Attracted by China’s huge potential in the media market, the world’s leading magazine groups are flooding in to get a share of the massive readership and the increasing spending power of consumers.

The media market opened to the outside world much later than other industries in China. After China joined the WTO, the government gradually loosened its regulations and limitations on foreign investment in the media industry.

This was seen in December 2004, when restrictions on the involvement of foreign investment in China’s periodical distribution and circulation were lifted. Foreign companies can now invest in wholesale firms of books, newspapers and periodicals.

Compared with newspaper, TV and radio, the magazine industry in China has far greater rewards for foreign companies, who can also jointly publish magazines by way of copyright cooperation, an official from the General Administration of Press and Publications of China told Beijing Review.

According to the official, the number of magazines under copyright cooperation with overseas media groups permitted by the government totals 54, with scientific/ technical and social/lifestyle titles accounting for half of this figure.

International Data Group (IDG), the largest technology media, research and event management company in the world, was one of the pioneers in their entry into China, arriving as early as the 1970s. IDG was instrumental in setting up 12 publications, among which Computer World newspaper was the most popular at the time.

In 1988, France-based Hachette Filipacchi, the world’s leading consumer magazine publisher, joined hands with Shanghai Translation Press in launching Elle, introducing the trend of joint-publishing fashion and consumption magazines between domestic and foreign publishing institutions.

Ten years later, IDG, Hearst Communi-cations Inc., one of the largest diversified communications companies in the world, and China’s General Administration of Tourism set up a joint-venture Trends Group, launching Cosmopolitan in China. The mainland’s fashion magazines have been in the fast lane of globalization and internationalization ever since.

In recent years, the pace of joint-publication has quickened. Joining Elle and Cosmopolitan, other lifestyle magazines such as Health, Bride, and Madame Figaro have taken a leading position in the industry. These partnerships are injecting many benefits into the industry.

“It is true that through cooperation with foreign media groups, domestic magazines have indeed enhanced their competitiveness greatly, which is a shortcut for the growth of the entire industry,” said Li Pin, Director of the China Institution of Periodicals.

He said that cooperating with the world’s leading media groups is inevitable for the growth of China’s periodical industry, but he also told Beijing Review that globalization is not developing on an even playing field.

“Globalization is risky,” he said, “and while we warmly welcome globalization, we still need to keep a cool head.”

Li stressed that if China just offers a market to the process of globalization, with no concrete benefits in return, it will have dire consequences. Domestic brand magazines cannot compete with powerhouse foreign publications, whether in terms of capital or operational experience, he explained.

In 2005, fashion magazines targeting female readers waged a gift-giving war. A senior media analyst points out that, strictly speaking, such competition is actually a contest of economic strength rather than magazine quality. Thus those who can compete are those with foreign backing, leaving domestic brands firmly stuck in the back seat.

Now, eight of China’s top ten magazines in terms of ad revenue are foreign- funded, something that is luring an increasing number of overseas publishing groups into the Chinese market.

Few technical and fashion magazines sold today in China have no foreign investment or copyright transfer background. In the finance magazine category, Fortune/China magazine published in Hong Kong easily outstrips domestic magazines of the same ilk in the ad revenue stakes.

To deal with the impact from foreign periodical publication groups, Li suggests that China’s domestic publication industry launch an institutional reform process to best come to terms with globalization.

He advocates improving the skills and benefits of magazine management and, for domestic periodical editorial boards, bringing their operations up to date with the latest developments. “They need to connect magazines with the whole social transition,” he explained. “They have to think deeply about the reality of periodicals, the reality of our society and the entire media environment and find an interactive relationship between magazines and society.”

Li finds that many magazines fail to inform, preferring instead to entertain readers, something he sees as a failing in an age of information. It’s a business that needs passion and it’s not always just about the bottom line, said Li.