Plenty of western magazines and newspapers have hit the skids or even gone bust in recent years, victims of declining print advertising revenues in an increasingly internet-oriented world. Think of bankrupt Newsweek magazine, famously sold for $1.
Until recently, Chinese media companies were blissfully isolated from these trends, buoyed by a bullish economy and the relative novelty of consumer-oriented media in a sector long dominated by dowdy state mouthpieces.
No longer. As the Chinese economy slows and the online population expands, media malaise is now moving east. One company grappling with the changes is Modern Media Group, a Hong Kong-listed magazine publisher.