The 1st issue released on 15 June, 1994

East Touch (東Touch) is a weekly Chinese language magazine written in Cantonese style in Hong Kong, published every Tuesday by East Touch Publishing Limited, under Global China Group Holdings Limited (泛華集團).

Table of contents
1 Content
2 Reporting style
3 Viewership
4 History and reporting principle
5 Changes in selling price
6 Writing style, Layout and Logo
7 Sub-booklets
8 Sections
9 Recent strategy
10 Naming
11 Change in day of publication
12 Reputation
13 Contact
14 External Links

Content

It is an infotainment publication targeting at readers aged between 22 and 34. It covers stories of celebrities, entertainment news, fashion trends and lifestyle topics.

Cover design in 1st-30th issue
A survey conducted by the Society for Truth and Light in Hong Kong showed about 86.6% of content in "East Touch" is related to entertainment and consumption information. According to the editorial board, the magazine places men's fashion news in their top priority, followed by women's fashion news and lifestyle reports. Entertainment news is ranked as the least important.

Reporting style

When it comes to the reporting style of East touch, four guiding principles of editing was set up by the owners. These four reporting principles distinguish "East Touch" from other magazines targeted at trendy young people.

The magazine's competitors, namely, "Easy Finder", "East Week", "3 Magazine" put much more emphasis on paparanzzi-type entertainment scoop and Category IIB photos of starlets. This is affirmed in a statistical figures from the Hong Kong Press Council and the Hong Kong Journalists Association which showed that no complaints were filed nor condemnations issued against "East Touch" this year.

Cover design in 31st-44th issue

==Big events=

Nonetheless, the first great challenge came to this magazine’s vibrant history when its 42nd issue was published on 29 March 1995. East touch was in law accused and fined of its indecent articles about pornography in the Obscene Articles Tribunal by the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority. The article judged indecent was about a "Festival of Pornography” in which many sexual utilities and services were advertised without an accompanying warning that the magazine contained material which should not get into the hands of persons under the age of 18. Such inclusion offended the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, according to the Tribunal and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal made by the publisher in July 1996.

Cover design in 45th-108th issue

Viewership

So far there has been no offical figures on "East Touch"'s circulation numbers and market filtration. According to a survey on the reading habit of 15-29 years olds in Hong Kong conducted by the Breakthrough, a non-profit Catholic youth organization in Hong Kong in February 1999, however, "East Touch" lagged behind its competitors. Next Magazine, "Easy Finder" and "East Week" ranked top three, comprising 32.3%, 27.4% and 24.9% of the interviewees respectively.

History and reporting principle

"East Touch" was first published on 15 June, 1994 as a free magazine in "East Magazine". As a trail version, "East Touch" was named "East City" and was owned by Oriental Press Group Limited (東方報業集團有限公司).

Cover design in 109th-124th issue

In reference of the "Declaration of Foundation" in the 1st issue, the motto of the magazine was to be "rooted in Hong Kong, global in our outlook" (立足香港, 放眼世界). "Reformation"(變) and "Innovation" (新) are two founding principles of the magazine.

"East Touch" was published individually on 6 June, 1995 since the 51st issue. From the Editor's Note, the new "East Touch" had two new reporting principles - to create a new culture representing the new generation and to bring about reformation and innovation with an open and creative mind. According to the 52nd issue,the re-launch of "East Touch" was a great success. The initial-print of the 51st issue were sold out and more than one hundred thousand copies were in circulation.

Cover design in 125th-166th issue

On 1 July, 1997, "East Touch" released its 109th issue. Building on their founding principles, the editorial board created another slogan, "leave alone year 1997, look ahead 21st century" (不再97, 且看21), in celebration of the handover.

Global China Group Holdings Limited (泛華集團) acquired "East Touch" in 2002. In its 348th issue, the first issue after the acquisition, the editor proclaimed four guiding principles for editing: establish a unique culture in HK, be the leader of the trend, refuse pornographic materials and maintain a world vision.

Cover design in 167th-226th issue

Changes in selling price

The retail price of "East Touch" was HK$3 in its 1st issue. The sale price (HK$3) and the date of releasing the 1st issue (6 June) was specially chosen as the number 3 and 6 have the meaning of "endlessness" (33不盡, 66無窮). The price rose to (HK$5) in its 11th issue "to reflect its real strength and worth in the market" according to the editorial board. The price further rose to (HK$8) in the 21st issue due to the increasing price of paper. The price rose again in 45th and 59th issue to (HK$10) and (HK$12) respectively. It peaked in the 155th issue at (HK$15) as 2 sub-booklets were added. After "East Touch" was acquired by Global China Group Limited, the price dropped to (HK$13) in the 348th issue. The current selling price remains at (HK $13).

