Virtuous Circles Beat Vicious Cycles.docVIP

Virtuous Circles Beat Vicious Cycles 　　Hunan TV Profits from Programming Responsive to the Financial Crisis 　　 　　THE global financial crisis has swept most industries in China since the end of 2008; of course we assume the media business couldn’t escape this nightmare. It has certainly been a blow to many media outlets in China that survive mainly or partly by relying on advertising income. According to CTR Market Research, advertising spending in China edged up only two percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009, the smallest increase in ten years. But there’s a glaring exception: the case of Golden Eagle Broadcasting System (GBS), a media conglomerate that owns Hunan TV. Sheng Boji, its deputy editor-in-chief, says the company’s advertising earnings reached RMB 1.266 billion in the first half of 2009, up 20.7 percent over the same period of last year, and the advertising revenue from its hottest program “2009 Happy Girls Contest,” a kind of local American Idol, has set a record of over RMB 100 million. We can’t help but wonder, how can the media in less-developed Hunan Province make it under what everyone else acknowledges are harsh conditions? 　　Sheng was at the time making an appearance at the 2009 Asian Media Forum in Changchun, capital city of northeastern China’s Jilin Province. The annual event was launched in 2003 by the Asia Media Research Center, an academic research organization jointly founded by the Communication University of China and the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies. This year it spotlighted problems and opportunities left for the media in the wake of the financial crisis. Tens of high-ranking government officials, media experts and experienced staff from big-name domestic and foreign communications giants presented at the conference, exchanging their ideas and contributing practical solutions for navigating the economic storm. 　　 　　The Lipstick Effect 　　 　　Social wisdom and collective experience suggest that people seek