anytime is airtime”. A daily meeting is held at 10 am every day to allocate shorter news formats. Every week, the team holds discussions about the creation of longer articles like profiles and features.

Dylan talks to the lifestyle teams each morning to make sure the content in the different channels isn’t repeated. If that happens, they will make sure the topic is looked at from different angles.  

On a company-wide level, multiple meetings take place daily to make sure all assignments are being allocated and dealt with aptly and to decide on the breaking or exclusive news that goes online first thing the next morning.

Top Do’s

• Be succinct in press releases. Show the news value in the title.
• Online press conferences are convenient for journalists to attend given staffing shortages. Make sure press releases are shared with journalists in advance so they can prepare for questions.
• It’s useful for journalists to know the clients that each agency handles so they can reach out when applicable.

Top Don’ts

• Avoid sending in information as HK01 publishes in Chinese.
• In inviting HK01 journalists to events, avoid contacting the local news and finance desk too early (i.e. a few days before the event) to confirm who will be attending. The situation, however, is the opposite for the lifestyle desk.