Tom Hilditch (born 1965 in United Kingdom) is a journalist and magazine publisher based in Hong Kong.
He grew up in Warwickshire, England and was educated at Princethorpe College and Manchester University. He began his career as a trainee reporter at The Rugby Advertiser in 1987, before working for Fleet Street News Agency and The Sun newspaper in 1989.
In 1997, as UK editor-in-chief of Penthouse Magazine he oversaw an attempt to rebrand the magazine as PH.UK and reposition it as a middle-shelf "adult magazine for grown-ups". Fashion photographers from The Face and Vogue Magazine, such as Corinne Day, [1] [2] Iain McKell and Ben Westwood, were hired to provide images. The attempt, which generated considerable media interest at the time, failed. [3]
Hilditch returned to Asia in 1998. His writing was sometimes controversial,. [4] His longform investigations into the plight of the Thai Elephant, The Hello Kitty Murders, methamphetamine abuse and other topics have been widely published in magazines including British Esquire , The Sunday Times , GQ , Maxim , Marie Claire , The Independent on Sunday , Stern , US Playboy and Asiaweek .
From 2004 to 2008, he was Group Editorial Director of Asia City Publishing which produces free listings magazines HK Magazine , Where Hong Kong, Where Macau, as well as several books and guides. In 2004, in collaboration with publisher Stephen Freeman, he conceived and launched The List Magazine, a resource magazine for Hong Kong people. During a holiday break in 2007, he reported eye-witness accounts of the Burmese Saffron Revolution [5] and its brutal crackdown. Hilditch resigned from Asia City Publishing shortly afterwards. [6] The following year he founded the media company that became Hong Kong Living Ltd [7] which publishes a number of books and lifestyle magazines including Hong Kong Island Magazine, [8] [9] Sai Kung & Clearwater Bay Magazine, Expat Parent Magazine, Mid Levels Magazine and Southside & The Peak Magazine [10]
In March 2019, he co-launched a controversial campaign to lobby the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong to drop its anti-harassment policy citing free speech. [11]