Far Eastern Economic Review

The Far Eastern Economic Review (Chinese: 遠東經濟評論, Pinyin: Yuǎndōng Jīngjì Pínglùn; also referred to as FEER) is an English language Asian news magazine that is scheduled to print its final issue in December 2009. The Hong Kong-based business magazine was originally published every Thursday. Due to financial difficulties, the magazine converted to a monthly publication in December 2004, and simultaneously switched to an arrangement whereby most articles are contributed by non-staff writers who have expertise in a given field, such as economists, business-community figures, government policymakers, social scientists and others.

FEER covered a variety of topics including politics, business, economics, technology, social and cultural issues throughout Asia, focusing on Southeast Asia and Greater China. It presented views and opinions emphasizing local perspectives in an attempt to improve existing conditions in Asia.

Ownership

Originally independent, the South China Morning Post bought FEER in 1972. Dow Jones & Company became a part owner the next year, and acquired full ownership of FEER in 1986.

The magazine is now owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation which took over Dow Jones & Company in 2007.

Readership

FEER mainly targeted markets in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and nearby regions in Southeast Asia. It reached an elite group of readers from the government, the business world and the academic sector. According to the magazine circulation figures provided by FEER on its official website, roughly 20,000 subscription copies were distributed in Southeast Asia, North America and Europe. The magazine had a circulation of 93,055 (according to HKABC July-December 2003), although those figures do not reflect a probable drop in circulation since the magazine's format change. From 28 September 2006, the magazine was banned in Singapore for failing to comply with conditions imposed under the amended Newspaper and Printing Presses Act [1].

History

The Far Eastern Economic Review was started in 1946 by Eric Halpern, a Jewish immigrant from Vienna, who initially settled in Shanghai and ran Finance and Commerce, a biweekly business magazine. Later on, when China was in the midst of the Chinese Civil War, he decamped to Hong Kong and founded the weekly publication, FEER, focusing on finance, commerce and industry.

After Halpern's retirement in 1958, Dick Wilson became chief editor and publisher. He operated an office in a colonial building along the waterfront where the Mandarin Hotel now stands. During Wilson’s tenure, coverage of the magazine extended from China and Hong Kong into other regions around the world, from Japan to Australia to India and to the Philippines, with articles and reports supplied by cross-border journalists and scholars.

In 1964, Wilson was succeeded as editor by Derek Davies, a Welsh journalist, who had served in the British Foreign Office. Between 1964 and 1989, the late flamboyant Derek Davies built up the Far Eastern Economic Review from a small weekly into one of Asia's most authoritative magazines, with a circulation of nearly 90,000. At its peak, FEER had an editorial team of nearly 100 news staff in 15 bureaus across Asia - the largest news team of any regional weekly.

After serving 25 years as senior editor, Davies was succeeded by Philip Bowring. By 1992, Dow Jones, led by the husband-and-wife team of chairman and Chief Executive Peter Kann and Vice President Karen Elliott House, took formal control of the publication in an acrimonious battle that ultimately led to the resignation of Davies' popular and vocal successor Philip Bowring, over the magazine's editorial direction.

In November 2001, Dow-Jones merged the editorial operations of the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Asian Wall Street Journal in an attempt to cut costs. In 2004, the magazine ceased to exist as a weekly and was changed to a monthly publication with Hugo Restall as its editor. In September 2009, Dow-Jones, now a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp, announced that the magazine will be shut down permanently.

Closure and Criticism of Dow-Jones

The magazine will cease publication in December, 2009 due to falling readership and advertising revenue.. This was the reason given by its owner, Dow-Jones. But insiders cite other reasons. "Every ex-Review staffer knows that its days were numbered the day Dow Jones bought it. The Asian Wall Street Journal never enjoyed the kind of readership and readers' loyalty as that of the Review. And it wasn't a secret that the Americans wanted the AWSJ to supplant the Review." Philip Bowring pins the blame for the Review’s decline on Dow Jones, which took control in 1987. He says that its executives parachuted in from New York and wanted to homogenise the reporting, to make its coverage less driven by the whims of correspondents in the field. But despite the faults of Dow Jones, the business model that was based on advertising revenue foundered when prosperity declined, says Banyan.

'The decision to cease publication of the Review is a difficult one made after a careful study of the magazine's prospects in a challenging business climate,' said Todd Larsen, chief operating officer at Dow Jones Consumer Media Group. In 2004, Dow Jones fired most of FEER's reporters and transformed it into a monthly publication. Articles were largely commissioned and only a skeleton editorial staff was retained. David Plott, FEER's editor at the time, described the upheaval in 2004 as a loss of one of the 'greatest concentrations of knowledge and expertise about the region assembled anywhere'.

