China Media & Press

1. Television
☆ China Central Television (中央电视台)
1.CCTV-1 General (This channel produces the main evening news broadcast, and usually has the first run of serious, patriotic TV series. )
2.CCTV-2 Finance (formerly Economy & Life)
3.CCTV-3 Arts and Entertainment (literally Variety show)
4.CCTV-4 International (in Chinese)
5.CCTV-5 Sports
6.CCTV-6 Movie
7.CCTV-7 Military and Agriculture
8.CCTV-8 TV series
9.CCTV-9 Documentary (both in Chinese of Local and English of International)
10.CCTV-10 Science and Education
11.CCTV-11 Chinese Opera
12.CCTV-12 Society and Law
13.CCTV-13 News
14.CCTV-14 Children
15.CCTV-15 Music
16.CCTV-News International (in English; formerly CCTV-9)
17.CCTV-Français International (in French)
18.CCTV-Español International (in Spanish)
19.CCTV-العربية International (in Arabic)
20.CCTV-Русский International (in Russian)
21.CCTV-HD – High-definition
 
Phoenix TV and Phoenix News & Finance (凤凰卫视/凤凰资讯)
- Mandarin language broadcasts out of Hong Kong. Program guide is available.
StarTV (星空卫视)
- Product of Rupert Murdoch's Asia arm, Star Group Ltd. Runs shameless knockoffs of western TV, crass humor shows from Taiwan, and old Hong Kong movies.
SunTV (阳光卫视)
- Reworked History channel programming, panel discussions from Chinese intellectuals, and infomercials. Not so widely available.
 
2. Portal or Most-commented websites
☆Xinhuanet (新华网) - Xinhua's English service is at ChinaView
Baidu (百度) - Baidu News and Baidu News Ticker
Sina (新浪网) - News and China News
Netease (网易) - News
Sohu (搜狐) - News
Tom - News
 
3. Newspapers
☆People's Daily (人民日报)
- It is issued by People's Daily Group, a national voice of the Party. Also available in an English version.
Beijing Times (京华时报)
- Part of People's Daily group but edited and managed like commercial newspapers such as Beijing Youth Daily.
☆China Youth Daily (中国青年报)
- Published since 1951 and distributed nationwide, it has always had a large reader base because universities and high schools were forced to subscribe. Nonetheless, it is a good and well-respected Chinese newspaper. According to their website, China Youth Daily has sells about half a million copies every day. The China Youth Daily is a different entity from Beijing Youth Daily.
Southern Weekend (南方周末)
Southern Metropolitan Daily (南方都市报)
- It is published by Southern Media Group and known for investigative exposés and a revolving door that lands editors in jail.
☆Guangming Daily (光明日报)
Guangming Online also has a comprehensive index of newspapers and media groups.
Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报)
(Legal) Mirror (法制晚报)
- They are part of Beijing Youth Daily Group which listed its 'advertising division' on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2004.
☆Beijing Daily(北京日报)
Beijing Morning Post (北京晨报)
Beijing Evening News (北京晚报)
- They are affiliated with Beijing Daily Group. The current issue is accessible off of the Beijing Daily front page.
The First (竞报)
- New paper launched in late 2004 and aligned somehow with the Beijing Olympic movement. It's a joint venture between the Beijing Daily Group, Beijing Youth Daily, and the Shanghai Media Group. Boasting a large quantity of photos and sports news, its quality has improved markedly since its early issues.
The Beijing News (新京报)
- Southern Media Group and Guangming Daily join venture; according to rumor, soon to be sold to the Beijing Youth Daily Group. On a quest to become the New York Times of China.
Xinmin Evening News (新民晚报)
Oriental Morning Post (东方早报)
- Published by Wenhui-Xinmin United Press Group
☆Jiefang Daily (解放日报)
- Press organ of the Shanghai Party
Chongqing Evening News (重庆晚报)
Yangcheng Evening News (Guangzhou) (羊城晚报)
National Business Daily 《每日经济新闻》
- Joint venture between Jiefang Daily and Chengdu Daily newspaper groups; publishes eight pages apiece on domestic and international business news. Based in Shanghai.
China Business News 《第一财经日报》
- First Chinese business daily, aims "to be the most influential, authoritative and respected financial daily newspaper in China, matching the future of Chinese economic development, and equivalent to world-class papers like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times" (and it has engraved head-shots to demonstrate its 'equivalence'). But it has a reputation for being boring.
21st Century Business Herald 《21世纪经济报道》
- Southern Media Group publishes this paper twice weekly. Lengthy articles and in-depth industry analysis. Head-shots are ink drawings rather than Journal-style engravings.
The Economic Observer (经济观察报)
- Business weekly. Self described as "China's leading weekly for economy, politics, and culture," the pink color makes its FT-knockoff status pretty obvious. Regular special features are particularly well-done, with The Economic Observer Review of Books completing the cultured air of this paper. The online version charges a fee except for a small number of free articles (although the PDFs make it to the P2P networks pretty quickly, which says something about its reputation). There's also an English version with occasional translations of selected articles.
China Business (中国经营报)
- Business weekly. Published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which gives it access to lots of data and research.
 
