From the South China Morning Post (subscription required):
Six high-profile journalists from the weekly Economic Observer – one of the mainland’s most important business newspapers – resigned at the start of this month over concerns about the organisation’s expanding bureaucracy.
Two more editorial staff members are believed to have resigned a week later.
Senior reporter Huang Jixin told the South China Morning Post that he handed in his resignation because “the executives are trying to run the newspaper with company rules, which I don’t think is right”.
…Among the six to hand in their notice was well-known business critic Xu Zhiyuan , who had once vowed to turn the journal into Asia’s most influential newspaper.
Xu wrote on his web log that the main reason he was leaving the Beijing-based paper after four years was because “the sense of justice is disappearing from the institution”…
The newspaper was once a magnet for ambitious young journalists on the mainland.
In a farewell essay, former assistant chief editor Yu Wei said: “It’s hard to believe that in such a short period of time, this land of ideals has degenerated into a Chinese-style palace.”