Prior to the formal closure in 2009, FEER first died in 1992 when Bowring was forced to resign as editor. It lost more of its soul when it was merged with the Asian Wall Street Journal. In 2004 it died again when it ceased as a weekly and was published as a monthly after being downsized to a staff of two. "The death of the Review came by a thousand cuts inflicted primarily by Karen House," said Bowring in 2004, "The thousand cuts were a succession of failed makeovers and revolving editors after House arrived on the scene." Another deep cut was the dumbing-down of the magazine in an effort to make it "more readable" and to move away from hard-hitting, controversial coverage of corporate and financial scandals. It shifted away from the in-depth coverage of business and politics to soft-centred features of the sort that appear in airline magazines.

"The final insult to the Review, and indeed to Asia, was Dow Jones' refusal to sell the title. It has had plenty of offers - which would benefit its own shareholders. But it is more important for House and her husband that no one gets the chance to revive what it has suffocated. Nor do they wish for more competition for advertising which would add to the losses of the Asian Wall Street Journal," says Bowring. "There is a parallel here between Time and Asiaweek. Time bought locally-born Asiaweek even though it appeared to be in direct competition for readers and advertising. Not so long afterwards, Time closed Asiaweek rather than its ailing Time Asia. It was corporate imperialism more than commercial sense which brought Dow Jones to buy control of the Review, which was a direct competitor for niche regional advertising. Faced with the fact that both have been losing money, it naturally decided to close the regional product rather than its own Asian Wall Street Journal - a paper being daily trounced by the Financial Times. It is clear that the closure of the Review, as of Asiaweek, represents an attack on diversity and further reduction in the variety of print media. In short, Dow Jones has undermined the pluralism and anti-monopolism which the US at its best has always represented."

"The magazine lost its way because people in New York thought they understood what the readers wanted more than those who were on the ground in Asia," wrote Bowring in the South China Morning Post. Bowring claims that Ms. House infused FEER's editorials with the right wing and furiously pro-western sentiments of the Wall Street Journal.

Under its previous editor, Derek Davies, the Review had carved a name for itself for the excellence of its economic reporting, its refusal to be cowed and its wide-ranging book reviews. When Dow Jones took over the Review it introduced pompous “editorials”, indulged in numerous revisions to the format, each more disastrous than the last; brought in large numbers of American journalists and editors at the expense of well-established writers who knew the region; moved the focus from business and politics to “innovation” and “lifestyle”, neither of which was particularly of interest to its core readership; and dramatically reduced the scope of the book review section. When Dow Jones took control of the magazine, efforts to introduce more lifestyle features sparked protests from Review loyalists - as did its decision to make it into a monthly rather than a weekly title.

"I don't think Dow Jones ever understood what our culture was and they never really put in the effort to make the magazine succeed", said John McBeth who joined the magazine in 1979. Dow Jones turned it into a snappy, happy, trend-conscious delight for the Internet age. It was a failed effort "to lure readers who presumably don't care about thoughtful coverage of politics and economics but do want to know which wine goes with which chilli pepper". The reporting staffs of the Review and the Asian Wall Street Journal were merged in 2001. More significantly, at that time the ad sales staffs of the two publications were also merged. Two senior correspondents said they had frequently been asked by executives at Asian corporations they covered why the magazine's advertising staff were hard to reach and would often not return phone calls. "There was no effort put in," said one. "They didn't even try."

TJS George, co-founder of Asiaweek, says, "In due course, Time Inc. killed Asiaweek and Dow Jones (now a Murdoch property) killed the Review. Murdoch-Dow's Wall Street Journal and Time Inc.'s Time magazine now fly the American flag over Asia, unchallenged by lesser flags."

The Review Legend

Its editor of those glory years, the Welshman Derek Davies, and Richard Hughes, the Australian doyen of the Foreign Correspondents Club were part of the Review legend. Davies, a hard-charging Welshman, defied numerous Asian governments and big businesses and provided a frontline forum for many talented reporters: David Bonavia, Ian Buruma, Nayan Chanda, Nate Thayer, Susumu Awanohara, Christopher Wood, Philip Bowring, as well as dissidents TJS George and late Mike O'Neill, who went on to launch rival, Asiaweek.

