Chinese Newspapers and Market Theories of Web Journalism

Abstract

This article tests market-based theories of online journalism on the web editions of printed-page Chinese newspapers. It focuses on differentiation, defined as the extent to which a newspaper gives its online readers internet-specific features with news content. The findings suggest a relationship between print circulation and the technical complexity that a newspaper builds or not into its online news content. They also are consistent with the notion of a global, perhaps capitalist-driven, template for web newspaper journalism. General theoretic rules for web journalism are proposed.