The New York Times has reported aggressively on the conflict between business and journalism in Bloomberg’s China operations. Now, its own Chinese-language site is “under review” as a result of its blocking by Chinese authorities. The site was launched in June last year in expectation of lucrative luxury ad revenues, but was swiftly blocked after the Times published an award-winning exposé of Wen Jiabao’s family wealth that October. From Jennifer Saba at Reuters:
[New York Times Company president and CEO Mark] Thompson said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that the website, which was launched in a beta version in June 2012, got off to an encouraging start.
“The fact that we can’t be seen officially inside China means the revenue is not as large as we would have wished it to have been,” he said.
“If it’s a loss-making operation, they are all under constant review.”
[…] Thompson said that Chinese officials had given no indication that the main site was going to be unblocked anytime soon. [Source]
