The Chinese edition of Scientific American, printed every month for 27 years, ceased publication at the end of 2005 when its American partner decided to quit the copyright cooperation.

According to Zhou Guozhen, former chief editor of the magazine, it was the low circulation in China that finally persuaded the Americans to kill the deal. Although the sales volume of the Chinese edition had already jumped to 20,000 from the original 4,000 copies, it was still far from meeting an expected circulation of 50,000, and lacked the advertising dollars to meet an annual projected revenue of 3.5 million yuan.

Scientific American was the first overseas magazine to be introduced in China. "It is no exaggeration to say that the failure of the magazine's Chinese version signals that China's science magazine industry is in bad shape," said Wang Hongbo, a commentator for China Reading Weekly.

Scientific American isn't the only foreign partner that has severed connections with its Chinese counterpart. Several years ago, when a series of well-known foreign science magazines entered China, they were expected to usher in a booming new era for China's magazine sector. However, after years of trying, it seems that none of them has been able to find a niche in China.

Are readers ready?

It is widely agreed that the full development of magazines, popular science magazines in particular, depends to a large extent on people's incomes, taste and science literacy. When so many well-known science magazines are facing a fight to survive in China, people can't help asking: Are they just not catering to local tastes, or is it a problem of an unready Chinese market?

Yang Xiongli, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said he believes that Chinese readers are still incapable of taking in such advanced science magazines as Scientific American.

Wu Jiarui from the CAS Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics points out that the popularity of such magazines as Scientific American demands a certain social basis, which is composed of two parts: a well-informed readership and an adequate scientific research capability that ensures an updated understanding of science.

Magazines are mainly targeted at the wealthy, or white collar and middle class, who don't mind the extra expense. According to some people, the problem lies less in the price and more in the fact that few people in China are brought up to take science as part of their life--that is, they will seldom pay attention to science as a hobby or interest, but always expect to use science as a tool to make money.

Yuan Yue, a journalist in Beijing, said that public science education in China only involves students, and most of them will barely touch on the subject after graduation. In fact, owing to the exam-oriented education system in China, even among students, science magazines are no more than supplementary materials to their textbooks, as they are more interested in what they can find from these magazines to help with their exams than in real-life knowledge. Moreover, although they are major buyers and subscribers to science magazines, as they aren't seen as financially lucrative readers, they rarely capture the attention of advertisers.

As far as the science literacy of the Chinese is concerned, despite the low proportion of literate people, the country's total population is so large that the Chinese market is still considered to have great potential.

Boosting readership levels

The current priority is to help readers get easier access to less expensive science magazines in a bid to boost circulation. In the United States, for example, the subscription price of magazines is usually one eighth of that in China (based on per-capita income), and 85 percent of magazines are circulated through subscription, which usually lasts for several years.