Network, November 1998, Vol. 9, No. 1

-7 42 i'J 14~A/F () , - Chinese Oi Network is published periodically press: by the East-West Center Media Program for Jefferson Fellows and other print and broadcast journalists the to market interested 111 issues anU LienU 111 U1 way By Chen Zhenping Asia-Pacific community Managing News Editor Volume 9 " Number 1 Jiefang Daily, Shanghai November 1998 Jefferson Fellow 1998 " efore 1979, we in China saw the press - as the tool of the rather INSIDE proletariat than a commodity. The main function of the to Soviet Find other Fellows on new press, according journalism was the of the Web site 2 theory, to publicize policies Communist Party and organize the people. Applications open for 1999 Newspaper and radio did not carry any ads, Jefferson Fellows 3 and their operations were subsidized by the government. Subscriptions were paid mostly Gennadi Gerasimov on the by the party or government departments. new Russian media 4 People were required to read newspapers for "political study." There was no competition in "Asian values": Is the game the press, and journalists did not need to con- over? 5 Caricature by Yousef S. Khudari sider the market. in China have Chen EWC media programs are Since the 1980s, newspapers Zhenping active in Asia 6 grown from 186 to 2,202. They are divided one million. But in the past 18 years, the pop- into three kinds: ulation of Shanghai has grown from 10 mil- Ellen Goodman is named The official of the newspapers lion to 13 million, while the circulation of the Fellow 7 Chaplin Communist Party newspaper dropped to a half-million. There - weekend Popular newspapers (evening, are reasons: the of television; 30th anniversary marked by many challenge and metropolitan) Jefferson Fellows 7 newly established newspapers that broaden - Service newspapers with little or no the market; work units cutting down subscrip- hard news Charles Morrison named to (television guides, shopping guides, tions for financial reasons; the decline of head EWC 8 etc.) "political study" in the units. Most of them, even the party newspapers, But the main reason, is Thin for undoubtedly, pickings foreign support themselves primarily by ads, while the gap between the party newspapers and the news in U.S. media 9 fewer and fewer of them subscriptions at get market. public expense. Readers have a lot of choices. Latest updates on former Consequently, journalists must now consider Jeffs and friends 10-12 now a the market. Advertising major player In recent years, the news media have Now, it could be said that the Chinese become one of the richest industries in the is on the to market. This is a way press way with more than 90 of their The U.S. congress established the country, percent of exploration, a way of press reform. East-West Center in 1960 to foster revenues coming from advertising. mutual understanding and coopera- Newspapers are rearranging pages or sec- Circulation in transition tion among the governments and tions to attract ads. To some extent, whether a of the Asia-Pacific Before 1979, almost all work units in peoples region, page or a section is extended or cut depends subscribed to The including the United States, through China party newspapers. on the amount of ads which, in turn, are research, education and circulation of the cooperative government newspaper hoped to attract reader interest. dialogue. for once reached Jiefang Daily, example, The competition for ads has become very ' 2 " Network " November 1998 newspapers have started new papers, Uneven progress mostly called "dushi" or "metropolitan" newspapers, using different styles to Find other China's media attract more readers. There are 23 metro- by in the so far. politan newspapers country Fellows on From previous page Challenges Facing Newspapers since more and more media have tough Newspapers in China are faced with entered the news market. One conse- Web site following problems: is that the distinctions between - quence Too many newspapers, but low cir- - news and ads, and at another level, culation. Being a Jefferson Fellow has taken on between and ad - - journalists salespeople Service newspapers are thriving, but a new dimension with the creation of a are blurred. A campaign is underway to traditional newspapers are weak. site on the World Wide Web listing names eliminate "paid news' the attempt by - Successful publishing relies on the and contact information for Jeffs world- some companies to give journalists gifts marketplace, but news reporting is mostly wide. or money to write favorable stories about controlled by the official planning. The site allows the journalists to use their company. - Work unit subscriptions have computers to access the Internet to find peaked, but individual subscriptions are News meets market demands Jefferson Fellows based on current coun- still limited. For individual sub- example, of residence. The URL address for the For a long time, the news media in try scriptions of Jiefang Daily are only 10 China followed the Soviet model of jour- site is: percent of the total subscriptions. nalism, which was almost one-way com- http:llwww.missouri.edu/ The first of edi- munication. responsibility The Chinese newspapers are faced with .