Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily has been ranked as China's most competitive metropolitan daily newspaper.

Hangzhou-based Qianjiang Evening News and Jinan-based Qilu Evening News were second and third in the rankings, conducted by the General Administration of Press and Publication.

Last year's number one, Shanghai-based Xinmin Evening News, fell to 14, while two major Beijing newspapers, Beijing Youth Daily and Beijing Evening News, dropped to 12th and 13th from last year's 6th and 7th.

The results were announced at the closing ceremony of the third Annual Conference on Competitive Edge in China's Press Industry on Saturday in Beijing.

Lin Jiang, deputy director of the administration's newspaper and periodical management department, said the ranking is objective and reliable, as about 20 indices such as circulation, advertising, readership and profitability are taken into consideration.

The ranking covers 263 major Chinese metropolitan newspapers, and data is mainly from the administration's database, Lin said.

According to an annual report of China's press industry published by the administration in January, there are about 290 metropolitan dailies in the country.

A nine-member expert group, made up of economists, statisticians, media and advertising researchers worked with the administration on the rankings, but their names were not disclosed.

Lin said they started the annual rankings in 2004 to gain a clearer picture of China's metropolitan newspaper market.

"It's an important reference to both policy-makers and newspaper publishers," he said.

Wang Chunfu, editor-in-chief of Southern Metropolitan News, said innovation was the key to his paper's rapid development over the past year.

"We insist on improvement of newspaper quality, and we're also innovating our publishing format, such as starting an e-newspaper," he said.

The newspaper now has more than 100,000 subscribers who read it on their mobile phones.

Wang refuted claims that the newspaper is a fading industry under pressure from new media such as websites, blogs and vlogs (video-blogs).

"Cooperating with new media and making good use of advanced technologies is the future of print media," he said.

In the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) for China's Press Industry, set out by the administration and unveiled on Friday, traditional print media are encouraged to develop digital products and provide value-added information services.

(China Daily August 7, 2006)