作者： admin

Text/"Tsinghua Financial Review" Bai Haochen

In 2024, commercial banks have not got rid of the quagmire of retail stall.

Recently, the annual reports of most state-owned and joint-stock banks in domestic listed banks have been released. The annual report shows that the growth rate of net profit of state-owned banks and stock banks has generally slowed down, and some institutions have even experienced a significant decline. For example, the net profit of Minsheng Bank has shrunk by 9.85% compared with the previous year, and Ping An Bank has dropped by 4.19%.

Table 1: Net profit of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2023 and 2024 (100 million yuan)

Source: Wind, bank annual report

In terms of revenue, according to the business caliber, the classified revenue of the counted commercial banks is very different. Among the state-owned banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of Communications account for a relatively large proportion of public business revenue, while the retail business of agriculture, construction, China and postal services exceeds public business. Among the stock banks, CITIC Bank, Minsheng Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Zheshang Bank account for a relatively large proportion of corporate business, while the retail business of China Merchants Bank, Ping An Bank and China Everbright Bank exceeds corporate business.

Figure 1: Revenue of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 (broken down by retail company, RMB 100 million)

Source: Bank Annual Report

Judging from the change of revenue, the performance of commercial banks in public business revenue is generally better than that in retail business. In terms of retail business, the retail business income of most commercial banks has decreased compared with the previous year, and only a few banks have achieved growth. In particular, the retail business of Ping An Bank, China Everbright Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank declined significantly. The retail business income of Ping An Bank dropped by 25.90% to 71.255 billion yuan, while the decline rate of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and China Everbright Bank also exceeded 10%.

In terms of public business, more than half of the listed banks achieved growth in 2024, while the banks that did not achieve growth did not experience a sharp decline. The largest increase in corporate business was Ping An Bank. Although the retail business shrank sharply, its corporate business increased by 19.15% in 2024, and its revenue to the public was 63.841 billion yuan during the year. Postal Savings Bank, Zheshang Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank are also growing significantly on the public side.

Figure 2: Changes in the revenue of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 compared with the previous year (split by retail size)

Looking at the profit again, according to the business caliber, in 2024, the profit performance of corporate business is also significantly better than that of retail business. In terms of retail business, except for workers and peasants China Construction and China Merchants Bank, the retail profits of other banks are very small, and Zheshang Bank even experienced retail losses, with a loss of 2.663 billion yuan during the year. The performance of corporate profits is satisfactory. Except for some large state-owned banks or those banks featuring retail business, corporate business has become the main pillar of bank profits.

Figure 3: Profits/losses of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 (broken down by retail size, RMB 100 million)

In terms of profit changes, in 2024, the profit points of most banks have obviously shifted-the profit of corporate business has increased rapidly, while the profit of retail business has dropped sharply. In terms of retail business, the retail profits of listed banks generally declined compared with the previous year, among which Everbright Bank and Ping An Bank declined significantly, and Everbright Bank decreased by 95.83% to 281 million yuan. Ping An Bank dropped by 94.81% to 356 million yuan. On the public side, most banks’ profits have improved, and there are not a few that have greatly improved. In 2024, the profit of the Agricultural Bank of China to the public increased the most, with an increase of 68.92% to 244.892 billion yuan during the year. China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Merchants Bank also increased by over 20%.

Figure 4: Changes in profits of some state-owned and joint-stock banks in 2024 (split by retail size)

In terms of characteristics, both revenue and profit show the trend of corporate expansion and retail contraction, or it can be explained as the strategic turn of bank operation. The reason is mainly the cyclical rotation of bank retail and corporate business-in the past, retail business performed strongly and was under pressure on corporate business, but now it is in the opposite form.

In the early years, China’s banking industry was dominated by corporate banking. After 2010, the background of interest rate marketization superimposed residents’ wealth accumulation and consumption upgrading, prompting commercial banks to shift their strategic focus from corporate to retail. With the optimization of the top-level design of retail business, such as the pilot expansion of consumer finance companies, the relaxation of credit card installment business supervision, and the gradual improvement of personal credit information system, in 2016, joint-stock banks led by China Merchants Bank and Ping An Bank took the lead in the wave of the development of retail business characteristics, subverting the traditional business logic centered on corporate business and upgrading retail business to another growth pole of commercial banks besides corporate business.

Based on a huge customer base, retail business can provide considerable business volume, and because of the high basic interest rate of retail loans, it can also alleviate the pressure of bank interest margin, which is one of the best tracks for commercial banks to enhance their profitability and improve their operating level. Under the background of "expanding domestic demand and promoting consumption", the value of retail business is rising, and its importance is becoming more and more prominent. Commercial banks have also carried out retail business transformation in order to adapt to macro-development, alleviate the current operating difficulties, occupy a favorable position and seize the first opportunity in industry competition.

