Wen Wei Po

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For a newspaper with the same Chinese name published in Shanghai, see Wen Hui Bao.

Wen Wei Po (traditional Chinese: 文匯報; simplified Chinese: 文汇报; pinyin: Wénhuì Bào) is a Hong Kong-based Chinese language newspaper, which was first established in Shanghai in January 1938; its Hong Kong version was launched on September 9, 1948.

The publishing of Wen Wei Po aims at supporting the New China, that is the People's Republic of China and delivering the latest development of the Mainland to readers, especially that of the recent 20 years. A rare exception was the 1989 editorial board openly objected the use of force in 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, and as a consequence the editorial was replaced shortly thereafter.

Apart from this, Wen Wei Po also delivers the latest news and development of Hong Kong in all aspects, with comments and editorials on these issues.

Wen Wei Po is an officially recognized newspaper for publishing legal advertisements under the direction of the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Contents

[edit] Content

Wen Wei Po has around 48 pages everyday and a variety of sections, including news, sports and entertainment. Compared with other newspapers in Hong Kong, it has more coverage of mainland China's politics, economy, society, education and culture, but fewer entertainment or human interest stories. Recently the newspaper has started sending journalists to gather news about PRC leaders' visits around China.

[edit] Market/Target

Wen Wei Po is authorized for distribution in Macau and mainland China. Tourists can get copies of Wen Wei Po easily from hotels in large cities of the mainland. Wen Wei Po has a greater circulation in the mainland than in Hong Kong.

As one of the most popular Hong Kong newspapers in the mainland, Wen Wei Po publishes a lot of advertisements from enterprises of different cities in the mainland. Even for the online version, there are a lot of mainland advertisements, and the newspaper's advertisement revenue is mainly supported by the mainland China market.

[edit] Style

Wen Wei Po is regarded as a newspaper which is pro- Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China government. Consequently, the reports are mainly on the "brighter" and the more positive side of China.

The paper is also considered as a "cleaner" paper as it includes fewer sensational reports and bloody pictures. Its reports on issues other than politics and China are considered as more reliable.

[edit] Credibility

The credility of Wen Wei Po can be shown in the survey conducted by the Department of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, entitled "Press Freedom and Political Transition in Hong Kong:A Summary of the Hong Kong Journalist Survey 1996". Wen Wei Po gained a mean of 4.68 mark, where the maximum mark is 10, among local media organizations.

Press Freedom and Political Transition in Hong Kong:A Summary of the Hong Kong Journalist Survey 1996:

[edit] Wen Wei Po in the world

Its 33 official agencies in the mainland, including Beijing, Shanghai and Yunnan, help the paper gather news in the mainland and establish relationships with local officials/advertisers. It also has correspondents in major cities in the world, such as Tokyo, London and New York.

Wen Wei Po has 5 overseas editions. The latest edition is the Philippines edition, which was established in Manila on October 8, 2003. The other overseas editions are published in San Francisco , USA, Jakarta in Indonesia, Toronto in Canada and Bangkok in Thailand. It also has a European edition and a flight edition.

[edit] DVD Archives of Wen Wei Po

Wen Wei Po distributes a set of 13 DVD which contains all the content, including text, graphs and photographs of the newspaper in the period 1939-1998. Users can search the information they want by keywords.

[edit] Shanghai Wen Hui Bao

Main article: Wen Hui Bao

The Shanghai Wen Hui Bao, with the same Chinese name 文汇报, is another newspaper and independent from the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po. In 1997, Wen Hui Bao merged with the Shanghai Xinmin Evening News (新民晚報) to form Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group (文匯新民聯合報業集團); the hearsay has been the fact that the former was in need of financial assistance.

Shanghai Xinmin Evening News is the most popular evening post in China which has a huge market share. Shanghai Wen Hui Bao, as an official newspaper in Shanghai which often contained conservative and dull ideas, had lost many of its readers. As a result, these two newspapers combined together under economic considerations, with a backdown of political considerations. Hong Kong Wen Wei Po has a different management team and does not belong to Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Languages