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 prin t media with a special emphasis on tensions between ideology and marketizat ion. Through comparisons of old and new political and economic forces actin g on the country's newspapers, it argues that party newspapers and mass-app eal tabloids are locked in a divergent development under new monopolistical ly competitive market conditions. In the process, the former moves toward g reater reliance on political resources whereas the latter cashes in on circ ulation and advertising revenue. The end result is that each media group ha s secured its own niche among readers. The new trend finds most acute manif estations in rapidly enlarging revenue gaps between newspapers relying on p olitical power and those relying on market popularity.