Newspapers' decline inspiring new media integration: report

The decline of traditional media in China is inspiring publishers to integrate more new media targeting the growing number of people getting their news and entertainment online, according to an industry report.

Issued by the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) Friday, the report cited data from Tsinghua University showing just over 45 percent of Chinese urban residents read daily newspapers in 2014, down from over 53 percent in 2013. In the same time frame, the number of Chinese regularly watching television declined from 82.2 percent to 78.8 percent.

More than 53 percent of Chinese regularly watched online videos in 2014, up from 18.7 percent in 2012, according to the data.

Meanwhile, newspaper advertising expenditure shrunk year on year by 32.1 percent in the first half of 2015, and TV advertising by 3.4 percent, while the Internet advertising market was worth 53.24 billion yuan (8.24 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter of 2015, a year-on-year increase of 42.7 percent.

In response, almost all traditional media organizations in China are merging into the new media sector, said the report.

By the end of 2015, 100 million people had downloaded Xinhua News Agency's market-leading app.

The ACJA noted that China now has 688 million Internet users, including 620 million who use mobile Internet. About 82 percent of these Internet users visit news sites on mobile phones. Endi