However, in recent years, the retail business of banks has gradually entered a bottleneck period. Since 2023, commercial banks have been in a state of collective stall at the retail end for two consecutive years. According to incomplete statistics, the retail revenue of most large and medium-sized banks that have published results has been hit, and the retail business revenue has generally shown a negative growth trend. There are two main reasons for the huge decline in retail business of commercial banks:

On the one hand, the downward cycle of real estate continues to curb residents’ willingness to consume. After decades of prosperity, China’s real estate market suffered periodic pains, and the growth rate of national real estate development investment declined for three consecutive years. The downward trend of the housing market had a direct impact on residents’ asset value and income expectations. First, the shrinking asset value directly affects residents’ willingness to consume. In order to cope with potential economic risks, more residents tilt their financial focus from consumption to savings, which inhibits mainstream personal credit businesses such as credit cards and consumer loans. Second, the continuous decline in housing prices will continue to hit the confidence of mortgage buyers and raise the risk of default, which will lead to a surge in non-performing rates.

On the other hand, credit cards, consumer loans and other products face high homogeneous stock competition. After years of market development practice, China’s urban credit card and consumer loan markets are gradually saturated. At present, the retail product matrix of each bank is highly homogeneous, and it mainly relies on the preferential strength and location advantages of commercial banks for stock competition. In addition, with the rise of internet finance, online consumer credit products, with their convenience and flexibility, further aggravate the operating pressure of credit card and consumer loan business. According to the Blue Book of China Bank Card Industry Development 2024, the total amount of credit card transactions in 2023 was 39.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.6%, and the transaction amount declined for two consecutive years. The average decline of credit card transactions in state-owned/joint-stock banks has reached 23.44%. With the stall of the main retail businesses such as credit cards and consumer loans, the growth momentum of bank retail has fallen into a bottleneck.

Under the long-term influence of multiple factors, the non-performing rate at the retail end of banks has risen and the incremental space has been continuously compressed. Under the realistic background that weakness is difficult to solve in a short time, commercial banks need to resort to other businesses to ensure high-quality and stable operation.

The performance of the public business is bright, and the bank’s break is dawning.

In the context of the collective stall of retail business of commercial banks in 2024, the resilience shown to public business may become the way to break the bank’s operation. For a long time, corporate banking has been an indispensable part of bank credit business, although in recent years some banks have shifted their focus to retail business. However, the foundation of public business is still there. In the context of the current lack of growth momentum of retail business, it is relatively wise for commercial banks to shift their business focus to corporate business, which is embodied in the following points:

First, it has strong anti-cyclical ability for public business. Compared with the retail business, which is highly influenced by the fluctuation of economic cycle, the public business has stronger anti-cyclical ability relying on policy support and industrial chain coordination. The stability of corporate customers’ cash flow is higher than that of retail customers, which plays a role in smoothing the fluctuation of asset quality in the overall operation of banks.

Second, the corporate business has more abundant business scenarios. Corporate business has the nature of "credit+",while corporate business has the nature of "credit+",which can promote the coordinated development of intermediary business, thus generating the multiplier effect of comprehensive income. By providing services to corporate customers, banks can simultaneously explore retail business opportunities such as payroll and employee wealth management, and realize the value transfer chain from enterprises to individuals to enterprises.

Third, the development of corporate business is in line with the current policy orientation. Under the current macroeconomic policy environment, the state emphasizes that finance supports the real economy and promotes industrial upgrading and structural adjustment. As one of the core channels of banking service entities, corporate business is highly compatible with policy guidance such as serving the real economy and supporting national strategic industries, which not only helps banks optimize their credit structure, but also effectively connects with national policies and helps the rapid development of national strategic industries. By developing corporate business, banks can deeply understand the needs of enterprises and provide customized financial services, thus promoting industrial upgrading and high-quality economic development. At the same time, the development of public business can also promote the development of related industrial chains, form a virtuous circle and inject new impetus into economic growth.

Two-wheel drive for public retail, and banking is not biased.

Ji Guangheng, president of Ping An Bank, said at the performance meeting that no strong bank was biased in the end. Without development loans, there will be no mortgage. Without a new account, there will be no waiting list. We still have a process of balanced development. In fact, corporate and retail businesses are not binary opposites, but more like two sides of banking business. Corporate businesses can naturally penetrate the upstream and downstream small and medium-sized micro-customers and employees’ personal financial service needs by serving the core enterprises in the industrial chain; The consumer behavior data accumulated by retail business can feed back the bank’s accurate judgment on the operating conditions of corporate customers.

Looking forward to the future, commercial banks must adhere to "walking on two legs" in order to achieve high-quality development. We should not only deepen the basic advantages of retail business, but also grasp the strategic opportunities of public business. This two-wheel drive business model is not only a pragmatic choice to meet the current challenges, but also a long-term plan for the future.

