A search in www.sina.com.cn with the key Chinese words "newspaper and me"
turned out a list of 981,000 webpages in an instant.
Even though a majority of them had little information linking the newspaper
with a reader, there were some interesting experiences or observations.
Huang Chengsheng, a resident of Youjiang City, South China's Guangxi Zhuang
Autonomous Region, recalled with fond memories how his father insisted on
subscribing to the local Youjiang Daily newspaper more than 20 years ago.
It cost almost a third of his father's monthly salary - he was the only
teacher in a mountainous village in Youjiang - but the newspapers did open young
Huang's mind as a shepherd boy and helped lead him to a college education.
Many newspaper professionals share Huang's nostalgia, because Chinese
newspapers entered a golden age of development in the early 1980s, with the
country's reform and opening-up. Among the many events, China saw the birth of
its first national English-language newspaper on the mainland, China Daily, on
June 1, 1981.
However, the golden age began to lose its lustre last year as most media
experts termed 2005 a turning point for the newspaper industry.
Waves of growth
The early 1980s saw a "baby boom" of newspapers in the history of New China
after 1949, at a rate of one newspaper every 48 hours between 1980 and 1985,
according to a research team with the Institute of Media Research, Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences. In 1985, the number of registered newspapers on the
Chinese mainland reached 1,777.
The team's report showed that professional newspapers were multiplying to
offer coverage of specialized fields such as science and technology, economics,
accounting and business, education and legal affairs.
The fact reflected not only the economic boom in the country, but also the
national drive to improve socialist democracy and the legal system; and the
growing public need to catch up with scientific and technological advances.
According to Fang Hanqi, professor emeritus of Chinese media history at
Beijing-based Renmin University of China, the number of newspapers surged again
in the 1990s, as the country moved from a planned to a market economy.
It began with major national and provincial level newspapers publishing
expanded weekend sections with columns devoted to increased coverage of family
and society, culture and entertainment as well as sports.
Most regional newspapers changed their layout with bigger photos, more
coverage of people's daily lives and entertainment. Entering the new century,
most newspapers had already gone colour and become thicker, with more attractive
headlines, photos, news and information.
To attract more advertising, provincial level newspapers started metro
tabloids, which hit newsstands or were delivered to readers' homes by their own
teams in the morning.
The metro-tabloids targeted urbanites as their main readers. In contrast to
the established evening newspapers, these papers mainly covered events close to
the homes and neighbourhoods of the readers, while also providing practical and
service information.
Some metro papers, such as Nanfang Metro Daily in Guangzhou, even rose to
national fame for their scoops and in-depth stories on social issues. Others,
like the Beijing News, with an average of 75 tabloid pages, offer extensive
reviews and opinions.
Metro dailies filled the niche as the urban population grew and city
residents thirsted for information to improve their lives. The ever expanding
service sector also required media exposure and metro dailies with their more
intimate content seemed more suitable for their ads.
As a result, in those early years, almost every new metro daily succeeded in
its own market. By 2002, there were some 70 such newspapers across China.
In 2004, the number of national and provincial level newspapers rose to 1,922
dailies or weeklies, according to 2005 China Journalism Yearbook, and the
prefecture and county level newspapers numbered 858.
Along with the country's economic boom, the advertising revenue of the
newspaper industry as a whole registered an average of 30 per cent growth for
nearly 20 years.
Turning point
That momentum slowed in spring last year when almost all once-robust
newspapers began to experience a fall in their advertising revenue, at an
average of 15 per cent, according to Cui Baoguo, professor and director of the
media business and management research centre, School of Journalism and
Communication of Tsinghua University.
The analysis from sample surveys conducted by the Communication and Media
Management Research Institute of Renmin University of China last year revealed
that the actual advertising revenue of major newspaper groups fell by 10 to 30
per cent, with that of more than a few nose-diving by more than 40 per cent.
Economic performance is only one major indicator.
The Internet and blogs, as well as other multi-media, such as cellphones that
were beginning to carry news, seemed to lure readers away.
The time is past when people had to read newspapers to learn about events.
In fact, the Internet seems to offer whatever people need to read, hear and
watch from almost limitless sources, online newspapers included.
The number of newspaper readers has fallen continuously worldwide as well as
in China.
According to China Internet Network Information Centre, people under the age
of 30 accounted for 71 per cent of the 110 million Chinese netizens by December
last year. A majority of the netizens, about 67.9 per cent, said they went
online for news.
While the number of netizens grows, the major Internet portals are also
seeing their advertising sales rise. Last year, Sina and Sohu, two leading
Internet portals in China, registered increases in advertising sales of 43.9 per
cent and 65.5 per cent, respectively, over the previous year.
In contrast, the number of newspaper readers under the age of 30 fell by 27.8
per cent between 2001 and 2005, according to CTR, a market research group
belonging to China Central Television.
In another study, CTR researchers found that people spent some 40 minutes on
newspapers daily last year, but 48 minutes on the Internet. The average numbers
of newspapers people read also declined to about 1.4 copies per day.
However, the same study also showed that the readership for niche newspapers,
such as those in English, has remained steady. In fact, the number of China
Daily subscribers has been rising robustly over the past few years.
Looking ahead
Philip Meyer, a journalism professor atNorth Carolina State University,
predicted in his book, "The Vanishing Newspaper," that the newspaper would die
in April 2040. He came to his conclusion after he analyzed the ways, the time
and the media by which young consumers get news.
Newspaper professionals, as well as media researchers, are aware of the
prophecy, and are engaged in heated discussions to try to come up with
prescriptions to design a better future for newspapers.
The recommendations are various, from ways to raise the standard of
professionalism and restore or enhance public trust in newspapers, to branching
into multi-media to grow along with the new media.
In fact, many newspapers are attracting more readers to their online
editions, often from around the world, to bolster their traditional base of
subscribers.
These newspapers have not only improved their coverage of a broad range of
social issues at home and abroad but also have revamped their websites to offer
a whole spectrum of news, information and business services in multi-media
format.
For instance, www.chinadaily.com.cn enjoys about 6 million pageviews every
day.
Many readers respond to the news, opinion and the columnists' views on the
website.
According to Cui Baoguo, the catchphrases among newspaper publishers and
editors now are "turning digital" and "3-D management."
By turning digital, some newspapers have developed cellphone versions in
Guangzhou, Ningbo and Hangzhou.
Huaxi Metro, in co-operation with Sichuan Telecom, has a news broadcast via
the local mobile phone provider.
Cui said that these newspapers pay particular attention to where their core
readers live and work; their interests; and the effect of their advertising,
which help to improve their content and business.
Success goes to those who are best prepared, and that is true of newspapers
with a foresight.
Li Xing is the Features Editor
(China Daily 05/31/2006 page1)
