Sing Tao group customarily presents long-service awards to staff members at its anniversary celebrations in August.

Sing Tao Daily was founded nearly 80 years ago, so naturally it has many employees that have been with the company for decades.

Among those receiving the awards this year are colleagues who have worked for the newspaper for more than 30 years, with one for half a century.

Among the recipients who have worked closely with me in the editorial department are chief executive Chui Kwok-choi and Headline Daily assistant chief editor Carmen Hsu Hiu-yee.

Executive chief editor was the position I took up when I first joined Sing Tao Daily. Chui was at the time also in senior management. He is friendly and well trusted by colleagues and was the best person to provide guidance in the paper's revamping exercise.

Sing Tao has always been outstanding in real estate news coverage, and one new objective of the revamp is to increase exclusive news items.

At the time, the head of the court beat was emigrating, and recommended Hsu, who was described as highly capable, as successor. After taking up the position, Hsu broke many exclusive stories, and often won news awards too. When Headline Daily was established, she accepted the management's request for her to transfer to the new free paper. The group started to develop online news and Hsu continues to provide timely news leads.

A colleague who's been with us for half a century is head of the proofreading section Woo King-chung.

Woo joined soon after the 1967 riots, and recalled that the chief editor back then was Cheng Yuk-long, who wore a big beard that resembled that of famous ancient Chinese general Guan Yunchang.

Woo said it was easier to reduce mistakes in those days as proofreaders had hard copies of news reports filed by reporters to check against.

A video of Woo's speech has been uploaded on my Facebook.

Siu Sai-wo is publisher of Sing Tao Daily