About Guangxi Daily

Guangxi Daily

Guangxi Daily (Chinese: 广西日报; pinyin: Guangxi Ribao) is a Chinese-language daily newspaper published in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. It is the official newspaper of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). First launched on 3 December 1949, it is Guangxi's most authoritative and influential party newspaper, with an average daily circulation recorded at 230,000 copies, and it holds a unique place in Chinese newspaper history: in January 1958 Mao Zedong spent a day as its editor and wrote an open letter on how newspapers should be run. Its publisher, the Guangxi Daily Media Group, established in 2009, is the region's largest newspaper publisher and printer.

Founding in December 1949

Guangxi Daily was officially launched on 3 December 1949 as the organ of the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the CCP, appearing in the same weeks in which Guangxi came under the new People's Republic — the region joined the People's Republic in December 1949, two months after its founding. The paper was therefore created, like its peer provincial organs, as part of the act of establishing party government in the province: a daily newspaper in the provincial capital through which the committee could publish its decisions and address the province. It has been published from Nanning throughout its history, and its founding date of 3 December 1949 is the date the newspaper itself uses — its official social media profile, for example, gives its "birth" as 3 December 1949.

Becoming the organ of an autonomous region

On 5 March 1958, with the establishment of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Daily became the official newspaper of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee. The change reflected Guangxi's new constitutional status: the former province had been converted into an autonomous region for the Zhuang people, at the recommendation of Premier Zhou Enlai, and its party committee and its newspaper were retitled accordingly. The newspaper has carried that regional-committee status ever since, serving as the party organ for an autonomous region rather than a province — a distinction it shares with only a handful of China's provincial-level party dailies.

January 1958: Mao Zedong edits the newspaper for a day

The most famous episode in the newspaper's history occurred in January 1958, the same season as its change of status. Mao Zedong spent a day as editor of Guangxi Daily, and he published an open letter to the Guangxi Party Committee on newspapers. In that letter Mao set out his view of what a provincial newspaper is for, commenting that newspapers "will help to organize, encourage, stimulate, criticize, and promote the work of all the people in a province." A badge later issued by Guangxi Daily carried, in Mao's distinctive handwriting, the inscription: "Newspapers should not be closed, they should be open to the masses." The episode is recorded in histories of Chinese newspaper practice and in collections of Mao-era press memorabilia, and it gives Guangxi Daily a distinction no other provincial paper can claim in quite the same form: the founder of the People's Republic personally took the editor's chair for a day and used the occasion to address the province's leadership on the purpose of its newspaper.

The party organ and its documented mission

As the autonomous region's party newspaper, Guangxi Daily is described by its own media group as a disseminator of party policies, a recorder of contemporary events, a promoter of social progress and a guardian of fairness and justice. The group's stated core concept is to focus closely on the central tasks of the autonomous regional party committee and government, on major themes in Guangxi's economic and social development, on the hot and difficult issues of public concern, and on the group's own development. That formulation defines the daily's editorial position: it is the authoritative first publisher of regional policy, and at the same time the group's flagship for coverage of the region's development — including, given Guangxi's position as China's gateway to Southeast Asia, major events such as the China-ASEAN Expo, which the paper and its platforms cover in all-media formats.

Creation of Guangxi Daily Media Group in 2009

On 22 December 2009, with the approval of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Party Committee and Government, Guangxi Daily Media Group and Guangxi Daily Media Group Co., Ltd. were formally established, while Guangxi Daily Press was retained. The reorganisation turned the newspaper's publishing house into a diversified media group. By 2015 the press (group) managed 30 internal departments, fourteen city-level correspondent stations, seven newspapers, three periodicals, five websites, twenty subsidiaries and one factory, and employed over 5,000 people. Trade reporting on its printing operations describes the group as the largest publisher and printer in Guangxi province, printing its own titles and commercial work at its Nanning site, where Goss Magnum presses — fitted with quality-control systems first installed in 2013 and extended in 2016 — produce its newspapers.

