There is a new rumor nearly every day about the Tom Group acquiring or doing deals with Mainland media companies. The latest one, reported in the South China Morning Post, says that Tom is in talks to take a 49 per cent holding in the ‘non-editorial operations’ of the Economic Observer, a weekly business newspaper with a nationwide circulation of about 150,000.
The article also states that “Tom is also considering investing in Shandong Yuanchuang, a unit of privately held Shandong Sanlian Group which ultimately controls the Economic Observer.”
You can see an Economic Observer front page on Danwei here. The South China Morning Post article is here (subscription required).