Writing style, Layout and Logo

Articles in "East Touch" are written in colloquial Chinese and often intwinned with slangy Cantonese phrases and English words. The layout of "East Touch" is very colorful. Photos, pictures and graphics takes up equal, if not more, page space than words. The magazine's layout changes frequently in order to make the magazine fresh to the readers and to avoid the ‘detachment’ between authors and readers. But such kind of oral–oriented written discourse is also accused of polluting Modern Standard Chinese, blamed for the deteriorating language proficiency of juvenile by teachers and educators.

"East Touch" also make frequent changes to the outlook and organization of contents, though the choice of content itself remains largely similar. At the beginning, it had only one book and was divided into four sections, namely First touch, Entertainment touch, Fashion & city touch and Keep in touch.

Cover design in 337th-the latest issue

"East Touch" employed a new logo since Issue 437, published on October 14, 2003. This new logo, incorporating the Chinese character "East" (東)with the English words "East Touch", was chosen in memory of the magazine's first logo. Before this, "East Touch" had changed the design of its logo for six times.

Sub-booklets

A number of sub-books were subsequently published alongside the main book.

"Shopping G-Point"
"Green"
"Cat's"
"Make-up Garden"
"Look"
"Electric-king"
"Game Century"












Sections

Today, "East Touch" is divided into two books. The main book has five sections, namely Begin, Entertainment, Babe, Knock, Relax''.

  • Begin section discusses the hottest topics around the world for the previous week in a relaxed tone generally found in infotainment magazines.
  • Entertainment section reports on recent local and international entertainment news. This includes interviews of celebrities, features of upcoming movies and TV series, and CD reviews.
  • Babe section contains the latest trends on female fashion and make-up. This section includes interviews on trend-setting singers, artists, models, designers and stylists; styling photos; and features of the latest fashion products. A recent addition to this section is an interview series by popular local DJ(茜利妹)with some local celebrities on sex-related topics.
  • Knock section focus on trends for male. It includes features on selected male fashion labels; styling photos of latest male fahion; reports on male trend icons such as Tarantino, the director of "Kill Bill"; and product information of the latest sneakers in town.
  • Relax section does not have a particular theme. It information on the high-tech gadgets, toys and comics. A special periodical in this section is which features local univeristy student life.

The sub-booklet has four sections. It focuses on the latest products and presents them in a catagloue format detailed with price and place of sale.
  • Brand name Trends contains information on products by selected fashion labels, columns on how to maintain brandname products, street snapshots of people with brandname products, rankings of the "hippest" brandname products and an "Exchange forum" for readers to buy or sell second-hand brandname products.
  • Technological Trends features the latest technology gadgets completed with detailed description of its functions, price and place of sale. This section also includes rankings of the hippest mobile phones and digital cameras.
  • Health Trends contains information on diet plans, health foods and exercise plans.
  • Information Weekly has a weekly horoscope, comic series, movie review, CD review and articles by different contributors.

Recent strategy

In recent issues, "East Touch" had followed the practice of other trend magazine by issuing a small booklet on a selected high-fashion label. This booklet focuses on clothes and accessories of a particular brand, completed with price and shop details. Besides, it occasionally gifts readers with some presents, a typical example was the 100 sets of block toys given to readers at 349th issue to celebrate Valentine's Day.

A frequent advertising technique employed by "East Touch" is their use of soft marketing. Advertisements are often presented in similar formats as the feature articles with "Information provided by clients" (資料由客戶提供) in small print at the top of the page to indicate that it is an advertisement.

Naming

The idea of naming the magazine "East Touch" came from the phase "Don't touch". According to the editorial board, the sub-booklet aimed at inspiring readers to be "rebellious", to "challenge everything", and to be concerned with the world. In this philosophy, the first thing to do is "to touch". Thus, the Board used the word "Touch" as a part of the sub-booklet's name. The Chinese word "East"(東) is a pun of the pronunciation of English word "Don't" in Cantonese-accented English and of the then owner Oriental Press Group Limited (東方報業集團有限公司).

Change in day of publication

"East Touch" was published on every Tuesday for first 303 issues. The day of publication changed to Sunday in the 304th issue. It was then , for a brif period from the 348th issue to the 354th issue, released on Wednesday. It was again issued on Tuesday from the 355th issue onwards.

Unlike its competitiors such as "Easy Finder" and "Milk", "East Touch" does not have a website.

Reputation

The Cathay Pacific Airways and the Dragonair have chosen "East Touch" to be one of their in-flight magazines.

See also: Media in Hong Kong

Contact

External Links