Digital publishing sees solid growth in 2012
The year 2012 has been an extraordinary year for China's press and publication industry. In this year, the world economy has been running at low level, technologies have changed dramatically, international tycoons have competed with one another fiercely, and there have been all kinds of industrial trends. These have all brought forth severe challenges for the reform and development of the press and publication industry. Reform produces innovations, and practice produces truth. In this year, China's press and publication industry has resisted severe pressure, made great efforts and innovations, taken solid steps forwards on the path of digitalization, industrialization, and internationalization, and entered an important strategic stage of its development.
Year of Deepening for digital publishing
On the morning of December 24 Beijing time, a piece of news once again got on people's nerves: America's renowned 80-year-old Newsweek announced that it would stop issuing its print magazine from December 31 on, and it would completely transformed to digital publishing.
This news from across the Pacific again made "digital publishing" a heatedly discussed topic. The year 2012, which has come to an end, has witnessed the thorough deepening of the digitalization of China's press and publication industry. After its incubation stage, the digital publication industry is taking shape.
As of the first half of 2012, major publishing corporations, who constitute the main force of China's publishing industry, had all established their digital media companies or digital publishing divisions. Their main concerns had also focused on such practical problems as how to forge core competitiveness, achieve sustained profitability, and promote reform of their corporations. China Publishing Group lists digitalization as one of the 6 major strategies of the development of the corporation, and promotes the construction of a comprehensive platform that is based on the group's advantageous resources and that integrates the collecting, spreading, trading, and service of open, internationalized and extensive contents; Phoenix Publishing and Media continues to make effort in digital contents and establish a professional content library that includes professional databases in such fields as primary and secondary school students textbook practices and traditional Chinese medicine.
In 2012, telecommunication operators, such as China Mobile and China Telecom, digital publishing platforms like 9yue.com, chineseall.com, and read.douban.com, and digital publishing service providers like Brainsoon, have all embraced distinctive growth models. Take chineseall.com for example. It practices a "quality" media digital publishing model and proposes to establish a complete industrial chain of "full-content, full-media, and full-channel" quality reading, extending its services to numerous fields including the internet, digital libraries, and mobile reading.
Year of Confidence in Going Abroad
In 2012, Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Overnight, Mo Yan's works became best sellers globally. This has greatly boosted the collective confidence of China's publishing industry. In 2012, in spite of such challenges as the import and export rights of books and copyright demand information, publishing corporations, publishing houses, copyright agents and other main participants have actively taken part in international competition. The pace of "going abroad" has accelerated continuously.
In the 64th Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012, China exported 2,409 items of copyrights. In this year's London Book Fair, China's publishing industry signed 1,859 agreements of copyrights export and cooperative publishing.
Besides "going abroad on borrowed ships", the press and publication industry has also improved its ability to "build ships to go abroad". In the 19th Beijing International Book Fair that concluded in September this year, 3,298 China-foreign copyrights trade agreements were reached, increasing by 11.68 percent compared with that of last year. Among these, 1,867 copyright export and cooperative publishing agreements were reached, growing 13 percent compared with the same period of last year; 1,431 import agreements were reached, the ratio between import and export being 1:1.3.
This year, the "going abroad" of the press and publication industry has been greatly supported by the financial industry. In July, the General Administration of Press and Publication of China signed the Agreement of Cooperation on Supporting Key Enterprises and Key Projects of the Press and Publication Industry to Go Abroad with the Export and Import Bank of China in Beijing. According to the agreement, in the next five years, the Export and Import Bank of China will provide not less than RMB 20 billion Yuan or foreign exchange of equal value to press and publication enterprises, striving to establish a financing platform for the "going abroad" of key enterprises and key projects of the press and publication industry.
Year of Efforts of capital operation
On November 23, at the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission, the first corporate bond of China's publishing industry - the 2012 bond of Chongqing Publishing Group - was issued publicly. This signifies that China's publishing industry has made substantial breakthrough in financing in the bond market. The fund Chongqing Publishing Group is hoping to raise at this period will be mainly used to develop digital media press platform.
Becoming more competitive and stronger through mergers is an important path for the growth of China's press and publication enterprises. In early 2012, the General Administration of Press and Publication published the Guidelines on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Publication and Media Groups. The Guidelines propose to break regional blockade and trade barriers, support the cross-media, cross-region, cross-industry, and cross-ownership development of media groups, and cultivate numerous large-scale backbone publication media groups that have annual revenue of more than RMB 20 billion Yuan. This kicked off the merger trend in the press and publication industry.
As leader of the publishing industry, Phoenix Media has embarked on acquisition since 2008. In May this year, Phoenix struck again, acquiring Hainan Textbook Publishing Company and changing Hainan Phoenix Xinhua Distribution Company to Hainan Phoenix Xinhua Publication Distribution Company. The company has a registered capital of RMB 569 million Yuan, Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing and Media holding 51 percent of the share.
Zhejiang Daily Media, being the first newspaper corporation that is listed with all its productive assets, has started large-scale mergers and expansion after its backdoor listing. In April, Zhejiang Daily Media announced that it was planning to raise RMB 3.5 billion Yuan to acquire two of SNDA subsidiary gaming companies: Hangzhou Game ABC and Shanghai HF, with RMB 2.5 billion Yuan being private placement fund. In May, Zhejiang Daily Media purchased the 44 percent share of Dongfang Xingkong Enterprise Investment held by Zhejiang Daily Media's parent company Zhejiang Daily Press Group for RMB 260 million Yuan. The company has made equity investments in such areas as digital TV, entertainment and tourism, and education and multimedia, and has invested in film, TV, and animation projects. Zhejiang Daily Media said that the company would add a cultural industry investment platform after it purchased the share of Dongfang Xingkong.