-c696945/jeffs.html tors was to the government, while the following challenges: Webmaster of the site is 1985 Jefferson demands of the readers were to -How to handle the rela- relegated correctly Fellow Rich Somerville, who is finishing a secondary position. tionship with officials so as to solve the work on a PhD at the University of Now we are on the of reform, but contradictions between the market and way Missouri School of Journalism. the progress is uneven. government control. One in such a - difficulty maintaining Evening newspapers are well-received How to eliminate "paid news." more soft news and - list is that journalists often move and because they carry How to appeal to young readers, closer to the interests of ordi- change jobs. Please take a few minutes to information while keeping old readers. send information about nary readers. In most provinces or cities, updated yourself they challenge the party newspapers. to Media Program Director Web Nolan via A long way to go Service newspapers also have devel- e-mail at [email protected], or In China, a newspaper house is a oped quickly since 1990s. They provide department of the party or government. regular mail: East-West Center Media news and information of practical use. For Some newspapers in Guangzhou, Beijing Program Media Program, 1777 East-West example, Jiefang Daily has an affiliate, and are now Shanghai experimenting by Road, Honolulu, HI 96848. By phone it's Shanghai limes, that carries information news and forming groups exploring press (808) 944-7199, and the fax is (808) 944- aboutjobs, shopping, the stock market, reform. 7970. the real estate market, and even etc., The purpose of forming news groups blind dates. It started Include your current position, contact arranges publishing is to improve and control the quality of in of this and has a information at work and home, and your January year already newspapers by merging small newspapers circulation of 200,000. e-mail address if have one -even and strengthening the major newspapers, you have been thriv- Weekend newspapers and to raise working and profit efficiency the site of your Web page. since the weekend was insti- ing two-day by saving resources, equipment and pub- As more Jefferson Fellows get online tuted and have a little more time to costs. people lishing worldwide, the potential exists to make read. As an rather than a enterprise govern- the Web site even more useful, such as Some party newspapers are reforming ment department, a news group can including articles written by Jeffs, tran- their style to adapt to the market. The change its organizational structure to suit scripts of EWC media conferences, and party newspapers in Guangdong province, the market economy. even discussion Write to Web Nanfang Daily and Guangzhou Daily, for The news industry in China is chang- groups. example, compete with the well-known ing, but we have a long way to go. It's not Nolan with your thoughts about how a Yangcheng Evening News. Some party easy, but we should carry on. Jeffs web site could be useful to you. Network " November 1998 " 3 Applications open for 1999 Jeffs (Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong). editor, Jiefang Daily, Shanghai. - Center will try At most of their stops, the journalists Ruriko Hatano, staff writer and edi- spent time with Jeffs from previous years. tor, Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo. - 3-week program Individually, the fellows visited such Supara Janchitfah, reporter/writer, places as the Fairbank Center at Harvard Bangkok Post. The East-West Center is now accepting - and China Studies Program at the Steven Scher, public affairs direc- applications for the 1999 Jefferson of USA and University Michigan, Today tor/senior producer, KUOW public radio, Fellowships, which will run from May 3 the American Press Institute in Virginia, Seattle. to May 23. The deadline for filing appli- the of Missouri School of - cations is Friday, Jan. 15, 1999. University Nasir Tamara Tamimi, deputy chief Journalism, CNN Atlanta and Savannah, editor, Jakarta. Traditionally, the fellowship has been Daily Republika, Yosemite National Park and Boulder - Michael editor, an eight-week program. In 1999, taking Taylor, Dam, and the new Getty museum in Los East Asia into consideration the busy schedules of Congressional Quarterly's Angeles. mid-career journalists, the Center will Report, Washington, D.C. Asia, the Jeffs went to In individually -Alex Tizon, experiment with a - - three-week format - - - - - - - - - - -' staff writer/reporter, Seattle Times. in the hope that the -Elizabeth shorter period will Van enable more jour- Dyke, assign- ment editor, CNN nalists to apply.

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