China Herald: Print media heading for reform?

fast changing
via WikipediaAmy Gu - we do not hear enough from her - points at an interview with super censor Liu Binjie of the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP, the counterpart of the administration for audio-visual media SARFT), who pleads for reforms of China's media. Liu wants a reform similar to that of the Chinese banks, who changed from government counters for handing out money into rather solid, well-operated banks with an increasing global reach.

If what Liu said is true, the impact will be huge on the media industry. For example, the newspaper industry in China prints over 44 billion pieces of newspaper every year; if each piece costs an average 2 rmb, it's gonna be a US$12 billion industry just by selling newspaper, not to mention advertising and so on.

Liu wants to get private capital into the Chinese media, now officially a no-no, although creative minds have found some ways into the government-ruled media.
Amy Gu wonders why foreign media have missed this interview in the Southern Weekly. Me too. It is obvious that Liu Binjie is testing the domestic waters here, to see how fast his idea might get killed. But it is most certainly an important direction that is being suggested.

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China's media are changing very fast, and might go even faster. At the China Speakers Bureau we are happy to have leading voices on China's media. If you are interested in having them at your conference, board meeting or pa