To each according to its Niche: Analyzing the political and economic origins for a structural segregation in Chinese press

This article analyzes an emerging structural transformation in China's print media with a special emphasis on tensions between ideology and marketization. Through comparisons of old and new political and economic forces acting on the country's newspapers, it argues that party newspapers and mass-appeal tabloids are locked in a divergent development under new monopolistically competitive market conditions. In the process, the former moves toward greater reliance on political resources whereas the latter cashes in on circulation and advertising revenue. The end result is that each media group has secured its own niche among readers. The new trend finds most acute manifestations in rapidly enlarging revenue gaps between newspapers relying on political power and those relying on market popularity.