China's media landscape largely divides between the more traditional State-run media and various new and more market-oriented media, from general portals and social network services on the Internet to newspapers targeting local consumers.

Liu Xiaoying, a professor with the Communication University of China, said Xi was "courageous" in taking the initiative and proposing reform of the media, which is an area where progress has yet to be made to match the progress of reform in other areas.

It shows the Chinese president "is quite clear about the media environment at home and abroad," Liu said.

The key to the success of the reforms will lie in the "integration of market forces and government plans" and should help the media raise their level of management, he added. Some media have raised reform slogans but have yet to do much in practice, Liu noted, adding their content lacks diversity and their management has many holes.

Huang Chuxin, a professor of media studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he expected China's media development to "really see a breakthrough" in the current round of reform.

"We've been talking about media convergence for a long time. But for me, the key is not so much convergence as innovation, particularly innovation in media management. Convergence cannot be successful if it is just for the sake of convergence," Huang said.

Chen Weixing, a professor of communication studies with the Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, said the recent investigation into corruption at CCTV show that if reform continues to be slow, the media will lose the public's trust.

Rao Jin, a young entrepreneur who owns a small news website, said he was glad to hear President Xi's words and said he is willing to work with State-owned large media organizations.

But he pointed out that the so-called convergence can only be a transitional state in media development. At the end of the day, he said, all media, whatever channels they own, will have to operate under the "Internet way of thinking".

The author is a writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/20/2014 page8)