The emergence of new media is threatening traditional media business stability, even in China.
For Chinese media, there has usually been no question about source of audience.
A population of more than 1.3 billion people and stringent government policies mean radio, newspapers and television remain important.
In fact in China, the government has a hand in nearly all media outlets operating radio, print or television, guaranteeing a further stability in the business sense of media management.
“The government is like the grandpa who makes rules for the family. It makes rules for family (civilians) and decides which computer games, social media and movies to watch,” Mr Zeng Qingjun, Vice-Manager of the China Broadcasting Network Corporation told a group of journalists last week on the reasons behind government presence in media operations.
“It is the Chinese culture which sometimes the Western world doesn’t understand.”
The Chinese may be criticised for this, but unlike most parts of the world media organisations here reap big revenues mostly from advertising.
At Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation in China’s old capital of Nanjing for example, success is evident.
Created in 2001, JSBC currently worth $2.2 billion (Sh220 billion) runs 16 television channels, 10 radio stations, a newspaper and a magazine.
This is besides content production, a web television portal, movie distribution business, and cable network as well as animation services.
JSBC claims it sells some of its produced content to media giants like Al-Jazeera, BBC, SONY, ITV and NBC.
“If you came here 20 years ago, you could see lots of foreigners doing filming. That is because we didn’t have technology,” Mr Ren Tong, JSBC’s head of international outreach arm told reporters on a tour of his organisation last week.
“Now because we have been investing a lot in it, those very people are asking us for help. They are now buying our films and documentaries.”
But even with these revenue streams, the emergence of new media is threatening that stability.
Some social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are blocked here. But Chinese youth are generally hooked to their smartphones.
The ordinary taxi driver looks at his phone every time he stops at traffic lights.
It is an addiction for watching news clips on the mobile on the road, in railway stations, checking links on popular Chinese social media site Weibo and sharing via WeChat.
So why would media organisations enjoying a kind of smooth-sailing invest in new media technologies?
“Influence of new media is affecting everyone and even the biggest media houses do not have adequate solutions,” said Ms He Keyi, JSBCs head of online content.
“New media has influenced traditional TV. Even if we don’t accept it, the global trend is that new media is growing, even in China. We have to put a lot of effort and innovation to bridge the gap.”
CONVERGENCE STRATEGY
JSBC employs about 600 journalists who must ensure a stable supply of news, and recruits 200 university graduates every year.
But as a motivation to keep up with new media, the company says it pays bonus to authors of every item that receives more clicks online.
This, the managers say, motivates reporters to be fully converged.
JSBC’s web presence receives more than 6 million views per day. This is no surprise given the population in China. But there must be something to hook them in.
JSBC says it provide every of its journalists with a smartphone and encourages creativity to pull in more clicks.
One recent news item received 1.7 billion views, the highest in the organisations online news history.
“We hope to boost interaction between users of new media and television. This already works mutually. Online team promotes broadcast content and vice versa,” Ms He added.
But even in this sophistication, will Chinese media publish traditional boring content or that which suits the users of new media?
JSBC strategy is to have what they call strong and appealing content, responding to demands of audience and working with internet service providers.
To make changes, JSBC says it studied media dynamics in the US where we found that newspapers were trying to survive by simply turning pages into electronic format.
“I think newspapers will forever remain relevant, but with new media, the newspaper form will change. Peoples reading habits still show they like the printed word,” Mr Ren said.
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