THE NEWSROOM OF THE FUTURE

Abstract

This study uses four news organizations and their online services based in Beijing to identify newsroom convergence models in China. It finds that there is a gulf between central-level and local news sites' convergence efforts. At the macro level are policy barriers such as TV licensing, licensing to distribute news on the Web and the issuance of press cards. At the meso level, the websites have five main revenue streams: state subsidy, advertising, wireless value-added services, sales of data and website construction. State subsidy is only available to key state news sites like Xinhuanet and Peoplesnet. These central-level sites can afford to experiment with multiplatform and multimedia services as well as original products and services. By contrast, local news sites struggle to stay in the market and their strategies focus on providing local news and information while forging strategic partnerships with big businesses to sustain their advertising platform.

Keywords:

• business model
• China
• convergence
• newsroom
• policy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China for its project funding. She also thanks Stephen Quinn and Andrew McEwen for their help with the editing.