Club Lunch Panel: A Conversation with Jimmy Lai, Founder and Chairman, Next Digital

If anyone is qualified to talk about Hong Kong and its media and its politics, it is Jimmy Lai, the tycoon who founded the best-selling Apple Daily in 1995 and still makes headlines himself with his vocal backing for the city’s pro-democracy supporters and his opposition to China’s Communist Party.

In an open discussion with the audience, Jimmy touched on a wide range of issues, from his own take on the challenges facing media businesses to his views on the future of Hong Kong.

Jimmy Lai is the founder and chairman of Hong Kong-listed Next Digital, publisher of Apple Daily and Next Magazine. The Guangdong native was smuggled to Hong Kong aged 12 and from a start making gloves, he became a factory owner by 26. After founding fashion chain Giordano in the 1980s, he moved into media following the events of the Spring of 1989 in Beijing, launching first Next, which fast became Hong Kong’s premier weekly magazine, and then Apple Daily.