Chris Devonshire-Ellis Celebrates 10 Years of Publishing in China

Attending China Briefing’s tenth anniversary party at Beijing’s exclusive Capital Club this past week represents something of a landmark for independent foreign media in China. Not only does publishing remain a restricted industry to foreign participation in China, but blogs and magazines are highly scrutinized for content. Maintaining a well written, English language website in China is not an easy thing to accomplish. The law prohibits income unless there is a Chinese majority partner, and to produce quality material requires expense. Yet China Briefing has managed, for ten years, to do without the partner and to bear the not inconsiderable costs of maintaining the brand. Accordingly, its sheer longevity in the market represents something of a benchmark for independent foreign media in China. Founded by Chris Devonshire-Ellis, who is additionally the Senior Partner of the Foreign Investment Practice Dezan Shira & Associates, the success of China Briefing has meant compliance with China’s rigid publishing laws, a determined ability to succeed in a hostile investment environment, and that good old fashioned resource – good quality, consistent content. And a large wallet.

The brand – which is hugely famous in China amongst the expatriate community – has broken the mould of what it means to be an independent publisher. Its magazines are to be found all over the country, are published in six different languages, have spawned a best selling series of legal, tax and business guides, and its daily blog is one of the leading English language business commentaries available online. To demonstrate its popularity in China, Traffic Estimate, the US based web analyst, places China Briefing’s monthly English language blog views at @65,000 a month. By comparison, Jack Perkowski, best selling author of “Managing The Dragon”, ex-Wall Street China guru and senior US expat man about town, manages just 12,000. Clearly, China Briefing has managed to buck the trend and achieve the holy grail in the China market – brand recognition.  

That’s impressive enough, however the other, somewhat astounding thing about China Briefing’s success is that for the most part, its blog and monthly magazines have remained entirely free, and are developed, produced and distributed at the owners own expense. .

Chris Devonshire-Ellis, the founder, remains a somewhat enigmatic figure in China. Part business guru, part marketing specialist, he upset the Chinese Government earlier in the year by publishing information over the position the RMB, China’s currency, would take against the US dollar in an interview with the Chairman of the Peoples Bank of China. Coming just two days before new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to China, the markets reacted with billions of dollars of movements, and the Chinese Government were forced to issue denials over what had in fact been said. Later put down to ‘cultural misunderstandings’ over “off the record” notifications, the incident highlighted the tightrope that foreign media in China have to walk. Yet it is to Devonshire-Ellis’s, and China Briefing’s credit – and importance in China – that they received little more than a slap on the wrist. Devonshire-Ellis was subsequently elected to the Business Advisory Council of the United Nations Greater Tumen Initiative, which includes North-East China –  your average China blog this is not.

Providing free content however, when publishing not just a blog, but a regular monthly magazine, to the standard that China Briefing demands cannot come cheaply, and it doesn’t. Devonshire-Ellis comments “China Briefing began as a way to market our firm. It continues to do that, and the cost is bearable. However, it’s now developed into a China business training institute, almost as an educational tool. We’ve helped a lot of foreign investors in China both establish, then educate their staff about the complexities of staying in compliance in China. Unfortunately, China’s publishing laws prohibit us from making any money from the publication and services we provide, which is awkward when we have a staff of ten, including expats, just on the research, the magazine, and the blog. But overall we’re successful in China, and China Briefing is a way we can give something back and assist with the development of FDI into the country”.

It may have taken trials and tribulations to get to ten years, but Devonshire-Ellis is expanding his media: “We’ve been able to come up with a sustainable business model that can absorb the financial burdens that operating in the restrictions of China’s media as a foreign participant brings. We’ve taken that base as a model into less restricted markets, such as India and Vietnam, and have begun producing titles in these countries as well. Eventually, what began as China Briefing will expand across Asia and cover each specific emerging market. The difficulties of doing business in China’s restricted industries has meant we’ve had to be more inventive and deal with the revenue problem in a non-traditional way”. The solution was found in books – and China Briefing now has a stable of some sixteen different business titles, the income from which is generated online and overseas, being out of the remit of China’s regulatory reach. “The overseas income of our book titles helps us to offset the costs associated with the magazine and the blog” says Devonshire-Ellis “The magazine and blog costs run into several hundred thousand dollars a year in China, but we treat this as a marketing expense. Without them, our books wouldn’t sell, yet without the books, the magazine and web costs would become prohibitive. It’s hard work, but we’re breaking the barriers to profitability down and at the same time have created a premium publishing brand. The lessons we’ve learnt developing this model in China are in fact springboarding us to profitability in other markets in ways which we would otherwise never have considered”.       

China Briefing may the Granddaddy of China’s independent business media, but others follow. China Economic Review is written and produced in Shanghai and is partially foreign owned, while average China blogs of course are ten a penny. However, a handful of gems exist, written on the ground in China rather than in the comfort of armchairs overseas. All Roads Lead To China is written by Rich Brubaker, an American living in Shanghai, dealing with logistics issues. China Environmental Law Blog is industry specific, but nonetheless raises awareness in the corporate field about environmental issues and the legal position of investing in China. 2point6billion deals exclusively with the developing trade between China and India (the title refers to the combined populations), while sites such as Jack Perkowski’s Managing the Dragon give a good corporate overview of what’s going on.

Publishing in China? It can be done.