The group's newspapers and their circulations

By 2015 Guangxi Daily Press published seven newspapers: Guangxi Daily itself, the Nanguo Morning Post, Contemporary Life News, Nanguo Today, Nanguo City News with its Home Weekly, Guangxi Legal Daily, and the Guangxi Mobile Newspaper. Their recorded average daily circulations show the shape of the portfolio: Guangxi Daily, the party organ, at 230,000 copies; the Nanguo Morning Post, Guangxi's largest metropolitan newspaper by circulation, advertising and influence, at 300,000; Contemporary Life News, Guangxi's first lifestyle service newspaper, at 130,000; Nanguo Today, the group's cross-regional paper in Liuzhou and the most influential metropolitan newspaper in central Guangxi, at about 180,000; and Guangxi Legal Daily, the region's only provincial-level legal newspaper, at 150,000. The group also publishes three magazines — Guangxi Pictorial, Nanguo Panorama and Law and Economy — giving the Nanning party daily a family of titles that spans party, metropolitan, lifestyle and legal publishing.

Guangxi News Network and the move online

The group's web presence is centred on Guangxi News Network, a nationally designated key news website and the platform the regional party committee and government use to release authoritative information. The site was established in January 2006 through the integration of two earlier sites, Xingui Network and Guilong Network. The digital build-out continued step by step: the Guangxi Mobile Newspaper was launched in 2007; Guangxi Online Video followed in 2008; and in 2013 the network's app, WeChat, Weibo and micro-video accounts went online, followed by an upgraded mobile WAP site in 2014. By the end of 2014 the network's PC platform had reached 240 million page views and its mobile platform 30 million. All of the group's newspapers, including Guangxi Daily, publish digital editions, readable through the group's e-paper service.

The central kitchen and all-media production

In 2015 Guangxi News Network comprehensively advanced the group's media-convergence programme, implementing unified gathering, classified processing and centralised distribution of news — the model Chinese newsrooms call a "central kitchen." Under the system, material collected once by journalists — text, images, audio and video — is prepared centrally and issued in multiple forms, from newspaper reports and photo stories to audio, video, animation and interactive formats, delivered to newspapers, websites and mobile platforms on an all-day rolling basis. The group's documented all-media productions under this model include its "All-Media Live Studio" in Beijing during the National Two Sessions in February 2016, its "Learning from the East" coverage of the Guangxi party and government delegation's visit to Zhejiang and Shanghai in May 2016, and its coverage of the 13th China-ASEAN Expo in September 2016.

Social media reach and the Guangxi Daily app

The newspaper built an unusually strong social media presence for a provincial party daily. Its official Weibo account had 6.16 million followers as of 22 August 2017 and long ranked first among Guangxi media in Sina's influence rankings. Its WeChat public account, established in 2013, ranked within the top ten among national provincial party newspaper accounts, placed between fourth and tenth among national comprehensive dailies in industry rankings, set a Guangxi WeChat record with 875,000 views of a single article in December 2014, and received Tencent's "WeChat Annual Outstanding Media Public Account" award at the January 2016 ceremony in Guangzhou — the only Guangxi media outlet so honoured. On 22 December 2014, the fifth anniversary of the media group, the group launched the Guangxi Daily client app, positioned as "Guangxi's No. 1 News Release Platform," together with its new media matrix; across the group, that matrix grew to 64 Weibo accounts and 32 WeChat accounts among its combined social presence.

Guangxi Daily at a glance

In summary: Guangxi Daily is a Chinese-language daily published in Nanning, launched on 3 December 1949 as the organ of the CPC Guangxi Provincial Committee and, from 5 March 1958, of the CPC Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Committee. In January 1958 Mao Zedong acted as its editor for a day and addressed his open letter on newspapers to the Guangxi Party Committee. Its publisher since 22 December 2009 has been the Guangxi Daily Media Group, the region's largest publisher and printer, whose seven newspapers are led by Guangxi Daily's recorded 230,000-copy daily circulation, supported by fourteen city correspondent stations, Guangxi News Network, a central-kitchen all-media newsroom, and the Guangxi Daily app. By December 2014 the group's net assets had reached 1.042 billion yuan, with profits exceeding 100 million yuan for five consecutive years.