Having struggled hard for five years, the Contemporary Monthly, a political periodical born after the June Fourth Incident, finally folded in February. It was more bad news for the mass media, following closely on the heels of the announcement of the closure of Wah Kiu Yat Pao.
Contemporary Monthly was launched in the Territory by a number of former news executives and editors who left Wen Wei Pao after the June Fourth Incident in 1989.
The founder, Mr. Lee Tze-chung, who was originally the director of Wen Wei Pao, promoted an "open the skylight" policy that basically called for truthful reporting. This was the principle of Wen Wei Pao during the 1989 Democratic Movement in China.
When Mr. Lee and the former staff of Wen Wei Pao left for Contemporary, they insisted on this policy. Their objective, stated in the preface of the first issue, was "To tell joy when it happens. To tell sorrow when it occurs. Goodness should be applauded. Wickedness shouldn't be endured."
Many staff members of the magazine, despite the demise of the business, still follow this principle. Mr. Johnny Lau Yui Siu is one of them. He was deputy editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly.
"We have been loyal to this principle throughout these five years.We would not avoid commenting on those who needed to be criticized." said Mr. Lau.
"Some Chinese officials said that Contemporary provided foreigners with 'a window to view China'. They are dissatisfied with us, as we revealed the strengths and weaknesses of China to the outside world," Mr. Lau added.
Mr. Lau, like others on the editorial board, did not even know the magazine was facing closure until a paper broke the news on 23 January.
The folding of Contemporary was a great shock to the editorial board, as some reforms had just been announced in January.
Mr. Lau admitted that they failed to have good command of marketing, their market position and their business operations. Marketing had been a constant headache to the editorial board.
"The monthly sales dropped from 20,000 at the beginning to about 6,000. As most of the Contemporary's readers are experts, the number of them was too small to support our operation," Mr. Lau said.
In addition to poor marketing, the weak financial situation at the launch of the publication also contribute to its failure.
Said Mr. Lau:"The source of all our capital came from donations, which amounted to more than $1 million. Compared with Next Magazine, it was just a trivial amount."
Mr. Lau said that they never expected much in the way of advertising revenue. "Potential advertisers may regard advertising in political magazines which are critical of the Chinese government a suicidal action to their business in mainland China," he added.
But the fundamental cause of poor sales was that Contemporary failed to approach the masses who prefer pulp magazines to serious commentary.
According to Mr. Lau, the "infotainment" publications are so increasingly popular that a magazine devoted to serious topics is no longer marketable in the Territory. This change in market demand is also happening in China and Britain.
"We have realized the demerits of being too high-sounding. Therefore, we attempted to make changes like adding some more softer issues to our magazine," said Mr. Lau.
"But we never thought of making the magazine pulp so as to please the masses. Some people suggested that we publish a Next Magazine reporting bizarre and outrageous subjects on the Mainland. But we are not competent enough to do such kinds of things. That wasn't what we intended to accomplish, _ that is, to report the mainstream changes on the Mainland," said Mr. Lau.
The reform of Contemporary in 1992 was not only to make adjustments to consumers' tastes. More important, besides reporting the truth about China, they wanted to keep abreast of changes on the Mainland.
"The Mainland situation has been ever-changing in these five years. It changed from 'politics- dominated' in the post Tiananmen Incident period, to 'economic-reform-dominated' after 1991. So, the editorial board agreed to raise the proportion of economic news from 1992 onwards," said Mr. Lau.
The editorial board also promised to facilitate democratic reform in China and implement a democratic constitutional system. They believed that economic changes may speed up the democratization of China.
Despite the attempt to achieve a better balance between hard news and soft news, Contemprary still failed to achieve a larger circulation.
"Since we couldn't approach the masses, we simply made the journal more professional. That's why we decided to turn to a 'strategic-study' direction," he said.
In the last issue, in January, the editorial board pointed out that Contemporary would switch from a variety magazine to a strategic one. The editorial board developed a thorough plan on the reform.
"Firstly, with our experience on studying Chinese affairs and the research power in the local and Mainland community, we decided to devise a scheme for speeding up Mainland economic and political development, as well as its democratization.
"We also discovered that many social problems and strategic concerns on the issue of transfer of soveignty were overshadowed by political issues like Sino-British disputes. We wanted to draw people's attention to the former.
"Up till now, there has been no strategic collaboration between the scholars and experts of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We hoped to gather the experts of the three places together, or even include some local community groups, to co-study topics of public concern.
"There is no doubt that this route is more suitable for Contemporary. Many people even expressed their desire to collaborate with us.
"But finally all these dreams were shattered when our owner decided to fold the periodical," he said.
The closure of Contemporary, in fact, reflects pessimistic prospects for serious publications in the local market. Still, Mr. Lau said coverage of serious issues is workable.
"The key is the package _ the way of expression. Serious topics can gain popularity if it is presented in an interesting manner.
"Moreover, as 1997 approaches, the desire of local people to know more about China is greater and greater.That's why serious topics still have a market," he said.
However, the number of serious publications in the Territory is small.
"Many locals only notice the impact of Hong Kong upon China. They think that, with the implementation of 'one country, two systems' policy in Hong Kong after 1997, the changes of mainland China won't concern Hong Kong.
"Secondly, a fin-de-siècle mentality has developed among local people as 1997 approaches. Owing to the uncertainty of the transition, 1997 is seen as the deadline for all their planning. So hedonism and short-sightedness obstruct their caring about the Territory's political future," added Mr. Lau.
He also said that Hong Kong people are now suffering from a "loathsome politics disease", as the Sino- British dispute always dominates the political news. Hong Kong people never have any voice on the decisions.
"Facing the fact that their concern about political issues only means a waste of time, they become politically apathetic and always show an 'I-can't-help'attitude towards political problems," said Mr. Lau.
Dr. Joseph Chan, the head of the Department of Journalism and Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, held another view about the reason for Contemporary's failure.
Said Dr. Chan:"There have been no tremendous changes in China in recent years. Political topics have become narrower and predictable."
Dr. Chan said the road to success for political journalists is to make themselves distinctive.
Said he: "Readers of political publications would not be drawn by 'infotainment' magazines which are not their choice. Actually the local demand for serious journals is ever-increasing in recent years.
Current affairs commen-tator Wong Yuk Man said that the symbolic meaning of Contemporary is a genuine reason for its closure.
"The magazine's director, Mr. Yip Kwok Wah, has close connections with China. To him, the journal was a hurdle to his relations with the Mainland.
"The journal did not impose much pressure upon the Chinese government, for it was informative rather than commentary. But its existence, as it is born out of June Fourth Incident, always reminded people of the Tiananmen military crackdown," said Mr. Wong.
Dr. Chan seconded this view.
They both said growing competition from newspapers and other publications, which have wide coverage on Chinese affairs, make it harder for political commentary journals to survive.