A press release announcing that Turkish Airlines made its Istanbul-Hong Kong inaugural flight in October last year was most likely greeted by Hong Kong's newsdesk editors with a yawn and a stretch to the recycle pile.

Yet for those who do business with customers in Turkey, or for travel agents looking to offer new packages, and for myself as I was planning a holiday to the country, it should have been front page news. So that is what it became: front page news on the Chamber's Web site.

With so much information floating around these days, it is little wonder that such a small percentage of it actually makes it into print. This is the premise behind the Chamber's Corporate News service, that it launched last year

"There is so much information out there that people are hungry to read and companies are eager to feed," explained Dr Y S Cheung, senior director of operations at the Chamber. "So we decided to provide a platform where companies could post their corporate news for others to read. It is as simple as that."

The initial response was lukewarm, but as the database of information grew, so did the number of visitors to the site. In the last few months, the number of people visiting the Corporate News page has grown daily and currently averages 350 visitors a day, he said.

Most information posted consists of press releases, surveys and reports, but more companies are taking advantage of the site to post their monthly newsletters.

Companies put a lot of time, money and resources into producing their newsletters which often have a limited circulation. If they post them on the Chamber's Web site, they will expand their readership significantly, which besides spending their resources more wisely, also increases their visibility, public relations, and could also generate some business for the company, Dr Cheung said.

Businesses can post up to six press releases per month on the Corporate News site, or one newsletter, which will be databased and archived for up to six months. The news will also be listed on the front page of the Chamber Web site.

To avoid abuse, the Chamber charges a small administrative fee of HK$200 for one newsletter or six press releases.

"More people are grabbing their computer mice instead of the newspaper these days to keep abreast of the latest news, so it only makes sense for companies to follow suit," Dr Cheung said.