Editor-in-chief Jeremy Goldkorn said in a post that “The China Project,” one of the few independently financed English-language periodicals that cover China in-depth for Western readers, is closing due to financial difficulties.
Originally founded as SupChina, the China Project grew to become a “news and business intelligence company focused on helping a global audience understand China” according to its website. It started out as a newsletter in 2016.
Its offerings included the well-liked Sinica podcast, which focused on Chinese news and society; articles on a broad variety of China-related subjects on its website; a business intelligence data package called “ChinaEDGE”; and conference planning.
The number of employees also rose. However, similar to other internet-based media businesses in recent years, like Buzzfeed News, financing proved difficult.
In a statement posted on the website, Goldkorn stated, “The media business is precarious.” “This week, we learned that a source of funding that we had been counting on was no longer going to come through, and we have had to make the difficult decision to close down.”
The firm aimed to provide “balanced” reporting on subjects related to China and the United States and China. However, as the two nations’ ties reached unprecedented lows, this drew criticism.
“We have been accused many times in both countries of working for nefarious purposes for the government of the other.”Defending ourselves has incurred enormous legal costs, and, far worse, made it increasingly difficult for us to attract investors, advertisers, and sponsors. While our subscription offerings have been growing strongly and steadily, we are not yet in a position to rely on these revenues to sustain our operations,” Goldkorn said.
Subscription models have yielded varied results for media firms worldwide.
According to a Reuters investigation, the China Project’s membership package, which provided “the internet’s best birds-eye view of China” for $120 a year, was still available to site users on Tuesday.
“We do not have a business model problem.We had huge goals, and our investors fully supported us as we pursued them fearlessly. However, due to geopolitical and economic challenges, investor interest has sharply decreased during the previous six months. We lost the ability to support who we had become into,” CEO Bob Guterma said to Reuters through email.
