MCLC: People's Daily online to go public

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: People's Daily online to go public
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Source: NYT (1/14/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/unit-of-chinese-daily-plans-ipo.
html

Unit of Chinese Daily Plans I.P.O.
By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI ‹ The online division of the People¹s Daily, the official
mouthpiece of the Communist Party, won approval on Friday to go ahead with
an initial public offering of stock.

The decision by China¹s top securities regulator paves the way for the
People¹s Daily online to raise up to $85 million by selling stock on the
Shanghai Stock Exchange, most likely this year.

It is the first time a state-run media Web site has filed to go public,
and it is expected to be followed by public offerings from an array of
other state-run media properties, including Xinhua, the official news
agency.

China is trying to upgrade state-run media outlets and cultural
properties, partly by forcing them to be more market-oriented and less
dependent on subsidies.

Beijing is also pressing its tightly controlled Party propaganda tools to
better compete with popular Internet search engines and social networking
Web sites in China like Sina, Sohu and Baidu.

Although Beijing has retained tight control over its media properties, and
continues to censor and force-feed them official Party news, analysts say
those properties have come a long way from the days when they were simply
state mouthpieces.

Government media executives have made clear that they hope to push these
properties to eventually emulate global giants like CNN and News
Corporation, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera.

In Times Square in Manhattan, Xinhua, the official state-run news agency,
is spending millions of dollars a year to promote itself on a giant
electronic billboard.

China Central Television, or CCTV, the nation¹s biggest state-controlled
broadcaster, now has international channels broadcasting in English,
French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and other languages. CCTV is also hiring
more overseas producers and journalists. The network is leasing space in
Manhattan and building a United States broadcasting center in Washington.

Analysts say part of the aim is to improve China¹s ³soft power²
capabilities, giving the country greater control over the way the
Communist Party¹s messages are delivered overseas.