Four professionals from China’s major news media apps held a roundtable dialogue on the topic ‘Regional Internet Media Innovation’ during the Zijin Network Communication Innovation Summit in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province on April 27.

　　Zhang Ling, director of the Interactive News Center of the Shanghai-based The Paper, said The Paper is one of the most dynamic news apps in China with content as its key advantage, but it also actively experiments with diverse channels for content publication.

　　To enhance interactivity and user experiences, The Paper offered a question and answer service that allows readers to go beyond just reading news starting in 2015. Last year, a video platform was added to The Paper to further expand the content scope. “We have kept updating, and in the Internet age, it’s very necessary to be innovative to communicate quality content and enhance influence.”

　　He Keyi, director of the New Media Department and Internet TV at Jiangsu Broadcasting Corp. (JSBC), said innovation is the basic means and communication is the ultimate goal. To achieve better communication results, innovation needs to be present in every post and every work procedure. Since the launch, the Litchi News app by JSBC has released new versions about every 20 days, with changes ranging from the use of new technology to more details and content restructuring.

　　Zhejiang Daily Press Group takes the lead in China in terms of media integration. Yu Bin, vice editor-in-chief of the group’s online portal Zhejiang Online, said the print Zhejiang Daily, the website zjol.com.cn and the news app have realized full integration in news writing and editing. Among the group’s 6,800 employees, more than one-third are working in technology and new media. “Today’s Internet media company is media plus technology, and new media is more than just media alone.”

　　Launched just two and a half year ago, Xinhua Daily’s news app Jiaohuidian has accumulated over 15 million users as a result of continuous innovation efforts. “Innovation makes important news and interesting news, too and adds a human touch,” said Chen Bingshan, director of the app’s top news section. “Our app is called Jiaohuidian, which literally means a meeting point, because we try hard to build the connection between politics and the public concerns, the online and offline, as well as the dream and reality.”

　　In conclusion, Professor Hu Yiqing, deputy dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Nanjing University and also chairperson of the roundtable dialogue, said innovation in media is like a systems engineering project and requires effort in both people and the system. Innovation can be about content, forms, creative ways to guide public opinion, profit-making, technology, ideas and the whole system. Idea innovation and system innovation are two interconnected parts, he said. Without new ideas, innovation to the system will be superficial. At the same time, if system innovation is just at the surface level, you can’t expect a person to have new ideas. For traditional media to develop a strategy for new media, the key is to making real progress in people and system, he added.