According to Danwei sources, Reader’s Digest is in the advanced stages of setting up an operation to publish a Chinese language version of the magazine that is known for its family-orientation, and conservative, pro-American views.
As long as those values can be transformed into conservative, pro-China content, the magazine will probably do well here.
The Chinese version of the magazine will apparently be published in collaboration with a Shanghai publishing company.
Meanwhile in Beijing, Jonathan Ansfield reports on China Digital Times (blocked in China):
Word around Beijing’s CBD is that The Wall Street Journal and its publisher Dow Jones are in talks with Hexun.com about a deal to take a ten to twenty percent stake in China’s best-reputed financial news and information portal. As of last week a deal did not appear far off, two sources with ties to Hexun said, though terms of the negotiations were unclear. “From I’ve heard it sounds like a venture capital arrangement,” said one source.
Hexun is controlled by SEEC, which also publishes the well-known business and financial magazine Caijing and a growing stable of glossies.