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China Daily to launch weekly in Zhejiang
By Zhao Huanxin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-15 23:30
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HANGZHOU — An English-language weekly run by China Daily and Zhejiang Daily Press Group will debut in the second half of this year to serve readers in one of the country's wealthiest provinces.
The launch of the weekly within several months is just part of collaborations under the strategic partnership the two sides forged in Zhejiang province on Thursday, according to Zhu Ling, editor-in-chief of China Daily.
"China Daily will cooperate with Zhejiang Daily Press Group in a number of areas, including publishing the English weekly, launching projects to better present Zhejiang to the world and training talent," Zhu said.
This is a win-win approach that helps China Daily take root and grow in Zhejiang, while lending impetus to Zhejiang media group's global ambitions, he said at a ceremony attended by executives of both newspaper groups in the provincial capital.
Gao Haihao, president and chairman of the board of the Zhejiang Daily Press Group, said traditional Chinese newspapers in Zhejiang found it imperative to adapt to the changes in the international media market.
One of China's top media organizations, the Zhejiang group owns 28 newspapers and magazines, an online news portal and a mobile newspaper. It is also active in real estate, high technology and capital investment.
However, the group has struggled to gain a foothold in the global market. While it has cooperated with Chinese newspapers in Europe and America, it has yet to carve its own distinct identity with mainstream readers in these markets, according to Gao.
He said he expected the partnership with China Daily to help make Zhejiang's voice better heard in the world.
With China's fourth largest economy, the province of Zhejiang and the media group are set to "go global", according to Zhejiang media group vice-president Zhu Yongliang.
The executive said that jointly launching the English weekly is just the first step to enhance the media group's global capacity.
By cooperating with China Daily, the Zhejiang Daily Press Group expects to resolve the bottlenecks in its "globalization" strategy — acquiring people with the right skill sets to operate media in foreign countries, he said.
The English weekly will be published with the media group's Qianjiang Evening News, the most popular newspaper in Zhejiang, which has a circulation of at least 1 million.