This article is a columnist of Weiyang. com: Tsinghua Financial Review is published. The content is the author’s personal opinion, not the website’s. It is forbidden to reprint it without permission, and offenders will be prosecuted!

Original zhaobaoquan communication

In the second decade of 21st century, the decline of China’s paper media has lasted for seven years, and the decline of the world’s paper media has lasted for ten years. Every year, a large number of newspapers in China are closed down or changed into electronic editions, and a large number of newspapers are stubbornly making breakthroughs in transformation and carrying out reform iterations. Where is the direction of newspaper transformation? The author believes that the paper media should carefully analyze the media ecology it faces and find the direction of transformation and development in order to achieve a breakthrough in transformation.

First, the origin of the theory of newspaper extinction

2009 is a watershed in the development of global newspaper industry.

Since 2009, European and American newspapers have fallen sharply, and hundreds of newspapers or magazines in the United States have been forced to close or turn into electronic editions. Christian Science Monitor, a century-old newspaper founded in 1908, announced the closure of the paper edition in April 2009; Reader’s Digest, which was founded in 1922 and had a circulation of 17 million copies, filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2009. The 27-year-old French Chinese-language newspaper "European Daily" announced that it would be closed on August 31, 2009.

In fact, the topic of "the death of newspapers" originated in the 1990s. In 1994, American futurist Michael Crichton called newspapers "media dinosaurs". Howard Kurtz, a media critic in Washington Post, called the newspaper industry a "smell of death".

In the 21st century, the death of daily newspapers even has a clear forecast time. In 2005, Philip Meyer, a professor at the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina in the United States, predicted the future of daily newspapers in the book "Disappearing Newspapers: How to Save Newspapers in the Information Age": By 2015, the trend line of readers’ confidence in newspapers will reach zero. If this trend line is extended, the readers of daily newspapers will return to zero by the end of the first quarter of 2043. This is the origin of the widely quoted prediction that one day in 2043, the last daily reader will check out and leave.

In 2008, Professor Philip Meyer published the article "Elite Newspapers of the Future" in the American News Review, which revised the previous prediction and proposed that "the number of daily newspaper readers will decline more sharply" and "the last reader who reads newspapers every day will disappear earlier than October 2043."

Just as the newspapers and periodicals in Europe and the United States issued a death cry, the newspapers in China were doing their last carnival in a climax, and the journalists in China didn’t feel or felt or didn’t want to believe that the cold winter was coming.

The newspaper industry in China began to decline in 2012, and the advertisements of urban newspapers began to decline in half every year in 2013. In 2014, the biggest news in the newspaper industry was that Shanghai Evening News was closed for business reasons. In 2016, two landmark urban newspapers, Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai and Jinghua Times in Beijing, closed.

In the past five or six years, the tide of newspaper closure has been going on, and at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, news of newspaper closure will come. Around New Year’s Day in 2019, about 20 newspapers in the country stopped publishing. In 2020, there are still a number of newspapers that have announced their closure, namely Wuhan Morning Post, City Express (Tianjin), Tianfu Morning Post, Zigong Evening News, Benxi Evening News, Qidu Morning News (Wenshan, Yunnan), Life Daily (Shandong), Ji ‘an Evening News (Jiangxi), Lhasa Evening News, etc.

In the last two years, most of the newspapers that stopped publishing were urban newspapers in provincial capitals, and the development trend of newspapers obviously formed a pattern of "one party for one night" in provincial and big cities. Most of the newspapers that stopped publishing in prefecture-level cities were evening newspapers run by local party newspapers, which made second-and third-tier cities form a "one newspaper mode" that only kept daily newspapers. This shows that the reading rate of newspapers has dropped sharply and the living space has shrunk further.

Second, the era of technology "kidnapping" civilization

The survival and development of any species is not a single person fighting, but depends on and creates ecology. When the ecology changes dramatically, species variation will occur, and species that cannot adapt to the new ecology will decline or even die out.

The development of the media industry is also an ecological evolution. The meteorite of the Internet, especially the mobile Internet, hit the traditional media industry, and the ecological change was as fierce as that asteroid hit the earth.

Because, we have encountered an era when technology "kidnapped" civilization.

The paper media is experiencing a "thousand-year-old change".

In history, the publishing and media industry in China has experienced two technological revolutions: the first revolution was from bamboo slips to printing. During the Qing Dynasty of the Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048), Bi Sheng, a native of Hubei Province, invented movable type printing in Zhejiang. In the era of bamboo slips, it is impossible for cultural products to be copied in large quantities. Even with block printing, it is very difficult to copy a lot of information, especially fragile news information in batches. Movable type printing enables information to be copied in large quantities, which makes culture popular and information spread rapidly.

