Yahoo Hong Kong is winding down its news and media content business from April, marking the end of more than two decades of local operations, in the latest blow to the press in the city.
The company said that it will “begin a phased wind-down” of its media content operations in Hong Kong, “with completion targeted for later this year, reflecting ongoing adjustments across our global business in line with long-term priorities”.
Most full-time newsroom employees, including editorial and sales staff, are expected to be laid off by 31 March, with only a small team retained to oversee the transition.
The division currently employs around 30-40 staff, with headcount set to be reduced significantly.
The decision was delivered during a morning meeting on Tuesday which also included the US management, reported Hong Kong Free Press, citing an unnamed employee.
The company’s PR firm Above The Line has denied that the decision to suspend operations was linked to the political atmosphere in Hong Kong.
During the transition period, third-party content providers are expected to continue supplying material, while a reduced team maintains the homepage until operations are fully wound down.
The wind-down will affect services including Yahoo News and its financial news offerings. However, core products such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search will continue to operate in the market.
Yahoo Hong Kong began its operation in 1999. It initially relied on sourcing content from other outlets by re-uploading articles from various websites but in 2021, it began focusing on original reporting.
According to the Reuters Institute, its weekly reach was only third to TVB and HK01.
The Independent has reached out to the Yahoo Hong Kong’s PR firm for a comment.
The move is likely to intensify concerns about the state of press freedom in Hong Kong where journalists have been navigating a narrowing space in recent years amid Beijing’s crackdown on dissent following massive anti-government protests that rocked the city in 2019.
In recent years, several independent outlets have shut down, been raided, and journalists have faced legal pressures, and newsrooms have adopted more cautious editorial lines.
Earlier this year, Jimmy Lai, the founder of now-defunct Apple Daily was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison, the longest jail term so far under the Beijing-imposed national security law.
While Yahoo’s decision has been framed as a commercial one, its exit from original news production adds to a broader pattern of international and local media scaling back operations, underscoring growing constraints on the city’s press environment.
Hong Kong was ranked 140 out of 180 territories in Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index, down from 80 in 2021, with its press freedom situation listed as “very serious” for the first time.
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