Xinhua Gains Ground
Jinfo Blog

3rd September 2010

By Nancy Davis Kho

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The upcoming issue of VIP Magazine will include a review of CEIC's Brazil Premium database; in reading advance copy I was struck by how the ability to facilitate access state agency-issued data remains a major competitive advantage for vendors covering the BRIC countries. In the case of Brazil the data is public, but barriers in the form of cumbersome access or language can impede broader distribution. Even in this Web world, not every piece of international data is easy to track down or verify. So it was with interest that I read an article released today by Newsweek ( http://digbig.com/5bcgwk) about Xinhua News Agency, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party. Long acknowledged as a propaganda newspaper, Xinhua is betting that low subscription costs and international coverage will help it gain legitimacy as an alternative to traditional news vendors. As authors Angela Wu and R. M. Schneiderman point out, the fact that it is state owned protects Xinhua from many of the economic forces buffeting traditional media sources: '… in recent months, Xinhua has signed content deals with state-run outlets in Cuba, Mongolia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Turkey, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe, making it a leading source of news for Africa and much of Asia, with more boots on the ground in those continents than any other organization'. China aside, the authors cite observers who believe that Xinhua is making strides in providing unbiased coverage to emerging market regions like the Middle East and Africa. This is made easier by the overall move towards video content, where point of view is a less easily manipulated factor. Those emerging markets are also good potential consumers of Xinhua news as a low-cost alternative. The bottom line: as long as the researcher is keenly aware of Xinhua's potential reporting bias, the Chinese media behemoth may end up posing some interesting challenges to Western data vendors.

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