Wired News debuts feature on Hong Kong; popular online news service publishes special report on historic transition

Business Wire, June 12, 1997

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12, 1997--Wired News (www.wired.com), the online news service of Wired Digital Inc., today announced that beginning Thursday, June 12, the service will debut a special feature chronicling Hong Kong's shift from a British-ruled colony to a sovereign region of the People's Republic of China.

Wired News' coverage, entitled "HK '97: Transition," will consist of a series of stories written by correspondents from Hong Kong, each addressing different aspects of the changeover. The first story in the series discusses Hong Kong's "divided mind," and the co-existence of both optimism and resignation in the words of many who walk the streets of this city. The next story will follow on Thursday, June 19.

"Being on the scene for one of the most important socio/political occurrences in the second half of this century is crucial for any news service," said Dan Brekke, Politics Editor for Wired News. "With Wired News, we have a unique responsibility to detect, analyze and report the 'wired' undercurrent in a story such as this one, and we are sitting at the correct spot to do that."

As China wraps up its preparations to take control of Hong Kong from Britain, Wired News will feature daily countdown reports focusing on how the new order of things will affect culture, politics and technology in Hong Kong and China. Issues that will be covered include how Hong Kong's position as a growing center of Net culture will change, whether the city will continue to serve as a haven for political and cultural dissidents, and whether Hong Kong will accelerate China's push to become a high technology star. The daily coverage will run from June 23 through July 1, the official transition date.

In conjunction with the HK '97: Transition series, Wired News has partnered with Channel A, a U.S.-based Internet gateway to Asia for Americans, to provide the backbone server technology for a live audio feed of bi-lingual radio coverage from RTHK, Hong Kong's government radio station, FM104. The Channel A/Wired News site at (http://www.channela.com/hk97/audio/sounds_index.html) will feature a 24-hour audio stream of FM104's coverage of events on the handover day beginning at 8 p.m. PDT, June 29. A sampling of Hong Kong radio programs, refreshed weekly, will be available on the site starting 12 June.

About Wired News

Targeted at a global readership, Wired News delivers an insider's informed perspective on how technology affects business, culture, and politics in the emerging digital world. Wired News is a service of Wired Digital Inc., the online media division of Wired Ventures Inc., the publisher of Wired magazine. Wired News is available directly via the Web, the PointCast Network, Netscape In-Box Direct, and other channels.

About Wired Digital Inc.

Wired Digital is the online media division of Wired Ventures, Inc., the publisher of Wired magazine. Wired Digital is comprised of HotWired (www.hotwired.com), the award-winning Web site; Wired News (www.wired.com), the premier news service for reporting the latest developments in the digital world; and HotBot (www.hotbot.com), the Web's largest and freshest search engine.

CONTACT: Wired News

Nicol Davis, 415/276 8594

nicol@wired.com