In stark contrast to developed economies, where the printing of words on dead wood is a sunset industry and print journalists are a dying breed, the Chinese newspaper industry is in rude health.
Total newspaper circulation in China in 2010 was expected to rise 14 per cent from the year earlier to more than 50bn – the highest in the world – according to figures from the General Administration of Press and Publication. That contrasted with a slight decrease in newspaper circulation in Britain and a five per cent drop in the US between March 2010 and September 2010, the Chinese state media reported.
Strong growth in the domestic market is helping state-controlled publications expand overseas as part of an official Chinese Communist Party propaganda campaign to improve its image abroad and boost the country’s “soft power”.