A direct effect is that a newspaper with modern communication significance appeared in the Song Dynasty-the "Di Bao" which was printed and distributed instead of a manuscript.

The second great change is today, thousands of years later, and the digital revolution has put printing (books, newspapers and periodicals) in an embarrassing situation. Interestingly, the two major changes happened just a thousand years ago, which is exactly what the sentence said: a change that has never happened in a thousand years.

Digitalization has changed human life and also changed human reading habits. Paper is no longer the main media form in the future, and various screens are evolving into the main media communication form.

No era has seen the survival and development of culture as it is today, and the influence of technology is so great that technology has played a decisive role in the development of culture and civilization. For example, the mobile Internet has completely changed the way culture spreads, which is an era when technology "kidnaps" civilization.

Third, the acceleration of information media iteration

The Internet impacts the paper media first, because the limitation of newspapers is inherent.

Newspapers, called Newspapers in English, are "newsprint". As the name implies, they are papers that publish and disseminate news. The most important thing in news is timeliness. The timeliness of newspapers is 24 hours, that of weekly magazines is 7 days, and that of monthly magazines is one month.

In the era of information shortage, human beings get news information mainly by reading newspapers, because newspapers have a large news load, and radio and television are limited by time periods, and the news load is small. Under normal circumstances, TV news can’t do as well as newspapers. Due to the limitation of TV broadcast time and duration, news events are difficult to explain clearly, but the timeliness of TV is dominant-it can be broadcast on the same day or even live. For many years, newspapers and radio and television have a strong and weak complementary relationship in news information, which has lasted for decades.

The emergence and popularization of the Internet broke this balance in one fell swoop.

First, the timeliness of information dissemination on the Internet is in seconds, which can be released at any time, modified at any time, followed up at any time and updated at any time. This is a war that cannot be won for a newspaper with a 24-hour cycle.

Second, compared with TV, the network has capacity advantages in addition to timeliness advantages. Cyberspace is infinite in theory, and the time for TV to broadcast news is limited.

Third, from a geographical point of view, network communication has no geographical restrictions and can quickly spread news throughout the country or even around the world. In the first decade of the 21st century, there appeared a situation in which newspapers asked the Internet to forward their manuscripts, even taking the number of manuscripts forwarded by the Internet as the evaluation standard. It was called the era of "newspapers vying for favor with the Internet", which was really a "happy suicide phenomenon".

Fourth, the instant interactive participation of online news is a powerful means that newspapers and radio and television can’t match. The satisfaction of network arouses the sense of participation and expression of human beings. It is inevitable that the newspaper’s boss attitude of "whether it is up to me or not" will be abandoned under the form of network equality.

From the perspective of prescription, compared with the Internet, newspapers are basically "old news". Gong Shuguang, the founder of xiaoxiang morning herald, put forward the "old news theory" of newspapers shortly after the newspaper was founded. He believes that compared with the internet, the information made by newspapers is not news, but old news. Because when the newspaper came out, the news was out of date, and even because of the qualitative change of news events, the newspaper report became "fake news" Because it has been a long time since the newspaper reached the readers through interview, editing, peer review, edition assembly, signature, publication, printing and delivery, the news may have undergone fundamental changes. This form of old news has become a major defect of newspapers in the network age, and it is also a major defect that newspapers themselves cannot solve.

The decline in newspaper advertisements since 2012 and the cliff-like decline since 2013 are not accidental, let alone coincidental. Because 2012 is a year of rapid development of mobile Internet, the main channel of online news dissemination has migrated from computer PC to mobile phone. Two landmark events are: in January 2011, Tencent launched WeChat; In August 2012, today’s headlines went online, and the social war and information war on the mobile side had a new overlord.

A cruel fact is that it is not that newspapers are not good-looking, but that you don’t need to read newspapers to read the news. Mobile phone information dissemination speed, forms of expression (text, video, animation), instant update, editing and reading interaction, whether from news timeliness, reading pleasure or interactive participation, the Internet has completely surpassed the paper media, and the mission of paper media as news information dissemination has come to an end.

Fourth, the inherent fatal weakness of urban newspapers

The great changes in the mode of communication almost killed the paper media, and the first one to decline was the urban newspaper, because the urban newspaper had an inherent fatal weakness, which was the defect of its business model. The prosperity of the day after tomorrow temporarily covered up this defect, and the Internet led to the differentiation between the information reading market and the advertising market, making this defect irreparable. This is what Mr. Xi Wenju, the "father of China Metropolis Daily", did not think of when he founded the mode of Metropolis Daily.

On January 1st, 1995, Xi Wenju, a newspaper legend affectionately called "Father Xi", founded Huaxi Dushi Bao, the first metropolis newspaper in China. Xi Wenju summed up a set of theories and methods for establishing a new type of city newspaper, comprehensively and systematically established the operating concept of newspaper marketization and a brand-new competitive strategy, which made Huaxi Dushi Bao rise rapidly and opened the "Metropolis Times" of China newspaper industry. Xi Wenju was known as the "Father of China Metropolis Daily".

