Vagazine targets people at aged between 14 and 26. Its contents include teenage idols, consumer guidelines and an interactive area. A number of magazines and news organizations have closed down recently. However, the editors of Vagazine have the confidence to survive despite keen competition in the media industry.

     Said Miss Ruby Chu, administration manager of Wellfit Media Workshop which publishes Vagazine: "The extraordinary concept of launching a video magazine alone is already a guarantee of success.

     "Since we are the first video magazine in Hong Kong, there are fewer competitors in the market offering similar products at the moment.

     "Besides, our magazine is not specialized in one topic only, the information provided is diversified enough to attract all types of readers.

     "Most importantly, our magazine is the combination of television and magazine. For example, when we are introducing a restaurant, we can 'take' the readers to the actual place, showing everything to them clearly," she added.

     Another advantage of a video magazine is that more people can watch it at the same time and in the same place, while ordinary magazines only allow one person to read it at a time.

     VCD was chosen to be the medium of the magazine because of its popularity and simple operation.

     "Nowadays in Hong Kong, even a three-year-old child knows how to operate a VCD player.

     "Nevertheless, there is one major disadvantage of VCD magazine over traditional type of magazine.

     "People can read a printed magazine on the bus or even in the washroom. However, to watch a VCD, you should at least have a VCD player with plenty of power," explained Miss Chu.

     Moreover, the picture quality of VCD is poorer than other visual media such as LD or DVD.

     "So we may probably change the medium to DVD in the future," Miss Chu said.

     "If the magazine can make a great success in Hong Kong, our next step will be to explore the market in mainland China and South-East Asia," added she.

     Vagazine is not the only VCD magazine found in Hong Kong. There are similar VCD magazines specializing in topics such as cars, horse-racing and video games.

     Miss Candy Yuen, 26, shopkeeper of Jumbo Books, talked about the sales of VCD magazines.

     Said she: "Most of the VCD magazines are actually separated from their existing parent magazines,"

     "For example, a VCD magazine about video games came from a game magazine which has already existed for a few years.

     "People who buy video magazines are mostly the usual readers of the parent magazines, " she added, "but the sales of video magazines are not as good as the printed versions."

     Sales of the trial issue of Vagazine were not pleasing.

     "It is difficult to introduce such a new thing to the general public, so we don't expect the first few issues to create great impact on readers and generate much profit."