Editor quits China's top finance magazine

Nov 9, 2009, 10:22 GMT

   Beijing - The editor of China's top financial magazine Caijing has resigned to take an academic post, officials said on Monday, amid rumours of a rift between senior staff and the magazine's owners.

   Hu Shuli left Caijing after weeks of speculation and reports that some 70 other staff had resigned from the magazine last month.

   'The resignation has been accepted,' Caijing spokeswoman Zhang Lihui told the German Press Agency dpa.

   'Hu Shuli will probably work at Zhongshan University as the president of the School of Communication and Design,' Zhang said.

   Zhang said she did not know if Hu planned to found a rival magazine, as state media reported last month.

   Hu, 56, and other staff were reportedly frustrated by a lack of funding and support for editorial independence from the owners.

   The Beijing-based Global Times said the 'power struggle' at Caijing resulted in the resignation last month of more than 70 staff, mainly from the sales and advertising departments, plus general manager Wu Chuanhui.

   Hu helped to found Caijing in 1998 under the Stock Exchange Executive Council (SEEC), a Hong Kong-listed publisher with links to China's stock market regulators.

   Caijing developed a reputation for relatively independent reporting on non-political topics, pushing the boundaries set by China's state censors.

   It built partnerships with international media and reported a circulation of 225,000 for its now bi-weekly magazine.

   But the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said Hu was believed to have pressed SEEC to bring in new investors and give up its majority stake in Caijing.

   The newspaper said Hu and other staff were disappointed that estimated annual advertising revenue of some 200 million yuan (30 million dollars) was not reinvested in the magazine.

   'The unbalanced distribution of equity returns between Caijing and its owner has resulted in the exodus,' the Global Times quoted Liu Xiaoying, a professor at the China Communications University, as saying.

   Liu said internal power struggles were 'common' for commercial media, especially financial publications.