On the morning of December 24 Beijing time, a piece of news once again got on people's nerves: America's renowned 80-year-old Newsweek announced that it would stop issuing its print magazine from December 31 on, and it would completely transformed to digital publishing.
This news from across the Pacific again made "digital publishing" a heatedly discussed topic. The year 2012, which has come to an end, has witnessed the thorough deepening of the digitalization of China's press and publication industry. After its incubation stage, the digital publication industry is taking shape.
As of the first half of 2012, major publishing corporations, who constitute the main force of China's publishing industry, had all established their digital media companies or digital publishing divisions. Their main concerns had also focused on such practical problems as how to forge core competitiveness, achieve sustained profitability, and promote reform of their corporations. China Publishing Group lists digitalization as one of the 6 major strategies of the development of the corporation, and promotes the construction of a comprehensive platform that is based on the group's advantageous resources and that integrates the collecting, spreading, trading, and service of open, internationalized and extensive contents; Phoenix Publishing and Media continues to make effort in digital contents and establish a professional content library that includes professional databases in such fields as primary and secondary school students textbook practices and traditional Chinese medicine.
In 2012, telecommunication operators, such as China Mobile and China Telecom, digital publishing platforms like 9yue.com, chineseall.com, and read.douban.com, and digital publishing service providers like Brainsoon, have all embraced distinctive growth models. Take chineseall.com for example. It practices a "quality" media digital publishing model and proposes to establish a complete industrial chain of "full-content, full-media, and full-channel" quality reading, extending its services to numerous fields including the internet, digital libraries, and mobile reading.
Year of Confidence in Going Abroad
In 2012, Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Overnight, Mo Yan's works became best sellers globally. This has greatly boosted the collective confidence of China's publishing industry. In 2012, in spite of such challenges as the import and export rights of books and copyright demand information, publishing corporations, publishing houses, copyright agents and other main participants have actively taken part in international competition. The pace of "going abroad" has accelerated continuously.
In the 64th Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012, China exported 2,409 items of copyrights. In this year's London Book Fair, China's publishing industry signed 1,859 agreements of copyrights export and cooperative publishing.
Besides "going abroad on borrowed ships", the press and publication industry has also improved its ability to "build ships to go abroad". In the 19th Beijing International Book Fair that concluded in September this year, 3,298 China-foreign copyrights trade agreements were reached, increasing by 11.68 percent compared with that of last year. Among these, 1,867 copyright export and cooperative publishing agreements were reached, growing 13 percent compared with the same period of last year; 1,431 import agreements were reached, the ratio between import and export being 1:1.3.
This year, the "going abroad" of the press and publication industry has been greatly supported by the financial industry. In July, the General Administration of Press and Publication of China signed the Agreement of Cooperation on Supporting Key Enterprises and Key Projects of the Press and Publication Industry to Go Abroad with the Export and Import Bank of China in Beijing. According to the agreement, in the next five years, the Export and Import Bank of China will provide not less than RMB 20 billion Yuan or foreign exchange of equal value to press and publication enterprises, striving to establish a financing platform for the "going abroad" of key enterprises and key projects of the press and publication industry.
Year of Efforts of capital operation
On November 23, at the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission, the first corporate bond of China's publishing industry - the 2012 bond of Chongqing Publishing Group - was issued publicly. This signifies that China's publishing industry has made substantial breakthrough in financing in the bond market. The fund Chongqing Publishing Group is hoping to raise at this period will be mainly used to develop digital media press platform.
Becoming more competitive and stronger through mergers is an important path for the growth of China's press and publication enterprises. In early 2012, the General Administration of Press and Publication published the Guidelines on Accelerating the Reform and Development of Publication and Media Groups. The Guidelines propose to break regional blockade and trade barriers, support the cross-media, cross-region, cross-industry, and cross-ownership development of media groups, and cultivate numerous large-scale backbone publication media groups that have annual revenue of more than RMB 20 billion Yuan. This kicked off the merger trend in the press and publication industry.
As leader of the publishing industry, Phoenix Media has embarked on acquisition since 2008. In May this year, Phoenix struck again, acquiring Hainan Textbook Publishing Company and changing Hainan Phoenix Xinhua Distribution Company to Hainan Phoenix Xinhua Publication Distribution Company. The company has a registered capital of RMB 569 million Yuan, Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing and Media holding 51 percent of the share.
Zhejiang Daily Media, being the first newspaper corporation that is listed with all its productive assets, has started large-scale mergers and expansion after its backdoor listing. In April, Zhejiang Daily Media announced that it was planning to raise RMB 3.5 billion Yuan to acquire two of SNDA subsidiary gaming companies: Hangzhou Game ABC and Shanghai HF, with RMB 2.5 billion Yuan being private placement fund. In May, Zhejiang Daily Media purchased the 44 percent share of Dongfang Xingkong Enterprise Investment held by Zhejiang Daily Media's parent company Zhejiang Daily Press Group for RMB 260 million Yuan. The company has made equity investments in such areas as digital TV, entertainment and tourism, and education and multimedia, and has invested in film, TV, and animation projects. Zhejiang Daily Media said that the company would add a cultural industry investment platform after it purchased the share of Dongfang Xingkong.