The inherent defects of the business model of metropolis daily founded by "Xi Laoye" are: issuing at a reverse price and selling twice.

According to the general commodity law, the cost of a commodity is one yuan, and it must be sold for at least one yuan. This is called shun price, and the sales price is higher than the cost price. This is common sense.

But urban newspapers are not. Urban newspapers are sold at a very low price. How low is it? The printing cost of newspapers in 1 yuan or even those in 5 yuan costs 50 cents, which is still the retail price and the wholesale price is 20 cents. If you sell a copy at the lowest cost of 1 yuan money, you will lose 80 cents. If you issue 500,000 copies and have more pages, you will lose 400,000 a day in printing fees. This is only the printing cost, not including labor costs and office expenses. Printing costs will lose 100 million to 200 million a year.

The business logic of the reverse-price issuance of metropolis daily is: to exchange readers’ reading at a low price, and then to concentrate readers’ reading for the second sale, which is "secondary sale". The first sale is a loss. If the second sale can make up for the money lost in the first sale, this business logic can be played. If the second sale can’t make up for the loss of the first sale, the problem will come immediately.

The prosperous newspaper advertising market covers up the inherent achilles heel of metropolis daily, that is, the problem of profit model. Reverse price issue is a huge worry and has become a double-edged sword. As a new newspaper, in order to seize the reading market, the low price and "knocking on the door" invented by Xi Wenju made the metropolis newspaper seize the reading market quickly, and low price became a magic weapon. Nanjing, Jiangsu Province is a place where newspaper competition is relatively concentrated. Modern Express, Yangzi Evening News, Nanjing Morning News and Jinling Evening News are all doing well, and the price war is the bloodiest, and even newspapers with a retail price of 10 cents appear. In Changsha, Hunan Province, there was also a big discount for similar financial products that were returned three times in the first year of publication and in the third year. It is said that someone ordered 5,000 copies and made a big windfall.

Murphy’s Law, known as one of the three major discoveries of western culture in the 21st century, points out that the more you worry about, the more likely it is to happen. By 2013, what Metropolis Daily was most worried about happened. The first sale was still at a loss, but the second sale was in a cliff-like decline. Many newspapers fell by half, so newspapers fell into a vicious circle of "issuing at a reverse price and selling twice".

On the other hand, the "golden decade" of Metropolis Daily is a decade of great development of China’s real estate and automobiles. With the state’s regulation of real estate, overheated real estate began to cool down, and automobiles began to saturate. Newspaper advertisements declined for the first time since 2011. Although the amount of advertisements in metropolis daily is large, its structure is unreasonable, mainly relying on real estate and cars, which has also become one of the reasons for the structural collapse of advertisements.

Fifth, the misunderstanding of the Internet run by paper media

Of course, the paper media practitioners have seen the advantages of network communication. The paper media represented by the newspaper industry began to "integrate newspapers and networks" very early. There is no newspaper that has not run a news website, and there is no newspaper that does not shout "transformation to the Internet".

Around 2008, the tide of newspaper transformation came to the fore. The biggest transformation is Metropolitan Express, a subsidiary of Hangzhou Daily. The 19th Floor, an online community they founded, established Hangzhou Nineteenth Floor Network Co., Ltd. as early as 2006, which became an important part of the new media strategy of Hangzhou Daily Newspaper Group and Metropolitan Express. The company takes "where there is a city, there is an active 19th floor" as its entrepreneurial vision, and its main business has developed rapidly since its establishment. In addition to Hangzhou, the 19th Floor has successfully copied the 19th Floor in nearly 30 cities, including Taizhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo, Suzhou, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Jinhua and Shaoxing, through strategic cooperation, mergers and acquisitions, and created an urban network community with local attributes.

More newspapers use the means of running newspapers to make websites. The method is very simple, that is, running a news website and then moving the news content of newspapers online. There are many and miscellaneous contents, and there is no effective promotion means. Most of them have become things that newspapers talk to themselves and entertain themselves. The report is huge and the actual influence is greatly reduced.

After the rise of the mobile Internet, some newspapers have developed APP news clients at a very fast speed. Because there is no promotion method and the content and form do not meet the requirements of Internet communication, many newspapers have become "online versions", and most of them have become "dead souls" who are very lively and seemingly beautiful.

In the transition to new media, newspapers all over the country spend a lot of money, but few can really form influence and authority.

Sixth, the era of mass communication has changed rapidly

While the internet subverts the means of communication, the crowd, that is, the "audience" mentioned by the media, has also quietly changed, from the public to the focus, from the group to the circle.

