Chinese newspaper ownership, corporate strategies, and business models in a globalizing world

This study takes Beijing Youth Daily (BYD), Beijing's largest newspaper in terms of advertising revenue and second largest in terms of circulation, as a case study to examine and analyze how globalization influences the ownership, corporate strategies, and business models of local newspaper organizations in China; and, thus, accelerates Chinese-style capitalism and media convergence. Declining advertising revenue and the loss of readers due to the digital revolution and the availability of multimedia news channels are global challenges that face newspapers around the world. BYD is no exception. In response, BYD has shifted from an exclusively state ownership model to a split or dual-track management model that has allowed foreign capital into the business operations while the party/state still retains ideological control over the news content. BYD has reoriented its corporate strategies and carried out structural reforms, building a media conglomerate via new titles, acquisitions, concentrations, and convergences; and developed its business models with advertising as a major revenue source. All these measures are market-oriented and intended to maximize newspaper profits by pursuing economies of scale and scope.