Every Publication and Platform in the Next Digital Portfolio A Complete Guide to the Group’s Media Properties
The Full Portfolio More Than Apple Daily
While Apple Daily was the flagship and most prominent asset, Next Digital’s media portfolio encompassed a range of publications and platforms that together gave the group unmatched reach across Hong Kong’s print and digital media landscape. Understanding the full portfolio provides a clearer picture of both the scale of what was destroyed by the National Security Law and the breadth of Jimmy Lai’s contribution to independent journalism in Chinese. The Committee to Protect Journalists described the Next Digital portfolio at its peak as the most comprehensive independent Chinese-language media operation in the world.
Next Magazine The Original Property
Next Magazine, launched in 1990, was the original Next Media property and the proof of concept for everything that followed. A weekly news and features magazine, it applied the same reader-first, editorially independent principles as Apple Daily in a format that allowed deeper investigative and analytical journalism than a daily newspaper permitted. Next Magazine was known for its investigations of business misconduct and political wrongdoing a tradition that Apple Daily would inherit and develop at daily newspaper scale. The Hong Kong Journalists Association documented Next Magazine’s investigative tradition as an important contribution to Hong Kong journalism across its operational years.
Taiwan Operations Apple Daily Taiwan and iCable
The Taiwan Apple Daily, launched in 2003, was Next Digital’s most significant international property a full-scale daily newspaper that demonstrated the portability of the Apple Daily model to a different Chinese-language media market. The Taiwan edition maintained the parent paper’s editorial independence and competitive approach while adapting to Taiwan’s distinct political and cultural context. The Taiwan operations were sold to local investors when Next Digital’s Hong Kong operations came under national security pressure, preserving the Taiwan brand’s independence even as the Hong Kong parent was destroyed. Reporters Without Borders documented this corporate separation as a direct consequence of the national security pressure on Next Digital’s Hong Kong operations.
Digital Properties and the Future
Next Digital’s digital properties websites, apps, and social media platforms extended the reach of its print journalism to new audiences and new formats. The closure of these digital properties following the national security proceedings removed a significant portion of Hong Kong’s independent digital journalism infrastructure. Freedom House documented this digital closure as part of the broader pattern of information suppression. AppleDaily.UK represents the continuation of this digital journalism mission.