The rise and power of China's culture industry
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A painting by Pan Tianshu. [Global Times] |
Breakthrough in publishing
The past five years have seen the rapid and stable growth of the press and publishing industry. The growth highlights the restructuring of previously State-owned publishing houses, fast growth of digital publishing and overseas expansion of Chinese publishers.
According to the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), in 2009, the industry's gross output was 1,066.89 billion yuan ($161.10 billion). Nearly 270,000 book titles were published and digital publishing rose by 50 percent.
"Two key words characterized the press and publishing industry during the past five years - reform and innovation," said Liu Binjie, minister of GAPP. "Reform set the industry free to promote its growth; innovation generated diverse cultural products and means of transmission."
By the end of 2010, according to the ministry's schedule, 528 of the 583 State-owned publishing houses would have completed the transformation to become enterprises.
However, winning a big market share for the restructured, especially small and medium publishers, remains a challenge. The key to survival and success, said Xie Gang, president of the State-owned New Star Press, which began restructuring in late 2008, is to have a clearly targeted market and readership.
With the impact of digital publishing, the press has already involved itself in the rising industry and is transforming its content into digital products. What New Star aims to do, Xie said, is to follow the publishing industry's trend and claim a bigger market share by turning into content providers.
During the five year period, digital publishing gained significant growth momentum. By the end of 2009, about 90 percent of the 583 publishing houses have gone digital, with rapid growth of online publishing and games. According to GAPP, China's digital publishing sector generated revenue of 79.94 billion yuan ($12.07 billion) in 2009, exceeding that of traditional book publishing business, and registered a year-on-year growth of 50.6 percent.
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