House News, a local pro-democracy news website and blog launched in 2012 (logo shown above), closed down without warning on Saturday afternoon. Visitors to their website now see a letter posted by one of House News’ founders, Tony Tsoi, and all of their content is no longer accessible.
Tsoi said that the current state of Hong Kong society and economy, which he believes are becoming more and more tense under pressure from Beijing, did not allow for the existence of House News. He said they were unable to attract advertisers despite an average of 300,000 unique visitors per month and did not break even a single month. Above all, living in fear for himself and his family proved to be unbearable for Tsoi.
Check out our translation of the announcement.
House News’ was never shy about its liberal leanings, having supported many protests like the ones against the proposed mandatory patriotic education, reports Quartz. Tsoi himself was an outspoken supporter of Occupy Central.
Tsoi, an author and successful businessman founded the website along with writer Leung Man Tao, columnist Gregory Sung, and Lau Sai Leung, a former member of the Central Policy Unit, which advises the Chief Executive, the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary on policy matters.
According to the SCMP, Leung said Tsoi was himself paying almost $600,000 a month to keep the website afloat, and he blamed their outspoken political views, for detracting advertisers.