The vigorous development of urban newspapers enriches information; With the rapid development of Internet, information has quickly entered the era of surplus from the era of shortage.

The huge amount of information on the Internet not only makes information enter the era of surplus from the era of shortage, but also quickly makes information transition from the era of mass to the era of focus. People are divided into different circles because of their different preferences. People are divided into different circles because of personal values, hobbies, personal experiences and other reasons. The crowd is rapidly subdivided, and the media enters the era of focus. Correspondingly, the mass economy also quickly enters the era of social economy.

Popular newspapers and periodicals are declining rapidly, and their readers are divided in an all-round way. Because of their inaccurate positioning, popular newspapers and periodicals can’t find their own people in the era of focus, and they don’t know who to read them to, which leads to the obvious decline of two kinds of media. One kind is urban newspapers. After golden decade, which is relatively short of information, when it enters the era of information surplus, it soon can’t find its own readers and becomes a big and unreasonable category. The other kind is abstract newspapers and periodicals, which are mostly geared to the public. Because of the diversification of communication means and the fragmentation of human reading time (mobile media era), people don’t need to choose for themselves, so they can read selectively on their mobile phones. This is the root cause of the decline of abstract newspapers.

Seven, the two directions of paper media transformation

Faced with the impact of the Internet tide, the paper media have sought to break through the transformation, forming two transformation directions: First, transforming themselves into a news production and communication organization, sticking to the news and no longer sticking to the paper media, and the transformation of Oriental Morning Post into "The Paper" is a successful case; The second is the transformation from operating media to operating users. Happy Old Man is a successful case.

At the end of 2016, the biggest news in the newspaper industry was that the last issue of Oriental Morning Post was fixed on December 31, and the mission of Oriental Morning Post ended, and the era of "The Paper" surged.

Oriental Morning Post was founded in 2003. Since 2013, it has been planning to transform into new media. From the beginning, it was a comprehensive transformation and a thorough transformation. Until 2017, when the paper newspaper was abandoned and the internet media was completely transformed, The Paper inherited and adhered to the original, in-depth and ideological reports at the core of Oriental Morning Post. Compared with the general internet media, it inherited the original and in-depth reports of the paper media and the rigorous style of manuscript expression, such as in-depth investigation, large-scale planning and revealing reports, making it a news production and dissemination organization with unique temperament. On the other hand, The Paper focuses on improving the originality of content, comprehensively improving the technical level, and combining technology and content to form new media products: AR, VR, full-motion video, H5 and other products that integrate various elements of news. The Paper is leading in China.

All-round transformation, inheriting the tradition of paper media news production, forming characteristic news products, and fully integrating into technology, has made The Paper a successful case of paper media transforming into Internet media.

In the ten years when the global paper media went down, there were also those that went up against the trend, one of which was Happy Old Man. Happy Old Man was founded in 2009 when the paper media in Europe and America declined, and in 2013 when the paper media in China declined, its circulation exceeded one million.

Happy Old Man puts forward a grand mission: "To provide solutions for the aging society in China". Put forward the road map of "from spiritual enclosure to industrial integration", and a newspaper will comprehensively enter the elderly industry.

After ten years’ hard work, Happy Old Man has become an old-age industrial phalanx with newspapers, magazines, websites, WeChat matrix, publishing, travel agencies, e-commerce companies and universities for the elderly, and has become an example of paper media’s industrial transformation in the Internet age.

The concept of the transformation of Happy Old People is: from operating media to operating people.

The transformation dilemma of most newspapers lies in that readers are not clearly positioned and don’t know who is reading the newspaper. Happy Old People has conducted in-depth research on the crowd and found a new trend of the elderly population in China: the "new old people" group has been formed.

Happy Old Man first put forward the concept of "new old man": the baby boomers after the founding of New China are growing into "new old people" completely different from the traditional old people. "New old people" refers to the largest baby boomer generation born in China from 1950 to 1970, which was the most typical in the 1960s. They have enjoyed the fruits of reform and opening up, with high income, large savings and good consumption concept. They have become a new consumer, and the cultural needs of the "new elderly" are just needed. Under the general trend of shrinking demand of the traditional elderly circle, the "new elderly" group has quietly grown into an obvious "small trend". Nowadays, the old-age industry is in the ascendant. Under the pain point of social old-age care, "cultural old-age care" has become a trend with great energy.

Under the general trend of the decline of paper media, there are two "small trends" of the media: the diversification of content and the accuracy of communication. For China, a populous country, "small is big", and any division will form a "public".

"Happy Old Man" does not do news as "old news" or focus on the public, but firmly grasps the focus that has a strong dependence on paper media-the elderly group, making "Happy Old Man" a newspaper that the elderly like, serving the people behind the newspaper, and taking the lead in stepping out of the "old road" of taking the media as a single product. This also found a way out for paper media: from operating media to operating people.

