Xi says gov’t will champion new media groups

Chinese media companies rallied, sending the Shanghai Composite Index to an eight-month high, after President Xi Jinping said the nation will build a few groups into influential content providers.
China will create several media groups that are strong, influential and credible while promoting the integration of new and traditional media, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Xi as saying. People.cn Co., the online unit of the Communist Party’s newspaper, Shanghai Xinhua Media Co. and Zhe Jiang Daily Media Group Co. all jumped by the 10 percent daily limit. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.3 percent to 2,245.33, the highest close since Dec. 5.
The government is revamping state-controlled media firms as part of a broader campaign to reform government companies and reduce corruption, according to Tebon Securities Co. Xi’s comments also follow a Xinhua report that the country issued new rules this month restricting the dissemination of certain types of news on instant-messaging applications to only authorized media outlets.
“The government wants the media to be more market-oriented. This will help in reducing corruption and aid in supervision,” said Zhang Haidong, an analyst at Tebon in Shanghai. Bloomberg

Weiyi Lim