This is what it says on the back of my company business cards:
The that's brand is supervised by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, and published by China Intercontinental Press. Zhong Dian Media Co., Ltd is in cooperation with CIP. HiPower Media Co., Ltd is the only organization with rights to run advertising for that's."
So, you know, if you were a company looking to run some ads to promote your goods and services to the expat community in Beijing, and you had hoped to utilize the readership That's is able to reach... shoot! Looks like HiPower has beaten you to the punch and has signed a monopolizing ad contract with... um, whichever one of these "organizations" actually controls That's. So sorry, only HiPower gets to run ads.
"... the only organization with rights to run advertising..." I gotta hand it to the legal gurus they must have found to draft the back of their business cards. A cunning move to force individuals into becoming businesses to fight for all the precious, precious ad space that is available. Split up all the troublemakers to make them easier to marginalize and control, right?
Update:
Thanks to my roommate for calling the "office line" number. Imagine my confusion when someone from another part of the office came to get me: "Phone. Phone."
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For the full story of how the entire That's brand came into being, Mark Kitto (who founded the company before being unceremoniously ousted from it by the government)is at The Bookworm International Literary Festival on Wednesday 18th March 12.30pm
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beijingbookworm.com/literaryfestival.php
"Wednesday 18th March 12.30pm"
ReplyDeletei may very well attend, the whole affair would be pretty meta- for me...
Hrm. Sounds like a typical Chinese company.
ReplyDeleteSo, do you think they're making money? Do you think the magazine will last?
Anonymous: Do you think the magazine will last?
ReplyDeleteA very loaded question. Let's see if I can respond in a way that doesn't betray my standing/sound too paranoid (you'd be surprised at how easy it is to lose perspective at what is in reality just a job at a magazine):
In a market-based economy if a company isn't turning a profit, you close up shop and move on, or retool, rework, whatever it takes until red becomes black. Right?
But I guess it depends on what your defition of will is...
I can tell you one thing for certain, it certainly is weird (absurd?) now that more than just a handful of people are reading this... but am I meant to take serious questions from people who post as "Anonymous", well, seriously?
Good point. Maybe I should post under a name like Syme to make you take me more seriously.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteGood point. Maybe I should post under a name like Syme to make you take me more seriously.
Which one of us has more to lose in this situation? Some snarky commentator? or the guy running the blog?
I don't really understand your problem with frankly answering the question I posed. After all, isn't a frank insight into working at That's the whole point of your blog? What, you think you'll lose your job because you answered my question honestly, and not because of, well, pretty much everything else you've written here? I'd say you're out on a limb already by publishing this blog if you're worrying about what you've got to lose.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand your problem with frankly answering the question I posed. After all, isn't a frank insight into working at That's the whole point of your blog? What, you think you'll lose your job because you answered my question honestly, and not because of, well, pretty much everything else you've written here? I'd say you're out on a limb already by publishing this blog if you're worrying about what you've got to lose.
let's just say given the environment i work in, whatever mental state im in when i respond to comments is going to vary a bit. given the nature of the work im tempted to assume you would have an alterior motive in asking such a question, but like ive mentioned in a previous entry: it's amazing how quickly one loses perspective of the job. ive been constantly 'refining' my reasons for writing in this blog (catharsis, intrigue, instructions on how not to run a business, etc.) and i think ive decided to focus more on just what the hell is going over here (read: amazing dysfunctional work environment) why it's having a toll on the quality of the magazine and why affect it's having on my and my coworkers. though if that gets boring i guess i can just go back to making fun of each issue, like i already do with most of my friends.
but to answer your question: the magazine will exist as long as the brand exists and has some kind of marketable appeal, just like any other business. i can tell you it will be around long after im gone, no matter how hard i try in vain to fight to improve its basic quality in the interim.
and hah! worrying what ive got to lose? you seem to know something about the backstory here.
so let me ask you: do you think it will last?
I've got absolutely zero interest in your mag - or a competitor's business - beyond a fairly standard fascination for watching trainwrecks in progress. Nor do I know a great deal about the behind-the-scenes shenanigans at That's, apart from what I read here. You're the one that went all reticent and first mentioned having something to lose when I asked you a pretty straightforward question.
ReplyDeleteSo here's the straight dope. I'm a regular expat living in BJ and, as I said above, I have no connections whatsoever to That's or its competitors or any organisation in the publishing industry anywhere. However, I am in the demographic That's is targetting, and the magazine earns nothing but amused contempt from me. It is pretty much useless as a source of reference - the listings section is a waste of time and all the reviews that I might pay attention to - restaurant/club etc reviews - have pretty clearly been bought. The magazine is obviously run by people (that is, the people making the final decisions, not you) who know nothing about their target audience. I would even say I feel slightly insulted that the morons running That's think my demographic might be attracted to a publication that would sell its cover page to Bentley, or believe that its never-negative restaurant reviews are credible. A few of the magazine's articles are okay - others are so bad they're comical. Those risibly awful articles are the sole reason I might pick up That's.
Anyway, in response to your question: I'd like to think That's won't last, just for the sake of natural justice. From what I know, the current owners of the brand are swindlers who used their guanxi to steal it from its legitimate owners. Whilst I imagine the magazine isn't particularly efficiently run, the owners seem to have used their no doubt excellent contacts to drum up some good advertising clients, so maybe it'll stagger on for a good long while. However, if the magazine's target demographic stop laughing at That's and start ignoring it, I don't expect it'll last very long.
"I have no connections whatsoever to That's or its competitors or any organisation in the publishing industry anywhere. "
ReplyDeletePS. and I never have had, either.
"I have no connections whatsoever to That's or its competitors or any organisation in the publishing industry anywhere. "
ReplyDeletePS. and I never have had, either.
I would give you a hug if a could (or if I had a budget, employ you as a staff writer), but I went ahead, copypasta-ed your comments into an email and forwarded them along to the proper power channels with me claiming that a "reader had found my business card and decided to give us some impromptu reader feedback".
Edited slightly to sell the story I came up with, your comments were translated into Chinese. The person doing he translating was asking me questions like: "What does 'trainwreck' mean?"
But she took all the comments in stride and smiled the whole time, I can only imagine which parts of your well-thought-through diatribe she found most illuminating.
Anyway, some days later, Mr. English-less (The Boss) came down to sit across from me and ask me about the context of your comments. I told my fictitious story again (reader found my business card, email, blah blah) and his one question:
"Do you think this person works for The Beijinger?"
Facepalm, dude... Facepalm.
I just re-read my comment - I was certainly feeling exercised when I wrote that. And you translated it for The Powers That Be; "morons", "swindlers" and all? I'm impressed!
ReplyDeleteNot nearly as impressed, however, with your boss's perspicacity - of course I'm a Beijinger employee. He caught me out; my comment was a devious mindfuck aimed at him to deter him from building up his mighty magazine empire at the expense of the terrified competition, and not honest criticism. We thought we had mastered psychological warfare over at TBJ, but we didn't count on such a brilliant adversary. That gambit was our last roll of the dice. We may as well pack up and go home.
Haha, yep. Keep 'em coming, man. Some of us over here enjoy the feedback.
ReplyDelete