Opening the Global Editors Network summit today, the chief executive for Hong Kong Donald Tsang called on the international media to make the most of its rich technology and business sector, but added he did not envy the job of news organisations as they “find new ways to make their business work”.

In his keynote speech Tsang shared some interesting statistics on Hong Kong’s media, which he said has 50 daily newspapers and at least 100 international media outlets based in the region, in which he said news and information “flows rapidly and freely”.

He also told the conference that Hong Kong has a 201 per cent mobile phone penetration, with many citizens having more than one phone, setting an interesting scene for mobile discussions scheduled to take place later today.

He closed by speaking about the challenges facing the industry, adding that while “information technology was meant to make life easier” it appears that “life gets busier and busier” for both the media and government.

Referring to a law passed earlier this year to establish a communications authority, he said one of its first tasks “will be to review and rationalise our laws on broadcasting and telecommunications” and address “cross media ownership and foreign ownership restrictions”.

I hope that responding to changes and advances … we’ll be able to foster development of the sector.

I hope this will also encourage innovation and investment. As I said earlier the free flow of news and information is of strategic importance to us. We very much welcome more international media to take advantage of what we have to offer in Hong Kong.

… News organisations need to find ways to make their businesses work … We no longer live in 24/7 environment, now it is measured in minutes or seconds and this must create enormous pressures. I don’t envy your jobs.

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Staff cuts at Time Europe are part of a bigger plan ‘to consolidate the international editions of Time so that they will be primarily edited out of New York,’ MediaBistro reports.

“When it’s over, the various overseas editions of Time will be edited largely out of New York, and to a lesser extent, out of Hong Kong, insiders said.”

• Time Out launches Kuala Lumpur site, Hong Kong launch imminent
• South China Morning Post (via Editors Weblog): Hong Kong business papers launch paid-for websites
• #news2011: Hong Kong chief executive calls on media to ‘take advantage of what we have to offer’
• Mediabistro: Newseum makes second round of job cuts
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The Hong Kong Economic Journal and Hong Kong Economic Times have both launched new websites with paid-for access models.

Subscribers to the Times’ site, who will pay HKD598 (£49) a year, will have access to full pages of the newspaper, a three-year archive and real-time markets coverage.

• Time Out launches Kuala Lumpur site, Hong Kong launch imminent
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The global leader for the entertainment and media practice, at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Hong Kong, Marcel Fenez, argued that ‘traditional media isn’t dead’ on the last day of the WAN/World Editors Forum 11th Readership Conference (information courtesy of WAN conference updates).

The latest media and entertainment industry forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that global newspaper advertising will grow 2.9 per cent to 136.8 billion dollars in 2012, with digital advertising accounting for 43 per cent of the growth.

• Print advertising will grow 1.8 per cent to 123.3 billion dollars worldwide in 2012
• Digital advertising will grow 19.3 per cent to 13.4 billion dollars:
• While the growth rate for digital advertising will continue its impressive rise over the next five years, the total in 2012 will represent only 10 per cent of total print and digital newspaper advertising.

“Some people say that traditional media is dead. Well, it isn’t. For the next five years, it ain’t gonna be,” he said. “The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a 5-year context.”

Fenez said the forecasts, based on consumer and industry sources, does not take into account the recent economic meltdown, which could have a negative impact on the figures.

Fenez reported:

• The generation that comes of age in 2012 will be the first that doesn’t know the pre-internet world. “We hear a lot about user generated content from the ‘net generation’. It’s very, very, very important. But premium content is still really valuable. Even the net generation values premium content. They’re tired of watching videos of a dog running up a tree.”
• Advertisers will take a ‘wait and see’ attitude and be cautious about spending in the first half of 2009. “They won’t do anything until mid-year. If they have the revenue, they’ll release their budgets.”
• Video games advertising is set to grow 17 per cent to 2012, though the revenue is still negligible. Most of the money being spent on game advertising is coming from television.
• “We’re on a journey of transition from traditional to digital: the first to probably go totally digital is the music industry. In 2011, the majority of revenues will be digital.”

• Online advertising spend tops £4bn after 12.8% rise
• UK ad spend dropped 4% in 2008, says AdAssoc
• Online publishers in ‘bullish mood’ despite economic downturn
• Reuters: UK online ads up 21 per cent despite fall in overall ad market
• Reuters: Murdoch’s online operation to miss ambitious targets

Time Out has this week launched a new listings and entertainments news website in Kuala Lumpur and plans to launch a similar site in Hong Kong next month.

The online launches coincide with sister print title launches in the territories. Developments in Hong Kong will bring the total number of international Time Out web/print publications to 24 in 18 countries including Sydney, Kiev and New York.

Time Out, which also launched in Barcelona in January, plans seven further launches in 2008, including titles in Belgrade, Budapest, Bangkok and Jakarta.

• South China Morning Post (via Editors Weblog): Hong Kong business papers launch paid-for websites
• MediaBistro: Worldwide editions of Time magazine will come together
• #news2011: Hong Kong chief executive calls on media to ‘take advantage of what we have to offer’
• NYTimes.com: NYTimes and IHT consider web merger
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Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has written to the Chinese ambassador in the UK attacking China’s censoring of foreign news websites – including Guardian.co.uk – in the wake of the Tibetan riots.

Mr Rusbridger asked for the ambassador’s assistance in unblocking his website back online and ensuring that access to it remained free of interference.

“As you will be aware, the blackout has coincided with media coverage of the recent unrest in Tibet, forcing the conclusion that this is an act of deliberate and wholly unacceptable censorship,” wrote Mr Rusbridger.

“We are dismayed that Beijing should curtail international press freedom, particularly in Olympic year.”

The move comes in the wake of a violent crackdown on protests in Tibet by Chinese authorities that have also attempted to block the media from reporting what was going on.

Tibetan exiles say at least 80 protesters died in the clashes as reporters were being forced to leave.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China reported that as many as two-dozen reporters have been turned away from or forced to leave Tibetan areas and government censorship of the internet and television broadcasts was also hampering journalists’ work.

“Reporting interference is not in the interest of the Chinese government which is trying to show a more open, transparent and accountable image to the world,” said FCCC President Melinda Liu, in a piece carried on the FCCC website.

“Such interference is not in keeping with reporting regulations adopted during the Olympics period – and is especially not in keeping with the international community’s expectations of an Olympic host nation,” added Liu.

Writing for the Telegraph.co.uk Richard Spencer claimed to have been ordered to leave the Tibetan town he was staying in by local police (Spencer also points to some bloggers who are managing to get information onto the net about the crackdown)

The Honk Kong Journalists Association (hat tip Roy Greenslade) is also reporting that journalists from at least six Hong Kong media organisations have been placed under escort and ordered out of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

• CNET: IOC withdraws video takedown request to YouTube
• Online Journalism China: The voices in-between the official press and the western media
• MediaGuardian: Chinese government cracks down on ‘vulgar’ websites
• World Association of Newspapers calls for press freedom in China
• IOC approves blogging athletes for Beijing – with strict rules