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State-led Intrapreneurship as a Model for Media Entrepreneurship: The Cases of Pengpai and Other News Apps in China

Sun, May 27, 11:00 to 12:15, Hilton Old Town, Floor: M, Haydn

Abstract

Media intrapreneurship, or the embedding of startups within legacy media organizations (Boyles, 2016), is viewed as an innovative strategy to addressing the crisis in journalism. While most intrapreneurial projects in the West receive funding from media organizations and venture capitalists, most such projects in China are state-funded. The most prominent cases are news apps launched by local newspaper groups and funded by local governments. We examine nine news apps by conducting participant observation and interviewing 43 executives, journalists, propaganda officials, media investors, and scholars. We explain the motivations of the state to engage in news entrepreneurship, the implications of the state’s involvement in performance and sustainability of innovative projects, and compare this unique model with Western models of news entrepreneurship. The China case can inform debates on media entrepreneurship and journalism crisis by bringing in the omitted role of the state.

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