House News founder Tony Tsoi said Hong Kong had changed so much and it had become difficult for the website to be a normal news medium. Photo: thehousenews.com, HKEJ
House News founder blames pressure for shutdown
House News, a two-year-old Hong Kong website critical of China, has closed, according to an official Facebook post.
On Saturday, all content had been deleted from the website, except for an announcement from founder Tony Tsoi, giving the reasons for its closure.
Tsoi said it had become “very difficult” to operate a normal news medium in Hong Kong as it had “changed so much”.
Also, he said he and his family had experienced political pressure, especially when crossing the border.
House News had 300,000 unique visitors last month but advertising had not kept pace and the website had not achieved break-even, Tsoi said.
However, the announcement did not say whether the business was in financial trouble.
House News was launched on July 6, 2012 on Facebook and went live on July 28, one day before a mass protest against China’s plan to launch a national education curriculum in Hong Kong.
The website featured columnists, bloggers and original content on politics, lifestyle, culture, business, nature and technology complemented by curated news.
It was founded by Tsoi and three others — journalist and former member of the government’s Central Policy Unit Lau Sai-leung, Hong Kong writer and critic Leung Man-tao and columnist and aNobii founder Greg Sung.
– Contact us at english@hkej.com
AC/RA
