On The Development Of China's Newspaper Web Service

Last year has witnessed remarkable changes in China's Web press. Among all the changes, it is noteworthy that the major newspaper groups in China like Guangzhou Daily, Beijing Youth and Liberation Daily have upgraded their electronic newspapers, virtually rigid copies of their surface versions, to brand-new Web services. The Web services are designed to become comprehensive information service platforms under the marketing mechanism. This trend is a breakthrough in the electronic communication of China's traditional press. It has been commonly recognized that the copy style version of electronic newspaper cannot meet the requirement of the e-communication, and it is necessary that the electronically copied version be to be shifted to Web version and later on to Web service in order to obtain more cyberspace for a particular newspaper.Failing short of the expectation, the one-year old Web services remain in the initial stage compared to the commercial Web services like Sina. In the exploration last year, they have been confronted with a series of problems, for example how to achieve a balance between their new roles and old ones when there is no mature model for reference.The one-year exploration has yielded valuable experience and lesson. The author has worked as an intern in Beijing Youth Web last year, and this paper mainly examines Beijing Youth Web when observing moderately other e-newspaper-turned Web services. Recording the ups and downs of the new Web services in the last year, the author analyzes the five difficulties constraining their operation, and proposes a host of constructive solutions according to the experience of the successful domestic and foreign press Web services.