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Highbrow magazines hit a low
By Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-12 08:27 "We want our stories to attract not only intellectuals but also college
students and blue-collars," Huang Yuhai, president of the board of Jiu Jiu
Reading who recently became Book Town's managing editor, told China Reading
Weekly.
"Instead of entertaining a small section of society as it used to
be, the magazine is trying to cater to mainstream readers."
The attempt
of Book Town to cater to all sections of society has been regarded as a bold,
even outrageous, effort to overcome its financial difficulties. And some loyal
readers are unhappy.
"Our Book Town is dead. It is just another magazine
bearing the old name," an Internet forum poster named Daniel said at www.douban.com, a website of book lovers.
His walk to a bookstore in heavy rain to buy a new issue of the magazine was
not worth it, he said.
Market view
As Book Town struggles, China's
publishing industry in general has been thriving in the past
decade.
Since 2001, about 220,000 new books and magazines have been
pouring into the market each year, according to Jin Lihong, president of
Changjiang Arts and Literature Publishing Co Ltd in Beijing, one of China's most
successful publishers.
And despite a fiercely competitive market, a dozen
new magazines that have targeted young professionals have been successful. With
a few high-profile regular advertisers, their circulation more than triples that
of the old "intellectual magazines."
"Like Book Town and Panorama
Monthly, we also have intellectuals at the core of our readership, although we
don't call ourselves an intellectual magazine," said Zhu, of Sanlian
Lifeweek.
Caijing, one of China's most respected business magazines, is
known for its occasional crusading articles. Others are China News Weekly, New
Weekly, Phoenix Weekly and a few others.
Compared with the previous
intellectual magazines, the new ones focus more on in-depth reporting and
commenting on current events. Sanlian Lifeweek, for example, devotes half of its
pages to a current event in each issue and contributes the rest of its pages to
music, art, fashion and columns.
"My magazine is modelled after Time
magazine in the United States, but it is more cultural," said Zhu, who added he
has been adjusting the content to cater to the changing tastes of young
professionals.
Until 2000, intellectuals of the new generation were
concerned about politics, and editors at the magazine always chose important
political or social events to be the cover story topics. Since then, readers'
interest seems to have shifted to lifestyles. Now it seems to be going
back.
"There is some new change now," Zhu said. "Readers dictate a
growing demand for profound thinking on current events." So, he is adding
commentary in stories and putting more emphasis on columns.
The bottom
line is that even a well-established magazine needs to change to give its
readers what it wants a lesson the old "intellectual magazines" didn't
learn.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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