Today's China Daily

Media - More boredom from the China Daily

Just to be sure I had a peek at the headline at the opening of the China Daily today: China gains ground on UN list of developed nations. Not so much has changed here.
Interfax reported that the China Daily is going to expand the number of editions, one for Shanghai and one for East China. That means that the Shanghai Daily, just marginally less boring than the China Daily, will have direct competition. While initially financially struggling when it was established in 1999, the commercial success of the Shanghai Daily has become much larger after the state-owned publishing house Jiefang Daily, outsourced the advertissement department a few years ago. It is not clear whether it can make ends meet, but expected is that the flagship of Shanghai Municipality is still heavily subsidized by its publishing house.
A source from the China Daily actually quotes the lack of commercial success by the Shanghai Daily as a reason to enter the Shanghai English-language market. To be honest, I have heard better excuses than that.
The Shanghai Daily has just revamped its website, making it more attractive for the internet age, although both papers seem to be missing the most important messages from that internet age, where the People's Daily is much more active, for example with a popular BBS.
Increasing competition seems a good idea, although when disseminating information is more important than making money, more attention for its online section would anyway be more appropriate in a time when putting ink on dead trees is getting out of fashion.