China and India gaining prominence in international newspapers

Posted by Federica Cherubini on January 27, 2012 at 4:24 PM

Starting from the current issue The Economist will have a weekly section devoted to China, the paper's leader announced.

This is the first time since 1942, when the a US section was introduced, that the news magazine is dedicating an entire section to a single country, the article explained. Thematic sections and blogs as well as specific columns are usually focused on a geographical area, as Banyan, the blog dedicated to Asia, which takes its name from the Banyan tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment and Gujarati merchants used to conduct business.

The name for China blog has not yet been decided and the paper invited readers to send suggestions. It will ideally need to agree with the style and 19th-century origins of the other sections and columns names, from Bagehot, the column dedicated to Britain, which takes its name from Walter Bagehot, British constitutional expert and early editor of The Economist, to Baobab, the section focused on Africa and Middle East which owes its name to the African tree.

The reason for dedicating a whole section to just one country lies in the role of global superpower that China is gaining on economic as well as political level, The Economist explained.

Fast growing countries such China or India are increasingly becoming interesting focus for newspapers with an international audience. In September 2011 The New York Times launched India Ink, its "first-ever country-specific site", for news, information, culture and conversation.

On the other hand, countries like India, and some Latin American ones such as Brazil, are also proving to be areas with a particularly interesting growth of newspapers themselves.

India, for example, is "the world's fastest-growing newspaper market" accordingly to another Economist article, which notes however that the strength of the print press is in part down to the weakness of its online offerings.

Sources: Economist (1), (2), (3), Editors Weblog