Along with this demand, apart from running newspapers, Happy Old People’s Newspaper also launched a series of cultural products: Fengwang WeChat Matrix specially serving "new old people", Kangyi Lived Over 100 years old magazine specially showing the elegance of elderly students, Happy Life Publishing House specially publishing books for the elderly, Mimetime International Travel Agency specially serving the elderly, Jiangsu Happy Old People’s E-commerce Company specially customizing products for the elderly, and launched the offline campus of Happy Old People’s University in 2017.

The transformation from operating media to operating people has made Happy Old People newspaper a single media product, and then become a service field for people, which has opened an infinitely broad space for media development.

The author believes that the above two successful cases represent the direction of the transformation and development of paper media in the era of integration. (The author is the president of Hunan Newspaper Association, the chairman of Hunan Happy Old People Industry Management Co., Ltd. and the president of Happy Old People Newspaper.)

Original title: "On two directions of newspaper transformation and breakthrough"

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District committees, district governments, member units and relevant units:

　　With the consent of the Municipal Party Committee, the "Beijing Water Saving Action Implementation Plan" is hereby issued to you, please conscientiously implement it according to the actual situation.

　　I hereby inform you.

Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China Ecological Civilization Construction Committee

October 9, 2020

Beijing Water Saving Action Implementation Plan

　　In order to implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, vigorously promote water conservation in the whole society, comprehensively improve the utilization efficiency of water resources, form a water-saving production and lifestyle, ensure water safety in the capital, and promote high-quality development, this implementation plan is formulated according to the National Water Conservation Action Plan and its related division of labor plans, combined with the actual situation in Beijing.

　　First, great significance

　　Water is the basic natural resource and strategic economic resource related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, and it is the controlling factor of the ecological environment. Beijing is a super-large water-deficient city, and saving water is the fundamental policy to ensure the water security of the capital. Over the years, with the deepening of the construction of a water-saving society, the priority of water conservation and the development of water quantity have been gradually implemented. In 2019, the water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP and the water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value decreased to 11.78 cubic meters and 7.07 cubic meters respectively, and the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water reached 0.747, which significantly improved the efficiency and benefit of water use and was at the advanced level in the country. Since the South-to-North Water Transfer Project was put into operation, the situation of water shortage in Beijing has been alleviated to some extent, but the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources has not been fundamentally solved. The shortage of water resources will still be the basic market situation that our city must face for a long time, and it is the "bottleneck" of ecological civilization construction and sustainable economic and social development. Therefore, we must realize the importance of water conservation from the strategic height of accelerating the construction of ecological civilization and building a world-class harmonious and livable capital, vigorously promote water conservation in life, agriculture, industry, landscaping, public services and other fields, effectively improve the efficiency of water resources utilization, and form a good trend of water conservation in the whole society.

　　Second, the overall requirements

　　(A) the guiding ideology

　　Guided by Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era, we will fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second, Third and Fourth Plenary Sessions of the 19th National Congress, thoroughly implement the ecological civilization thought of the Supreme Leader and the spirit of the important speech of the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader to Beijing, adhere to the water-saving priority policy, and conscientiously implement the Beijing Urban Master Plan (2016-2016) in accordance with the urban development principle of "water determines cities, land, people and production". Vigorously implement water-saving actions, promote the construction of a water-saving society in an orderly manner, create policies, systems and social environment conducive to water conservation, guide the whole society to use water scientifically, practice a resource-saving and environment-friendly green production lifestyle, and put water conservation into the whole process and all aspects of economic and social development, so as to create a civilized trend and create an era for building a world-class harmonious and livable capital.

　　(2) Basic principles

　　Strengthen leadership and social co-governance. Party committees and governments at all levels should strengthen their leadership over water-saving work, achieve "three-pronged approach, five elimination and three precisions", establish a water-saving reward system and a system of accountability for wasting water, and mobilize the whole society to carry out in-depth, lasting and conscious water-saving actions.

　　Industry constraints, scientific and technological support. All industries should strengthen industry constraints, strengthen water control, popularize advanced and applicable water-saving technologies and processes, and promote the establishment of water-saving production methods, lifestyles and consumption patterns.

　　Policy guidance, two-handed efforts. Establish and improve the system of water-saving policies and regulations, improve the market mechanism, promote the market to play a greater role in the optimal allocation of water resources, and at the same time, better play the role of government regulation and control, and stimulate the endogenous motivation of water saving in the whole society.

　　(III) Main objectives

　　By 2020, the creation of water-saving areas will be fully completed, and the consumption of new water in the city will be controlled within 3.1 billion cubic meters; The amount of reclaimed water conservancy reached 1.2 billion cubic meters; Compared with 2015, the water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP and industrial added value decreased by 15%, the reuse rate of industrial water reached over 95%, the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water reached 0.75, and the leakage rate of urban public water supply network was controlled within 10%.

