HEADS PUBLISHING EMPIRE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300010037-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 27, 2006
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: September 8, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2006/11/27
SEJ) to : CIA-R 601314R0003000 03 2
Sally A.w Sian, the only lady publisher
In Hong;' fi ong, is the first woman in the.
%0-year history of the 1-11ternational Press
Institute to be elected its president--.
The IPI has a membership of 1,800
editors and publishers from 60 countries who
;Jealously guard the freedom of the press, try to
flea to it that the free .flow of news is not inter-
rupted by governments or anyone else and that
nrewsnlen are protected from censorship au;l.Ui)-
"y'l'e do a few other things,:' Miss Sian said
during a recent V AL here. "The Iustirute carries
on a tiallling program for news11 en in Lienya.
Iv e pay for that. And we run another one in
Nigeiia with a grant from the Ford Foundation.''
Plump, pleasant and proficient, Stir, Sian's
news empire consists of two h heath' l lgz rues,
the ?]nplisil language Tton ; Kong Standard and
two Chinese papers, the Sing Tao Jill Pao (ill-
Singapore Morning Daily), and the Sing Tao
'Pan Pao (The Singapore Afternoon Daily). her
Chinese papers have a combined circulation of
220,000, largest on the island.
The type for them is hand set, brut. the parses
are photographed, flown to Tnpei, the Philippines,
- San Francisco and New York and printed on off-
set presse ,
"It's two days late." )Ass. Sian admitted, "but
that doesn't really matter. In the past faire years
there's been a big influx of Hong Kong Chinese
into the States and they're hungry for ne.n-s from
back home and Southeast Asia and the mainland."
I:ter father who owned three pharmaceutical
hoirsds in hone Ron made his fortune with one
cure-all ointment, something like mc'ntholatnm,
called Tiger Kahn. Every Hong Kong resident
and tourist sooner or later says, "Lets go to the
Tiger Baler Gardens." They're the big lovely,
parks filled with fine sculpture founded by her
father and always foe to the public. He also
founded a chain of newspapers in Singapore,
Bangkok, Ala]ayasia and on mainland China be-
fore Tao tools her in 1949.
Miss Stan's brother piloting the family plane
to chisels on the paper in Malayas]a, crashed and
'was killed. Ile was 82 and the heir apparent.
ARE Be grief subsided her father asked his
(laughter: "Why not try the papers?"
She worked in every department; accounting',
't pC. (-(.6 (. (~_( c's,c; 1.Cr_s y..12
Sally a l,- Sian----A lwav s .plead of the Type
couldn't see a young woman as the big boss.
"But that's an ingrained attitude;" hiss Siail
exulaimd.- "You have to be patient. You cunt
change that. overnight."
In the 16 years that she's been a publisher,
she's earn,~id their respect by increasing the cir-
c,llation of the Chinese papers by almost 3015,
tripling -her classified ads and scoring, consistent
gams in display a.dvertisino She was the first
one to use offset presses in Ilodg Kong and made
nil her competitors follow suit. She makes at
least three trips a your to America, examining
new publishing methods, Erma special iks_
n to
computers. She's always ahead of the type,
Five years ago she conceived. the OR of an
American edition of her Chinese papers, started
the first in San Francisco and when it went well,
began the second in Nov York. In both editions"
she shrewdly added short fiction, entertainnient'
news and stock market quotations.
To are now the second largest Chinese papers
on the West and East Coasts." 3lis.. Flan said.
Tier New York circulation is 6,000; San b'rancisco,
b,000. The first Chinese paper is the United
Journal with 10,000. . ? )
In Rouge I:.ollg, where newspapers run polit.i-
calli' from extreme righLto the extreme.left and
include two Communist papers, Miss Sian is
fiercely independent. She scorched the Con:mu-
n:ists for inspiring the 1967 riots, which tools some
courage; and she criticized Chiang; Kai-shck for
Started her intensive apprenticeship her father "You might not that being so
died, A cousin tool; over'
ver the ph lluracentlcal Hong Hong is near a ~~owder l g," M to Sbu
housm, Miss Sian had to. run the ]a erg, said. "We're 1 {lss Sian
"I was fri i,tened. very frig htened" she said, sonde c.iimebut tnohiilfu con; tluielias re bdto rito t Ow eVe States. have
"tart
art I didn't have much; choice. v do not have tes.
leas 23. She was caught in a riptide of -adruave And pain of yhave the doub or
xesentnlelrb from sonic of the employes who blessingsloflwon en's bib,~ do not have the outfu]
Cv=. D rl
," ,, AC ' 7
Approved For Release 2006/11/27: CIA-RDP88-01314R000300010037-2