Shanghaiist: SH Mag's revamp

Kenneth T

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:47:16 +0800

To all the past and present employees of SH Mag that have made your presence felt in this post, thank you for reading Shanghaiist. If I have stepped on a nerve somewhere, I am truly, unreservedly sorry. Rest assured it was NEVER my intention to take down anyone or any publication in town. GrisGrisAhAh summed it well by describing SH as the "least po-faced of the Shanghai crop", and I agree. For the record, I have been an avid reader of your magazine, and never fail to grab the latest copy of it whenever I see it at ARCH. I would also rate SH Magazine as having the best food content in town, to the credit of St Cavish. I am not aware of any other food writer in town that the average reader in Shanghai is able to name. Maybe, all this has come a bit too late, and I guess I should have mentioned all of that while putting together the post. But as they say, better late than never. Peace out.

vladivostok

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:44:00 +0800

You're just picking nits xxxtina. I think the writer has displayed he knows what "广告" is in his translation of "中外文广告". In Chinese, when you have an advertorial, you certainly won't display the term "软文", it would be "广告". And he paid attention to that in his translation. I am native Chinese, and no I certainly do not relate it to 中外文广告 when I see it on every page. It is strange yes.

xxxtina

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:04:50 +0800

Errrh, looks like someone can use a little Chinese lesson here. 广告 is certainly not the term for 'advertorial' in mandarin. 软文 is. 广告 simply means 'advertisement'. So when a person who can read Chinese properly sees these two characters on SH's pages, he or she won't see the contents as 'advertorial'. They are more likely to relate it to 中外文广告 which they see on the cover. As a matter of fact, if you've paid enough attention, the real advertorials in SH are clearly marked as 'advertorial' in English (see page 11, the Jan 4 issue).

Mister Tee

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:54:52 +0800

Slow news day, huh Kenneth. Looking at Dan Bignold's response, it looks like you didn't flip through the magazine much if you missed the 8 pages of classifieds, and that 广告 has appeared on the cover (!) for as long as I've been in Shanghai. The mystery of the 广告 appears rather obvious: they needed to make put it their to satisfy the publishing authorities here. I've heard mag licenses are sparingly given out in the Mainland. If I wanted to start a mag, and I thought the only way to do so was to stick two characters on each page, I'd do it do. You wouldn't?

jxycliuwen

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:13:12 +0800

"中外文广告", the name sounds like an advertising handbook which is published by Focus Media

Kenneth T

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:09:53 +0800

I think it is just too easy to pass all the blame on to the "government" and to say they made you do this or that. Sure, all magazines have to be issued through a government-approved publisher, but you are pretty free to choose who you work with. Some marriages work out and some don't, and we have seen that being played out over and over again in the industry. Don't say there is no choice. Maybe, it's just SH's tough luck that they chose to have a partner that made them slap on "广告” on every page? Sure, blame it all on their partner. Sorry, but the "广告" issue is a pretty big deal. There is a reason why publishing regulations require us to slap on "ADVERTORIAL" when the space is paid for. When readers can't tell what's been paid for and what's not anymore, then woah, you've got a problem.

jiminycricket

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:39:10 +0800

Kenneth, it appears that you haven't done your homework when it comes to the nature of the publishing industry in China. You don't put what you think 'might work' on your cover, or the pages within without permission, just as you don't necessarily control all the editorial content within the magazine. In fact, you don't even control the size of the paper (A3 or A4) without a proper license, and those nifty maps you see in mags also require another license. You do what the government tells you to do, and that government includes the company that holds the license that is necessary to distribute the magazine in the first place. Sure, it'd be great if readers had to scan their eyes across a more appropriate Chinese moniker. And yes, it'd be neat if it wasn't labeled advertorial, when a great deal of it certainly is not (I doubt that many of Mister St Cabbage's restaurant reviews are advertorial in nature. Unless he's advertising that a certain place is not worth visiting)

James Creegan

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:33:51 +0800

Regardless of what's printed on the top of the page, SH (or whatever the hell it's called) is still by far my favourite ex-pat magazine. I'd gladly pay to have it delivered just so I don't miss a week.

Kenneth T

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:18:02 +0800

If it really was a licensing issue, then IMHO, slapping the name "中外文" on every page would have made much more sense than "广告". Don't you think it's important for readers to know what they're reading are advertorials or not?

Andy Best

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:09:16 +0800

SH mag's Chinese name sums it up perfectly, whether it's a name or a requirement. They should amend the English name to something similar, like "Advert (not) in disguise".

GrisGrisAhAh

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:10:35 +0800

Though SH has never been the most comprehensive of mags, it is the most entertaining and least po-faced of the Shanghai crop (can't recall ever having made it through the embolysm-in-ink that is Talk), though the redesign didn't warrant quite such a loud and ham-fisted heralding. It's good that they've done away with the horrible glossy sheet of ads that used to slide out of every issue. Though it does seem to mainly be filled with food articles by Chris St Cavish, the guy knows his stuff. Maybe it should remarket itself as a wining and dining guide.

Dan Washburn

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:05:24 +0800

Honestly, I have never noticed. I guess it's a good thing very few of their readers likely read Chinese. Are they all officially known as "advertorial magazines"?

jiminycricket

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:51:38 +0800

Actually, if you look, that same string of characters appears on other advertorial magazines in Shanghai as well. I suspect it's the publisher's legal name.

Dan Washburn

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:46:57 +0800

Looks like they should have picked a better Chinese name then.

jiminycricket

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:39:41 +0800

You're talking about a licensing issue here, Mister Tan. Even though printing "advertorial" on each page might be, like, totally, "just plain craziness," it's fairly logical to do so when the government requires it. I reckon their staff, like em or not, probably flips through the pages from time to time.