selling stories, saving souls

inside the chinese content machine

Cover of a brain tumor memoir, A Journey Round My Skull, by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy (1939). Oliver Sakes wrote the forward of the book: “So the first chapter of his memoir opens like a detective story or a mystery novel, with a puzzling and bizarre incident that reflects the changes which are starting to happen, slowly, stealthily, in his own brain. Karinthy himself would be both subject and investigator in the increasingly complacent drama that he was subsequently drawn into.” Art by Spanish illustrator Joaquín Pertierra.

“Going down and dirty with the market (与市场同流合污)” is what I would think about anything commercial, especially writing of it. After being a fashion business journalist for the first quarter of my career, well, hardly called a journalist, more like market analyst, I deleted a bunch of luxury industry head contacts and started anew, diving into everything subculture by joining BIEDE (previously Vice China). Reporting on queer, out-laws, cross-dressers, any misfits in the society. And then tired of being the little screw in the fast-paced content machine, I chose to be a freelancer, living by savings, a luxurious act. I do not touch on any commercial writing, just contributing to any topic I am interested in, I mean genuinely interested in. I had a very black-and-white opinion about business projects, or any content that’s like a soft commercial for a brand.

How to make money and how to balance advertising and staying afloat is a problem every media company faces. The best case scenario is that you have a generous investor who believes in what you do and offers you money with no return in investment, doesn’t even ask how well the company does because they believe in you as a person. And I have seen relatively hardcore reporting-based media company got lucky like that, but of course later on struggle with monetization. If you want to grow, you need money. If you want money, you need talk to brand.

Second best case scenario is having a very rich boss, I am talking about generational money, who treats the media like a collection he enjoys maintaining and shows off to other people in his/her social circle like a honorary pet.

Most-likely to happen? The scale shrinks, journalists are laid off, the creator is back to square one, posting content in their own name, the so called self media (自媒体) in China. And will still run into the problem of monetization, but lucky ones might have creative solutions for a win win situation.

Fast forward three years, I joined a big media company in China. Big by size with the most numbers of co-workers I have had. Also by revenue, IPO-like money. It’s hard to believe a media company in this size that’s standing still in this state of economy.

I was told it is very commercial-driven, a big advertising company in disguise. I chose to ignore that. Until four months later, after officially past my trial, I have come to realize what it means.

The central question is: Can original content and brand content be a win-win? Is the divide between original and brand just so distinct? I mean is there brands we all liked and have genuine personal stories about them, like in generations?

Anyways, a friend called me consulting about earned media and paid media for her client. When I broke down how it works at my company, it finally made sense.

So content selling, essentially is matching demands, what brand needs, what the media company can offer in quality content. Here, they call it IP, a type of storytelling that can be traded and has values. For example, one is called Problem Solver, which straightforwardly features architects renovate a building’s function, or a jacket brand revising their material to be more light or sustainable, etc. The building of the IP usually starts with original content, and then as more quality the storytelling it gets, sales brings brands deal over, to create commercial value onto it.

Okay, it might sound a bit complicated, but let me break it down, when publisher sell content to advertisers, usually it goes to “Ah, we can do a Q&A, or we can do a video, or a documentary on the brand” etc, they are talking about the medium, they are not talking about the specific content. Here, however, the company delves deep, they want to know what the brand is struggling with, say having trouble with letting people know about a particular line or ESG stuff, and they match content or IP, per say. The debating margin is bigger, because they have an IP they are constantly creating values to, by original stories, and they show it to the brand, if they appreciate the story value.

I have seen my last company does it, going on business trips in Japan doing brand commercials, while doing original documentaries on the side. Crazy schedules and perhaps a few mental breakdowns along the way, but the spirit is live. They just wanna create something they like, which value they agree with.

What if, their value aligns with brands? Well, that’s best case scenarios but at this company, at least the owner of it, tries everyday, he tell the sales, the content creator, the editors, and so many core team members. He implemented a content model atop of the business world and said storytelling is the key.

TBD.