David Powell of GeoSirius writes about the reasons behind CNBC shutting its Hong Kong operation.
Powell writes, “Hong Kong’s media environment has faced intense operational headwinds over the past few years. CNBC’s withdrawal doesn’t stand alone. Major international institutions have been quietly downsizing or relocating their main Asian bases for a while now.
“Consider what happened with other legacy publishers:
- The Wall Street Journal shifted its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, reducing its local editorial team to a fraction of its former size.
- Yahoo Hong Kong dismantled its long-running local news and financial services operations entirely, laying off nearly its entire newsroom staff.
“When global networks review their overhead costs against shifting viewership habits and changing regional dynamics, expensive bureau operations in high-cost cities become easy targets. Maintaining physical news bureaus requires massive capital. When digital-first models and decentralized hubs in Singapore or Beijing can supposedly cover the same ground for less money, corporate accountants make swift decisions.”
Read more here.