Other legends included the late MGG Pillai and his fellow Vietnam War contemporary Nayan Chanda — he kept writing until the tanks burst through the front door when Saigon fell — and Tarzie Vittachi and his son Nury, who delighted thousands by keeping up a steady patter as the guiding light of “Traveller’s Tales”, its humour column. And TJS George who wrote a nasty little book taking a sceptical look at LKY’s Singapore, and then founded Asiaweek. Alas that too went by the wayside eventually.

K. Nadarajah was felled with the enforced departure of a generation of some of the brightest from The Star after being labelled by the Evil Empire as one of a Gang of Eight. The late K. Das did yeoman work as the KL correspondent of the Review through the late 1970s and 1980s, through some of the most turbulent years of Malaysian politics. Morgan Chua, a discovery of the Singapore Herald, took his cartooning skills to the Review after the Herald fell foul of Lee Kuan Yew & Co. (The brightest and the best always did.)

Ho Kwon Ping of the ST went on to the Review, and ended up being detained under the Internal Security Act for his “pro-communist” reports. Anything nasty or sceptical was automatically labelled pro-communist in those days by the Straits Special Branch. Canadian-born Murray Heibert, the Review’s KL correspondent, was jailed for reporting that judge Gopal Sri Ram’s wife was suing the International School for dropping their son from its debating team. The Malaysian judicial system, then in the firm clutches of Dr Who’s administration, decided in all its profound wisdom that Murray had besmirched the “honour” of the judiciary.

In its 60-plus years, the Review hammered away at the walls of Asian despotism, shining a light through the chinks. It was regularly banned, especially in Singapore. And it was regularly sued. Especially, of course, in Singapore where the political family of Lee, Lee, Lee & Lee brooked no interference. A suit is still pending there. And a press law was promulgated in Singapore because of the Review. And partly also Time and the Asian Wall Street Journal, but it was always the Review’s coverage that bit particularly hard in those years.

Independent journalistic establishments

Besides qualified business reports, FEER was also the pioneer of independent journalistic establishments throughout Asia. Many of the articles from the first few decades were exclusive sources of information on the development of China, such as the report on Chairman Mao, the Cultural Revolution and the economic opening initiated by Deng Xiaoping. Despite the fact that journalists were not permitted to enter China during this period due to the era of authoritarian regimes, these covered events were still the core themes of the magazine.

These sample articles on the historical value and social interest of the development of Asian community show where the magazine's concerns lie.

1)“Construction of tunnel connecting Hong Kong Island to Kowloon” by Sir Lawrence Kadoorie (Lord Kadoorie) in a 1955 article

2)“1965 separation of Singapore and Malaysia” by Novelist Han Suyin.

3)“Philippine youth in revolt and Sir Y.K. Pao (Chinese: 包玉剛) on fleet-building in Asia” by Benigno Aquino

The magazine continued to survive after the ownership was passed to the publishing company Dow Jones & Co in 1973.

Editorial

Editorial statement

For the first issue, the inaugurator, Mr Halpern, declared a brief but enduring Editorial Statement:

"The purpose of this weekly economic publication is to analyze and interpret financial, commercial and industrial developments; to collect economic news; and to present views and opinions with the intent to improve existing conditions. Politics and economics being connatural, it will be inevitable that this publication may at times appear to transgress its primary objective by reporting on, and dealing with, political affairs. At any time and in every case unbiased and dispassionate, factual and balanced reporting will be our aim and policy."

File:FEERcover.jpg

Review's content page for September issue in 2005

Editorial stance

The Review aims to report and analyze financial, commercial and industrial developments in the Southeast Asia and Pacific regions with specific emphasis on Hong Kong and China. It seeks to gather the most incisive and provocative commentary in Asia through leaders from every ideological stripe, background and profession. Articles were selected in accordance to their potential progress toward prosperity, security and well-being for all Asians. Besides free-lance contributions and viewpoints from professionals, FEER's journalists also travel around the region reporting from their own perspective with the intention to improve the local economic zone.

With reference to the article “From the Editor” on the official website of Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), chief editor Hugo Restall discusses four reports by FEER including “North Korean nuclear weapon program”, “Purchase of China Construction Bank by Bank of America”, “Fall of Indonesian rupiah” and “Japanese election”. By the detailed discussion of the four reports, Mr. Restall explains as being involved in journalism, one should have a skeptical stance. As it is written:

“But as Ko Mishima and Robert Ward write in separate essays, despite the celebrations of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s new style of politics, there is reason to doubt how much substantive change lies ahead. ……it’s probably best to remain skeptical.”

