Easy Finder
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Easy Finder: issue no. 613
Easy Finder: issue no.613</div>
Easy Finder (壹本便利) is a Chinese weekly magazine which was first published on September 13, 1991 in Hong Kong. It is one of the magazines published by Next Media Limited which is owned by Jimmy Lai.
At the very beginning, Easy Finder was a free extra booklet of Next Magazine which mainly provides information on new products. There were a section of job vacancy ads (青雲路) and a section of classified ads. The name of the magazine gives hints that it is originally more an information guide than a normal magazine. It became a separate magazine in 1992. The target readership of Easy Finder is the youth and students. The current price of Easy Finder is HK$12. New issue is out every Wednesday.
There are now twelve sections in Easy Finder:
- Ji Zone (激 Zone) (hot gossips)
- Easy Girl (pin-up girls, Models)
- Manhuazuo (漫動作) (comics news)
- Qingyunlu (青雲路) (careers, success stories)
- Touwenzi Evolution (頭文字Evolution) (cars, motors)
- Yuletian (娛樂天) (showbiz)
- Chaoliu Wucun (潮流屋村) (fashion, trends)
- Digi Finder (Digital products)
- Xinli Ceyan (心理測驗) (personality test)
- Zhan Me Life (占 Me Life) (horoscope)
- Bianli Bojing (便利波經) (soccer betting)
- Bianli Zhuweng Guangchang (便利諸嗡廣場) (reader's forum)
Apart from Easy Finder, two additional publications (Eat and Travel Weekly (飲食男女) and Trading Express/Auto Express) (交易通/搵車快線) are included free of charge. Those three booklets cover the latest trends, for instance, fashion, hot gossip, horoscopes, food, fitness, etc. The average net circulation per issue reached 118,720 (April 1 - June 30, 2003) according to Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations.
In order to attract teenage readers, this magazine uses a lot of Cantonese colloquial words which are very popular in leisure magazines in Hong Kong. Recent examples are "潮" (fashionable) and "界" (to court someone). The use of colloquial Cantonese words, however, does not comply to traditional or 'correct' written Chinese grammar.
Easy Finder maintains a heavy coverage of entaintment news. Since teenagers in Hong Kong are interested in local entertainment and show business, Easy Finder puts a lot of emphasis on enteraintment news. Even when some of the reports are just rumours without solidity, they still appear on the cover if they are attractive and sensational enough.
Easy Finder is a market-oriented publication which tries to supply for what it perceives to be what young people desire. Images of sexy or even half-naked models appear on the cover. It covers a lot of sensitive topics such as sex, drugs, and even suicide. Reports on crimes such as murder and prostitution are often seen in this magazine. Such negative but shocking topics are the selling points of this magazine and these have undoubtedly attracted young readers.
However, it has also raised strong argument among the society. Many people claim that such awful and sexual pictures and topics will bring serious and harmful effects to the teenagers. This makes Easy Finder the most controversial magazine in Hong Kong. A lot of people do not accept the magazine, but the circulation stands. For instance, as a protest to its sex-related articles in the booklet of “情人節浪漫手冊” included in volume 366, Rev. Lo Sek Wai (羅錫為牧師), the chief board member of Goodnews Communication International Ltd(福音傳播中心), urged for a boycott of Easy Finder and made a complaint to the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority.
On June 25, 2002, Easy Finder was prosecuted by the Obscene Article Tribunal under Section 24 of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance for publishing a picture of a naked girl in issue 570 without adding warning on the frontpage. The article's heading was "Cover Girl - tattoo at least once regardless of age" (Cover Girl - 幾大都要紋一次) and it was classified as class II article (indecent article). Easy Finder was eventually fined $10,000 and has accumulated 12 criminal records of the similar cases (as of July 25, 2003). As a result, Hong Kong Public Library ceased its subscription to the magazine in March 2003.
Easy Finder published a study guide in 2003 for F.5 students to prepare for HKCEE. It was found that that book was plagiarized from another book published by ‘Hong Kong Exam and Research’. The content is 90% similar.
Now, Easy Finder is a magazine that publishes both paper version and electronic version (which is under atnext.com). In the electronic version, subscribers have access to not only the latest issue but also previous issues up to Issue 479 (02-04-2001) in archives. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) format is also downloadable. People who are not ISP users can also read Easy Finder and other publications by Next Media on the Internet. Fees can be checked in the website.
Easy Finder can also be used as a tool of promotion. There are many advertisements, especially fitness commercials in this magazine. If people want to put some advertisements on Easy Finder, they can call (852)2990 7018.
External links
- Easy Finder (http://easyfinder.atnext.com/template/ef/front.cfm)
- Internet Format (http://payment.atnext.com/sm/new_sub/hk.cfm)
- PDA Format (http://atnext.com/pda/)
- Hong Kong Audit Bureau of Circulations (http://www.hkabc.com.hk)
- Hong Kong Exam and Research (http://www.hker.com.hk/main/main_frame.htm)
- Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (http://www.info.gov.hk/tela/)
- Goodnews Communication International Ltd (http://www.gnci.org.hk/)zh-tw:壹本便利