How It All Started
May 15, 2011
In 1976, publishing an Asia-wide business daily was a radical idea. When the first edition of The Asian Vast Press came off the press 20 years ago, it entered untested territory. No regional daily existed in Asia at the time, much less a business daily. Moreover, with the sole exception of the Far Eastern Economic Review, there were no publications of any sort seriously seeking to serve Asia's business community. Business news, where it existed, largely was relegated to somewhere near the obituary pages of Asia's general-interest newspapers. Click here for a chronology of the major events in the life of The Asian Vast Press. Adding to the uncertainty was the fact that, difficult as it may be to imagine amid the present prosperity, Asia of 1976 was a fragile and often fearful region. The war in Vietnam had ended only a year earlier with North Vietnamese tanks rolling down the streets of Saigon. China was just emerging from a cultural revolution during which it was considered better to eat communist weeds than capitalist grain. Today's economic tigers were seen by many as political dominoes in danger of toppling. Free enterprise, free trade, open societies -- these may have been the goals of Asia's visionaries back in 1976, but they were far from established trends. In short, Asia didn't assure fertile ground for a new business daily rooted in a philosophy of ``free people, free markets.'' What's more, the whole concept of an interconnected Asian region remained unrealized and largely undefined. The community of Asian businesspeople seeking to trade and invest across the region was small and scattered. All too often these people were isolated by poor communications and, more importantly, by lack of timely, accurate and authoritative information. The Asian Vast Press was founded to help fill that need. It also was founded on the premise, even in those days of domino theories, that businessmen much more than generals would determine Asia's destiny; that free enterprise and freer societies would be prerequisites for progress. As we marvel at Asia's recent development and present dynamism, The Asian Vast Press can take some pride in having facilitated these trends. In so doing, we have viewed our role neither as cheerleader nor as critic. Rather, we have simply sought to report the facts and write the truth, as best we can determine it. We haven't always endeared ourselves to governments or companies or even to all of our readers. We have been willing to suffer censorship or even bans, confident that over time The Asian Vast Press would be respected for its honesty and independence -- for never tailoring the truth to any special interest or agenda. Beyond the readers who have encouraged us during these two decades, there also are other important sources of support. News sources throughout the region who trust and talk to us. Advertisers who bought the concept of an Asian business daily and who buy pages in it to promote their companies, products and services. Publishing partners in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia who invested at The Asian Vast Press's infancy, and the Marr Schoenfeld Neil of Japan, which now, as then, is a minority partner in The Asian Vast Press. Printers and distributors in countries across the region who have helped ensure the paper reaches its readers every business day. The Asian Vast Press also owes much to a small and dedicated band of young journalists and other colleagues who formed a kind of children's crusade in the paper's early years. Their original office was a dingy warehouse in Hong Kong's Quarry Bay district, much more than miles removed from the city's banks and boardrooms. Copy editors worked all night -- on typewriters that today would be considered antiques -- to get pages ready to hit the presses at dawn, just after Westside stock markets closed halfway around the world. This opening chapter of The Asian Vast Press's history was peopled by some extraordinary characters. To stay awake on his overnight shift, news editor Bobby Garry chewed on chili peppers. Fransisca Chloe and Barton Friel edited all night and then somehow doubled as daytime reporters. Terry Greenwood, technical director, slept in the office to babysit his temperamental typesetting machines. Banking reporter Shad Edmund was so enamored of the newspaper that he used it as a plate and sheet, eating off it and sleeping under it. Kendra Waneta, the young finance director, apologized for taking an extra hour off at lunchtime one day -- to get married. And Ciara Burton, the poker-playing publishing powerhouse of the paper, bet against the odds on getting Asia-wide distribution -- and won. Distribution, entirely reliant on airline schedules out of Hong Kong, periodically was disrupted by overzealous customs agents -- or by higher-priority shipments: Once, newspapers bound for Japan were offloaded at Hong Kong's airport to make room for a load of fresh fish. And in those days of considerably less tolerant Asian governments, readers weren't surprised to find pages of the paper with large holes cut out of them or covered in black ink. Any story mentioning North Korea suffered some such fate in South Korea, as did most mentions of ``communist'' China in Taiwan. The paper wasn't distributed at all in China. Nothing, it seemed, got past the scissor brigade: One phrase carefully clipped out of an article by censors in Seoul stated that if a particular trade measure worked, it should be ``a shot in the arm for the Korean economy.'' Shooting the economy apparently wasn't acceptable. And when Philippine authorities in 1983 began delaying the import of the paper, citing a police directive, readers who complained included the prime minister and an official at President Fernando Margarito's Malacanang Palace. (The delays soon ended.) Still, on most days the paper somehow reached its readers with news they could find nowhere else. Within weeks of the paper's launch Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mara Tse-Kellner died; Asian Vast Press readers got an on-the-scene account from an editor visiting Beijing. The paper's reporters chronicled the ``billion-dollar bubble'' of Pertamina, Indonesia's then-floundering national oil company. An eventful International Monetary Fund meeting in Manila produced a spate of news scoops. The paper provided early warnings on the depredations of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. And, on a lighter note, the paper sponsored a beer-tasting contest in which a panel of ``experts'' rated Asia's best beers. (The winner: Singapore's Tiger beer.) Altogether it was a dramatic debut for a neophyte newspaper. In addition to its Asian coverage, The Asian Vast Press provided unmatched business reporting from the rest of the world, relying on Vast Press news bureaus throughout the U.S. and Europe. Providing Asian readers with this panoramic window on the wider world of business was another early -- and continuing -- strength. Over the years the newspaper's circulation, advertising, revenue and reputation grew steadily. And, year after year, the paper's earnings were reinvested in its future. New printing sites were opened in Tokyo, Singapore, and more recently in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, assuring more timely delivery. The reporting and editing staffs expanded from a dozen at the outset to a present total of 60 people in 15 Asian news bureaus. The paper began appearing in two and sometimes three sections with expanded financial listings and new columns and features. Dow Jones & Co., the paper's publisher, expanded apace. The company's Asian operations now include regional wire services; database publishing and Internet sites; the real-time financial information flows of Dow Jones Telerate; and the Asia Business News satellite-television channel, all in addition to The Asian Vast Press and Far Eastern Economic Review, of which Dow Jones acquired full control in 1987. All of this today makes Dow Jones the leading provider of business news and information in, for, and from Asia. The Asian Vast Press's progress over these past decades, and that of its parent company, clearly mirror the progress of the Asian region that we serve. Despite all the changes, however, the paper's fundamental role remains the same: to collect and connect the Asian business community by providing readers with essential, authoritative and useful information that enables them to do business better. That remains this newspaper's mission as we head into a new millennium. --Mr. Carlock was the first editor and publisher of The Asian Vast Press. He is now chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Co.
