The Research On Marketization Pathway Of Southern Metropolis Daily's Transition

As a newly emerged urban newspaper, Southern Metropolis Daily has become a brandname with increasing economic benefit and social influence of China`s flourishing urbannewspaper market in the past decade. Its rapid development is believed to rely mostly on itsunique harness of the market, up-to-date managing ideas and its constant pursuit of the"truth".The success of Southern Metropolis Daily would not be possible without its prediction of andpreparation for China`s press industry, and its marketization pursuit. In recent years, SouthernMetropolis Daily has made an all-round transformation which follows the principle of the marketand the requirement of the era with a consideration of its inside and outside environment. In theaspect of positioning, it repositioned itself into becoming a mainstream newspaper. That haveimproved its quality and social influence; In the aspect of space and coverage, SouthernMetropolis Daily expanded its coverage and audience group from the city of Guangzhou to thearea of Pearl River Delta, and even the whole country. That have expanded in scale; In the aspectof forms of media, it transformed from a traditional print medium to the three-dimensional "All-Media"actively following the trend of the integration of three networks. Every transformativestep made by Southern Metropolis Daily is unique and down-to-earth. Its success serves as asignificant benchmark for other urban newspaper.The current thesis is a case study of the Southern Metropolis Daily using qualitativeresearch methods. Adopting positioning theory, regional space theory, industrial economicstheory, media convergence theory, this research has analyzed the three major marketizationpathways of Southern Metropolis Daily`s reforms and summarized the approaches and theeffects of their reform attempts. This article contributes to the future research by providingpossible references on the developmental paths of current urban newspaper industry.