Editorial team

Hugo Restall -- Chief Editor

Hugo Restall, has served as the editor of FEER since October 2004.

Previously he functioned as an editorial page writer on the editorial board of The Asian Wall Street Journal in April 1994, focusing on economic topics such as fiscal and monetary policies as well as market regulations. He graduated from Dartmouth College as a major in Asian Studies and during his time at Dartmouth, he was the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review. He also studied at Yunnan University, and thus is fluent in Chinese Mandarin . In 1998, he became the deputy editorial page editor of AWSJ and later in 1999 was promoted as the editorial page editor.

Mr Restall served as a member of the Abraham Lincoln Fellows organized by The Claremont Institute at 2004 in which seeking to promote an understanding of the moral basis of law, exemplified in the speeches and deeds of Abraham Lincoln. In 2001 and 2003, Mr. Restall was awarded by the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award twice for "Best Opinion Piece"

Colum Murphy -- Deputy Editor Colum Murphy became deputy editor of the FEER in March 2005.

Previously he was a reporter at The Hong Kong Standard, covering daily news to broaden public policy issues in Hong Kong. He also conducted researches and reports for various publications such as The Asian Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Bangkok Post and Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

He graduated from Dublin City University majoring in International Marketing and Japanese. He also holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a Masters of Commerce from Tokyo's Meiji University .

Other Directors

Administrative Assistant: Florence Lau

Managing Director: Winnie Wong

Finance Director: Patrick Wong

Operations Director: Terence Ho

Advertising Director: Douglas Mulcock

Circulation Director: Zheng Yin

Circulation Marketing Director: Veronique Cornu

Circulation Operations Director: Lily Tong

Editorial section titles

(FEER Fact Sheet, retrieved 9 October 2005)

• Messages from the Editor
• Letters and Responses
• From the Archives (An article from the weekly REVIEW concerning the current issues)
• Essays
• Reviews
• The Gimlet Eye (A Political Satire Cartoon concerning the current issues)
• Travelers'Tales (essay about visiting a specific location)

Reports by FEER

FEER regularly publishes reports that cover key topics in Asia. These reports are informative and important to the marketers, businessmen and also academics.

"China's Elite"(2003 Issue) is a yearly side-publication by the FEER. Focusing on China's leading executives and their way of business, "China's Elite" is often praised as a valuable source of information on statistics, expectations and objective analysis obtained through in-depth interviews with leading businessmen in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The "Review 200" (2003 Issue) is a tied publication by the Far Eastern Economic Review which ranks the top 200 leading businesses across Asia on an annual basis. This publication is particularly useful for companies to see their own performance in the market, as well as keeping track of competition.

Respondents were asked to rank companies using a scale of one to seven on their overall leadership performance. Those who did not recognize a company’s name gave that company a score of zero. They were also asked to indicate which of the following criteria applied to listed companies:

"high quality services or products, management with a long-term vision, innovative in responding to customers' needs, financially sound, a company that others try to emulate"

File:Managing in asia.jpg

Published every two years since 1989 by FEER, "Managing in Asia" (2003 Issue) provides entrepreneurs with a clear description and explanation of Asia's business position. The report offers valuable information in the aspects of economic outlook, business challenges and economic issues, personal investment, technology/office automation, brand perception, ownership of products, travel habits,etc.

The "Asia Lifestyles" (2002 Issue) is published in alternating years. It conducts surveys on business executives and questions their lifestyles, habits and aspirations. A written report concerning customer's behaviours and attitudes towards the various products and services are also published in accordance to the information obtained from surveys. It is especially informative and useful to the marketing field because the relevant parties gain a better understanding towards their products and services based on customer's opinions. As a result, companies have the advantage to prepare and accommodate with the rapid or unpredictable changes in the Asian market.

FEER regularly publishes special reports focused on topics which are relevant and significant to Asia. For example, a special report on HIV/AIDS epidemicwas published in its issue on July 15.

FEER regularly interviews government officials and other important people who have an impact in the region and the business world. In the past, FEER has interviewed Colin Powell, the US former Secretary of State (issue date: 28 October 2004), Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of United Nations (issue date: 22 July 2004), Chen Shui-bian, the Taiwanese President (issue date: 24 July 2003), Bill Gates, Chairman and co-founder of Microsoft (issue date: 14 March 2002), and many more influential people. For details, you can refer to Top Interviews.

