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kyd
Reacher
Joined: Jan 08, 2005
Posts: 230
Status: Offline
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  Posted:
May 20, 2005 - 11:13 PM |
 
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| Post subject: NEW THAT'S LOOK |
hey, guys, just went to that's mag's web just now.....a new look again! our classified lost again! and need to register with them......but the registration function is not working...anyone knows? |
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DILLIGAF
Rocker
Joined: Dec 21, 2004
Posts: 763
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
May 20, 2005 - 11:33 PM |
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G'Day,
That's sucks big time since MK pulled out or lets say got cheated out!
DILLIGAF
On 5/14/05, BUSINESS LIFE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The perils of publishing in a legal limbo: CHINESE START-UPS: Richard
McGregor reports on a British entrepreneur whose listings magazine
business was stung by tough controls on Chinese media.
By RICHARD MCGREGOR
(c) 2005 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved
In July 2002, Mark Kitto found himself at the offices of China
Intercontinental Press, a Beijing-based publisher. The British
entrepreneur was there to meet Yuan Baoan, a man whose connections
offered him the chance to pull his business out of a dangerous legal
limbo.
After establishing his first listings magazine in the southern Chinese
city of Guangzhou in 1997, Mr Kitto had managed to turn himself into a
mini magazine mogul.
In four years he built up a stable of four English-language magazines
in three cities. By 2004 the business had a turnover of almost Dollars
4m and more than 100 staff.
But before he could think of further growth, he had one problem – he
had to make his business comply with Chinese media laws.
"The way I had always done things in China was to act first and then
sort things out later," he says. "In general, it worked out."
With Mr Yuan, however, things did not work out. After a cautious
courtship and then a fateful falling-out, the 38-year-old lost his
magazines and felt so targeted by officialdom that he returned to
Britain.
Mr Kitto's story is a cautionary tale about the risks for foreign
entrepreneurs - especially those without the backing of large
companies - who invest in Chinese media, a sector over which the
government maintains tight control.
Foreigners can distribute and sell advertising for magazines in China
but cannot be responsible for content. The government reinforces this
rule by requiring all publications to have numbered permits, which are
issued by the General Administration of Press and Publications, under
the State Council, China's cabinet.
The government's permit system, however, lags far behind the market.
Since the late 1990s, foreign-language listings magazines have been
set up to cater for growing expatriate communities, most without
official approval.
Mr Kitto's magazines, such as That's Shanghai, developed cachet with
locals as well as attracting advertising from the booming property and
restaurant industries.
But publishing the magazines was only one part of Mr Kitto's job. Much
of his time was spent on politics - that is, trying to secure
partnerships with the all-important holders of publishing numbers that
would keep his magazines open.
The most difficult market was Shanghai, which operates tough media
controls. Yet it was also the most profitable because of the city's
wealth and international population. In one raid, local officials
confiscated the magazine's computers. In another, they sat down at the
magazine's offices, put their feet up on the desks and demanded that
they be brought buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch.
From June 1999, That's Shanghai survived by using a licence number
from the Yangzhou government in return for running a page each month
about the attractions of the nearby city. Mr Kitto kept control of the
business by entering into an "exclusive consultancy arrangement" with
Yangzhou, as well as with an advertising agency that was owned by the
magazine's Chinese financial controller.
"I had deliberately kept the thing floating out there so that when a
structure came along, I could put everything in," he says. "I relied
on trust."
His approach was not as foolhardy as it sounds for a start-up in
China. Even large companies have taken risks by investing ahead of
compliance with the letter of the law. But sooner or later, especially
as he expanded into Beijing, Mr Kitto knew he needed a legitimate
local publishing partner.
Mr Yuan seemed just the man.
Mr Yuan was a representative of China Intercontinental Press, a
publisher with close ties to the State Council Information Office and
with a brief to promote China to foreigners.
The two started co-operating in July 2002, with Mr Yuan's CIP
initially providing the magazine company with publishing numbers
normally reserved for books. It was not until early last year, when
the two started to negotiate ajoint venture, that problems surfaced.
