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FT to launch magazine in China before Olympics

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-22 14:23

Britain's Financial Times Group said it aimed to launch its first Chinese-language magazine ahead of the Summer Olympics in Beijing to target China's increasingly affluent professionals.

The magazine would be the first in China to be published in Chinese by a wholly foreign-owned company instead of as a joint venture with Chinese investment, sources briefed on the matter said. English-language magazines such as Time magazine and the Economist can be sold and distributed through government-designated channels for import.

If successful, the new monthly magazine would be a coup for the Financial Times and its London-based parent, Pearson Plc, which compete with News Corp and its The Wall Street Journal in China.

Called "Rui" -- the Chinese word for intelligence -- the magazine will have original content about wealth management and the lifestyle of China's growing business ranks, as well as stories translated from FT publications such as FT Wealth, an English-language quarterly supplement relaunched this year.

"We plan to launch a Chinese language magazine under the FT brand aimed at China's growing business elite," FT Asia spokeswoman Azmar Sukandar confirmed.

"We are currently finalizing details, including a launch date," she said.

Rui will not be printed in the Chinese mainland, possibly in Hong Kong. The FT said it was in the process of obtaining approval from Chinese authorities to distribute the monthly in China.

The FT logo would be printed on the cover of Rui to boost the publisher's presence in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy. A proposed English name for the magazine is "FT Wealth China," but no decision has been made, the sources said.

Western magazines in China, such as Forbes and Elle, have formed joint ventures with Chinese companies in the past. But the FT has no plans to do so, and instead will run Rui as an "FT start-up," Sukandar said.

It is not clear whether the new magazine would be widely available or restricted to metropolitan hot spots, such as Beijing and Shanghai, she said.

"Over the past decade, China has allowed scores of foreign titles to be distributed," Sukandar said. "Our project falls within this well-established policy."

News Corp's Dow Jones & Co, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, had content-sharing cooperation with some Chinese magazines such as the influential Beijing-based Caijing, the sources said.

London-based Zhang Lifen, chief editor of FTChinese.com -- the Chinese-language online edition of the British business daily The Financial Times -- will oversee Rui, although its day-to-day editorial operation team will be based in Beijing.