In 2002 and 2003, FEER was awarded the "Excellence in Specialized Reporting" by Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). In 2004, it was awarded the "Honourable Mention for Magazine Front Cover Design" by SOPA. In 2005, it was awarded the "Excellence in Magazines" and "Honorable Mention for Reporting on the Environment" by the SOPA.

Censorship of the FEER

In late 1970s, Ho Kwon Ping, the Review's Singapore correspondent, was accused of endangering national security and fined $3,000. Lee Kuan Yew later charged FEER editor, Mr. Derek Davies, of participating in "a diabolical international Communist plot" to poison relations between Singapore and neighbouring Malaysia.

In the 1980s Lee banned the Review in Singapore after it published an article about the detention of Roman Catholic church workers.

In China the Review's correspondent, Serge Ivanovitch Kost, was arrested during the Cultural Revolution and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. He later emigrated to Australia.

In 2006, after the publication of an article on Dr. Chee Soon Juan, an opposition politician and member of the Singapore Democratic Party, Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father and minister mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, sued the publication for defamation alleging the magazine had suggested they were corrupt. The Financial Times urged the publication to fight the libel suit. Since the journal does not have assets in Singapore, the government subsequently demanded that the FEER and Newsweek, Time, the Financial Times and the International Herald Tribune to appoint a legal representative and pay a S$200,000 (US$126,000) security bond. After FEER failed to comply with government regulations, the Singapore government banned the sale and distribution of the journal and even having a subscription to the journal was made illegal. The ban does not extend to restricting access to the publication's website contents from Singapore, however. In July, 2007, the Court of Appeals rejected an application by the FEER to have a Queen's Counsel for representation. A Queen's Counsel would be a special British lawyer who would be granted temporary privileges to appear before the court even though they are not members of the Singapore Bar.

In the October edition, FEER published a special edition on Singapore. Referring to the recent ban, the journal's editor Hugo Restall asked: "So why is it still using repressive measures against a monthly magazine that employs a total of three full-time journalists and has 1,000 subscribers in the country?" Since FEER does not have any employee in Singapore, any legal action against the journal could be challenged in Hong Kong. The journal furthermore has published all its correspondence with the legal council of Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong as well as the Singapore government on its website. At a news conference in Hong Kong, Hugo Restall said: "We are planning to defend the defamation lawsuits vigorously and look forward to having our day in court in Singapore” and attempted to have the libel suit nullified [2].

In response to the FEER editorial on the ban, Singapore's Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts advised the magazine to seek legal redress [3] if it felt the Singaporean government has acted against the law. Just a day earlier, PM Lee had called for "responsible journalism" in his speech at the 7th Asian-European Editors' Forum [4]. While he did not name any publication, its timing appeared to be aimed at FEER and other publications who had previous clashes with the Singapore government.

Defamation judgment

On September 24, 2008, the High Court of Singapore, in a summary judgement by Justice Woo Bih Li, ruled that the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) magazine-Hugo Restall, editor, defamed Lee Kuan Yew and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The court found the 2006 article "Singapore's 'Martyr': Chee Soon Juan" meant that Lee Kuan Yew "has been running and continues to run Singapore in the same corrupt manner as Durai operated NKF and he has been using libel actions to suppress those who would question to avoid exposure of his corruption." FEER has 30 days to appeal. The court sentenced FEER publisher and editor, owned by Dow Jones & Company (in turn owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp), to pay damages to complainants.

Awards presented by FEER

The Young Inventors Awards (YIA) began in 2000, it was organized by Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) in association with Hewlett-Packard (HP). The purpose of the Awards program is to foster a spirit of scientific invention and innovation among students in the Asia-Pacific regions, including China, Philippines, Singapore, India and Australia. Students who win the award are socially recognized and financially supported for their outstanding efforts and projects. FEER's annual Asian Innovation Awards is associated with Global Entrepolise @ Singapore, which honors Asia's emerging Technopreneur. Candidates for this award are judged against their innovative proposal as well as technological and commercial potential.

See also

• Newspapers in Hong Kong
• Media of Hong Kong

External links

• Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER)
• Dow Jones & Company
• Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA)
• Salil Tripathi's website - a long-time writer for FEER from Singapore

References

• Columbia Journalism Review
• Telling Asia's Story By L. Gordon Crovitz

Other Economic and Financial Magazines :

• The Economist (經濟學人)
• Capital (資本雜誌)
• Business Week(商業周刊)
• Barron's Magazine

Translation:

• Pinyin translation by CozyChinese.COM