About Zhejiang Daily

Zhejiang Daily

Zhejiang Daily, in Chinese Zhejiang Ribao, is the official organ of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It was founded on 9 May 1949 in Hangzhou and is published by the Zhejiang Daily Press Group, whose headquarters are at 178 Stadium Road in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Its website is zjrb.zjol.com.cn. The paper holds a singular place in Zhejiang's history: reference works record it as the first publicly distributed Communist Party newspaper in the province's history. Its circulation has always ranked among the highest of provincial party committee publications in China, and its publisher became, in September 2011, the first publicly listed newspaper group in China. Unusually among provincial party papers, its masthead uses characters gathered from the writing of Lu Xun, the leading Chinese writer of the early twentieth century and a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang.

Founding in May 1949

Zhejiang Daily was created in the week Hangzhou changed hands. On 3 May 1949 Hangzhou was liberated following the entry of the People's Liberation Army into the city; that afternoon a platoon from a PLA department was deployed to the Southeast Daily newspaper, previously under the authority of the CC Clique of the Kuomintang, and affixed seals on significant locations including documentation, archives, factories and warehouses. On 7 May the Hangzhou Military Control Committee dispatched Zhao Yang, a military representative, to oversee a news team of over 30 people tasked with taking over Southeast Daily while simultaneously preparing the establishment of Zhejiang Daily. The new paper was established at Zhong'anqiao in Hangzhou, the former location of the Southeast Daily newspaper, and its first issue appeared on 9 May 1949 — six days after the PLA entered the city and nearly five months before the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The masthead

In contrast to other provincial party publications in China, the masthead of Zhejiang Daily utilises the gathered ink of Lu Xun — its title characters are assembled from Lu Xun's own calligraphy rather than written for the paper by a single hand. The masthead has not been unchanging: in the late 1970s Zhejiang Daily had a masthead engraved by Hua Guofeng, the CCP chairman who succeeded Mao Zedong. The Lu Xun characters are the paper's enduring visual signature and a link between the provincial party organ and Zhejiang's most famous modern writer.

Relocation and the reform era

In October 1973 Zhejiang Daily relocated from its previous site at Zhong'anqiao to a new location on Stadium Road, where the office building and printing facility were expanded to a larger area; the group remains on Stadium Road today, at No. 178. Following the dismantling of the Gang of Four in October 1976, Zhejiang Daily was reinstated as the official publication of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Following the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee, the paper entered a new historical phase and implemented a series of reforms in journalism, advocating that newspaper publicity be intensified and revitalised. After the 1980s, Zhejiang Daily established several newspapers and magazines of its own, the beginnings of the group that would be formalised in 2000.

Zhejiang Daily Press Group

The Zhejiang Daily Press Group was officially created on 25 June 2000, with Zhejiang Daily as its flagship publication. A People's Daily report of the launch noted that the group had become the ninth newspaper group with formal authorisation in China, that Shao Huaze, president of the People's Daily and chairman of the China Journalists' Association, attended the ceremony, and that at that point the group owned six newspapers, two magazines and one website around the flagship title, whose publication had begun on 9 May 1949.

The group has since grown far beyond that base. It now comprises 33 traditional media outlets, over 300 new media platforms, 5 million traditional media readers and 660 million registered users, including more than 50 million active users and 30 million mobile users, and it encompasses 135 independent legal entities, including over 60 wholly owned and holding subsidiaries, across media, capital operations, real estate, printing, logistics and high technology. In the 2016 ranking of national newspaper publishing groups it placed second, trailing only Shanghai United Media Group, and in 2018 it rose to first position. Its best-known sister title in Hangzhou is Qianjiang Evening News, a group newspaper described in reference works as one of the most circulated newspapers in the world.

China's first listed newspaper group

In September 2011 Zhejiang Media Group Co., Ltd (SSE: 600633) was publicly listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, marking Zhejiang Daily Press Group as the first listed newspaper group in China and the first publicly traded state-owned cultural firm in Zhejiang Province. The listing was the corporate culmination of a restructuring in which ZJNG Media Holding Group had been incorporated in 2009. In January 2013 the listed company obtained the whole equity interests in the game developers Hangzhou Bianfeng and Shanghai Haofang for 3.19 billion yuan, a diversification far from newspaper publishing. In 2017 the group secured 2 billion yuan through the divestiture of its news and media assets to its controlling shareholder, ZJMG Holdings.

Online development

Zhejiang Daily inaugurated its online counterpart in June 1999, which subsequently evolved into Zhejiang Online, the provincial news portal; the paper's own site is maintained at zjrb.zjol.com.cn under the Zhejiang Online domain. The early start online — a year before the press group itself was formalised — and the later growth to more than 300 new media platforms and tens of millions of mobile users made the group one of the documented leaders among Chinese provincial press groups in the transition from print to converged media, a position reflected in its first-place ranking among national newspaper publishing groups in 2018.

Circulation and sister titles

Reference works note that Zhejiang Daily's circulation has always ranked among the highest of provincial party committee publications in China. Readership at group level is documented in the press group's own profile: 5 million traditional media readers across its 33 traditional media outlets, alongside its 660 million registered digital users. The group's portfolio extends well beyond the flagship: at its formal creation in 2000 it already owned six newspapers, two magazines and one website, and its Hangzhou stablemate Qianjiang Evening News — the group's metropolitan evening paper for the provincial capital — is described in reference works as one of the most circulated newspapers in the world, with its standing reflected in Chinese newspaper rankings reported by China Daily. The combination matters for understanding the flagship's position: Zhejiang Daily supplies the group's official authority as the provincial committee's organ, while high-circulation metropolitan titles such as Qianjiang Evening News supply much of its mass readership in Hangzhou and across Zhejiang, and the listed-company structure built on the group from 2011 monetised both.

Recognition and recent development

In 2018 Zhejiang Daily was designated one of the top 100 national newspapers recommended in 2017, in the National Top 100 Newspapers list. Its circulation, reference works note, has always ranked among the highest of provincial party committee publications in China — a notable record for a party organ, since such papers' sales are usually driven by institutional subscriptions rather than reader demand. In May 2024 the newspaper established an international communication center, and the group's Hangzhou bureau has since supported provincial international-communication work, including the October 2026 Zhejiang Tour for foreign diplomatic envoys organised by the Zhejiang International Communication Center with support from the Hangzhou bureau of Zhejiang Daily Press Group.

Seventy-five years after a 30-strong news team took over a Kuomintang newspaper's premises at Zhong'anqiao and produced a new party daily within the week, Zhejiang Daily remains the Zhejiang Provincial Committee's official organ — published from Stadium Road in Hangzhou by a press group that turned its flagship's authority into China's first stock-market-listed newspaper business.