4. Magazines
☆Outlook (瞭望新闻周刊)
- Official newsweekly. Articles hosted directly on Xinhuanet.com.
☆Oriental Outlook (瞭望东方周刊)
- Outlook spinoff also run by Xinhua; it's meant to be a quasi-independent, "alternative" news-weekly.
☆Globe (环球)
Xinmin Weekly (新民周刊)
Caijing (财经)
- China's most respected business magazine, known for occasional muckraking stories - Caijing English Newsletter
China Newsweek (中国新闻周刊)
New Weekly (新周刊)
Worldview (看世界)
Window on the South (南风窗)
Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊)
Modern Weekly (周末画报)
FHM (男人装) and Cosmo (时尚•COSMOPOLITAN) Esquire (时尚•ESQUIRE)
TrendsMag (《时尚》杂志社)
- The group also publishes Bazaar, National Geographic Traveler, Men's Health, Good Housekeeping, etc.
Ma(n)gazine (名牌)
- By Southern Media Group "mangazine•名牌 is the only fashion magazine in China whose target readers are no one but high-class men in the society. It aims to start a elite time and define the elite class in China."
City Pictorial (城市画报)
- Southern Media Group also publishes Southern People Weekly (above) and several newspapers.
WomanFriend (女友)
- Popular series of girly-girl magazines. Launched as "WomanFriend" in 1988, it's grown to three main editions on the mainland
Man (男友)
- Appears to be defunct. The Group has also expanded internationally, with editions in Australia, North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe
Banana (演艺周刊)
- Tabloid / celebrity gossip weekly; no online presence at the moment. OK! Mainland Chinese version of the international trash magazine.
Big Star (明星•BIGSTAR)
- Paparazzi photos and gossip every Friday. It's divided into two sections, "Hot!" (tagline: "Entertainment gossip stops here") and "Top!" (tagline: "Live like a star") whose pages are numbered separately.
 
Titan Sports (体坛周报)
- China's most successful sports bi-weekly newspaper. It started off as a photocopied football fanzine in the 1990s, distributed for free in Changsha, capital of the Central Southern province of Hunan. In a few years, riding the wave of the growing interest towards football and sports in general, Titan Sports became the number 1 publication for sports and one of the best-selling newspapers in the entire country. It's jointly published by the Hunan Art and Culture Publishing House (湖南文艺出版社) and Titan Publishing House (体坛出版社).
Sports Weekly(足球周刊)
- A glossy, highly successful magazine entirely dedicated to football, produced by the Titan Sports Group. It is one of China's best magazines in terms of quality of content, pictures and design. It boasts a collaboration with the prestigious France Football magazine. 
   
Note: In the above list, ☆ indicates a media outtet closely affiliated with the government or party.