Mr Kitto remembers being put firmly in his place from their first
encounter. "The first thing to know," he recalls being told by Mr
Yuan, "is that this is not going to be a negotiation of equals."
That much became clear when Mr Yuan showed Mr Kitto the list of city
magazines in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, and their publishing
numbers. CIP had added a new magazine that it had decided to publish
itself, called That's China. The new title began selling advertising
space cheaply, eating into the revenues from the other titles.
Worried about losing his magazines, Mr Kitto began talking
confidentially toTom group, a listed Hong Kong company that was keen
to push into the mainland media market.
When CIP found out, it summoned Mr Kitto to Beijing for a meeting.
Having arrived at Shanghai airport for an early morning flight,
however, a sixth sense told him to return to the office.
He arrived there to find his staff assembled with Mr Yuan. Under
pressure to keep their jobs, most had switched sides. Mr Yuan is
unabashed about what happened, saying the magazines had been illegal
until CIP had taken over as the publisher in 2002. "During our
co-operation, Mark has never been our legitimate partner. He hasn't
signed any files so far and it is deceptive of him to claim to be the
boss," Mr Yuan says.
Yet Mr Kitto had not finished. He had started a travel magazine,
Voyage, in co-operation with a publishing house in Guangxi province.
He also still owned the trademark to the listings magazines. But he
had underestimated Mr Yuan, who had kept in reserve an unpublished
copy of a 2003 review by Mr Kitto of a book on Xinjiang, a touchy
topic in China because of the region's separatist movement.
Mindful of the sensitivity, Mr Kitto had submitted a copy of the
review in advance to CIP and had not been surprised when it was not
published.
In April this year, however, his partners in Voyage had rung up "in
hysterics", saying they had been asked by the authorities in Beijing
to explain why they were working with a supporter of "Muslim
separatists".
Mr Yuan admits that when he was asked by the Guangxi group about Mr
Kitto's past record he told them about the Xinjiang review. "This is
quite natural. Mark is a foreigner and doesn't have a wide scope of
knowledge. He should first comply with Chinese law," says Mr Yuan.
Mr Yuan also wants ownership of the trademarks, saying it was
"illegal" for Mr Kitto to buy them from a local magazine in 2002,
three months after CIP had started to help as a publisher.
Now left contemplating his future in England, Mr Kitto intends to
fight to keep the trademarks, or force CIP to pay him for their use.
But victory is not assured, especially now that his name has been
tarred politically.
As Mr Kitto remembers Mr Yuan saying to him when they were still on friendly
terms and talking about a structure for the magazines: "Mark, if I say
it is illegal, it is illegal." |
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scootergrrl
Talker
Joined: June 17, 2002
Posts: 102
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted:
May 23, 2005 - 12:05 AM |
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Yea... I haven't opened/picked up a That's or given their site a hit since the old crew were screwed over. I hope the mag goes down the gurgler. I hear that most of the writers went over to 8days which is a pretty good mag so far. I love that Charlene Dy chick... she is hilarious! 
(NB: I am not in any way affiliated with 8 days. Just mad that the old crew were Shanghaied and the wankers who did the Shanghaing seem to be getting away with it... so far). |
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kyd
Reacher
Joined: Jan 08, 2005
Posts: 230
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
May 23, 2005 - 04:35 PM |
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where's Mark now? 8 days is his new masterpiece or is he in UK now? |
_________________
Kyd-Loves to Kid |
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Caesara
Post Roaster
Joined: July 31, 2004
Posts: 4572
Location: The Middle Kingdom (Shanghai)
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
May 27, 2005 - 09:14 AM |
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The almighty Yuan?
What a bastard. No more That's Shanghai for me! I hope it implodes. |
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kyd
Reacher
Joined: Jan 08, 2005
Posts: 230
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
May 27, 2005 - 02:27 PM |
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not really, that's is not too bad then......but it's website is really, hmmmmm....sigh....sucks now and then!
it used to be quite good |
_________________
Kyd-Loves to Kid |
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