China Media News

Welcome to the new home for information on China's growing media, public relations, journalism, and broadcast industries.

On a lark, a few months ago, I sat down and realized I had a lot of information on what was happening in China's media circles. I'm not as "plugged in" as some, however when I was passed information about new jobs, or managerial changes, or new hosts being hired, I really had nobody to share it with. Thus, China Media, in its former incarnation, was born.

Needless to say I was surprised to see how many hits it received, and how many people in media circles (largely state-run) checked it out. I am deeply appreciative of your support.

Nowhere on the previous site did I mention who I am. In fact, I was told at a dinner attended by many of my good friends that one particular long-time radio host, who is also a good friend of mine, had no idea that I was behind the site. I don't want this site to be presented from my point of view, so I will be keeping a low profile from this point forward. However in the interests of full disclosure, my name is Cam MacMurchy. I also run another blog on Chinese affairs called Zhongnanhai.

My background in China is largely in the media field, thus I've gotten to know many of the people involved. I worked for 18 months hosting a plethora of shows on China Radio International when I first arrived in 2004. That led to a shot stint working as a copy editor with China Central Television and as a host with Beijing People's Radio (Radio 774) where I continue to work part-time.

After CCTV 9, I was recruited to Guangzhou where I was part of the team that helped launch China's first regional all-English television channel, the Guangzhou English Channel, and hosted its flagship news and information program, Discover Guangzhou (if you scour the internet enough, I'm sure you'll come across some cheesy photos from this era!). I worked there for a year, and had a blast living in southern China and getting exposed to Cantonese culture.

In March of this year I was recruited to Jongo.com to fill a similar capacity. Jongo.com is a company owned a group of investors in the UK, and the goal was/is to turn it into China's leading English-language web portal. Sadly, after only 2 1/2 months, the investors pulled the plug on many aspects of the website, including news (although three staff remain in the newsroom updating stories periodically). On May 21, 60 people were relieved of their duties, including your's truly, who was the lead person responsible for news content.

So here I am, back in Beijing. I am working at a boutique public relations firm and also, as I mentioned before, at Radio 774 as a part-time radio host. I'm also involved in a number of other media activities in the city, which I write about occasionally at my other site. In addition, I regularly submit columns to overseas publications (if only they would "regularly" publish them!) and have had articles in the International Herald Tribune and Washington Times, among others. I have utmost respect for writers who make a living on freelance work, as I am learning it is not an easy profession, to say the least.

To date, there is no dedicated site that covers media and media personalities in China. I hope this can be the first, and I dearly hope it can be successful. But it can not be successful without strong content, and I will do my best to get the job openings, information, and updates on media personalities across China to you as soon as possible. As I am a foreigner here, I am most familiar with those in the English-language press or public relations industries. That doesn't mean that I won't post information from the Chinese media, and in fact, I encourage people to submit these items if you come across them. If you have any information or job openings that you'd like to share, please don't hesitate to fire me off an email at tips@chinamedianews.net.

One final point: My goal is to share information, and not become a negative or gossip site. A few comments made on the previous version of this site were quite negative, and I ask that we try and keep things as positive as possible. As someone who's been in media in Canada and China for many years, I know that those involved love this industry deeply and care about those in it. Let's keep it light.

I hope you enjoy the site, and I hope you come back.