　　By 2022, water-saving production and lifestyle will be initially established, the proportion of unconventional water resources utilization will further increase, the efficiency and benefit of water use will be significantly improved, and the awareness of water conservation in the whole society will be significantly enhanced. Compared with 2015, the water consumption per 10,000 yuan GDP and the water consumption per 10,000 yuan industrial added value decreased by 20% and 28% respectively, and the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water remained above 0.75.

　　By 2035, water-saving production and lifestyle will be basically completed, a sound water price incentive and restraint mechanism will be established, and a benign self-operating water-saving endogenous power mechanism will be established. Saving and protecting water will become a conscious action of the whole society. The consumption of new water in the city will be controlled within 4 billion cubic meters, and the main water-saving indicators will reach the international leading level, forming a new modern pattern in which water resources utilization and development scale, industrial structure and spatial layout are adapted.

　　Iii. key actions

　　(A) the total intensity of dual control

　　1. Strengthen the rigid constraints of indicators. Improve the index system of total water consumption and water intensity control by region and industry, clarify the main responsibility of water saving, and strengthen water management. Reduce the amount of groundwater exploitation, replace the self-prepared wells within the coverage of tap water pipe network within a time limit, and realize the balance between mining and compensation. Establish and improve the advanced water quota system for major industrial products, life service industries and crops in this city.

　　2. Strictly manage the whole process of water use. Strictly control the intensity of water resources development and utilization, and strictly implement the systems of water impact assessment of planning and construction projects, "three simultaneities" of water saving, and water intake permit. Scientifically formulate the city’s annual water use plan, and decompose it step by step to reach districts, towns (streets) and villages (communities). According to the annual water use plan, the water quota of related industries and the needs of life, production and operation of water users, the water use indicators are approved and issued to water users, and the "monthly warning and bimonthly assessment" and the progressive price increase system for non-residents exceeding the plan are strictly implemented.

　　3. Strengthen water-saving supervision and assessment. Gradually establish a water-saving target responsibility system, incorporate the main indicators of water use plan and water use efficiency into the comprehensive evaluation system of economic and social development, and implement the most stringent assessment of water resources management system. The establishment of water analysis system, every six months on the water consumption growth or beyond the water plan of the industry departments, towns (streets), water units, informed or interviewed. Continue to incorporate the total water consumption as a binding indicator into the government performance appraisal. By 2020, a system of water resources supervision and accountability will be established.

　　(B) Agricultural water saving and efficiency improvement

　　4. Vigorously promote water-saving irrigation. In accordance with the principle of "carefully defining land, strictly managing wells, installing facilities, increasing agronomy, unifying fees and saving prizes", we will continue to develop efficient water-saving irrigation of "two fields and one garden".

　　5. Optimize and adjust the crop planting structure. Actively organize the breeding, demonstration and popularization of drought-tolerant, water-saving, high-quality and efficient crop varieties, develop dry farming and rain-fed agriculture and implement fallow rotation according to local conditions. Explore agronomic water-saving measures, promote water-saving technologies such as water and fertilizer integration, deep loosening of agricultural machinery, and efficient intelligent irrigation, and demonstrate the level of agricultural water-saving technologies.

　　6. Promote water-saving methods for animal husbandry and fishery. Implement water-saving transformation of large-scale farms, promote advanced and applicable water-saving livestock and poultry breeding methods, promote water-saving feeding equipment, mechanical dry manure cleaning and other technologies and processes, and apply pond engineering circulating water and other breeding technologies in fisheries.

　　(3) Loss reduction of public services

　　7. Improve the efficiency of water use in public services. Promote public service institutions to carry out water-saving diagnosis such as water balance test, and promote the application of new water-saving technologies, new processes and new products. Public institutions such as transportation passenger stations, comprehensive shopping centers, star-rated hotels, hospitals, schools, etc. take the lead in using water-saving products, gradually realize the "full coverage" of water-saving appliances, post water-saving publicity signs at major water-using parts, and give full play to the characteristics of the industry to actively carry out water-saving publicity.

　　8. Further reduce the leakage of water supply network. Continue to implement the renovation project of water supply pipe network, comprehensively promote the independent zoning metering (DMA) of water supply pipe network and the metering management of water users for different purposes, improve the leakage detection system of water supply pipe network, improve the refined management platform and leakage control system, and effectively reduce the leakage of water supply pipe network. Promote the transformation and professional management of secondary water supply facilities. The leakage rate of urban public water supply network should be controlled within 10%.

　　9. Strictly control water consumption in high water consumption service industries. Strengthen the supervision of water use in bathing, car washing, golf courses, ski resorts, washing and other industries, and strictly control the water use plan. Car washing, golf courses, etc. actively promote recycling water technology, equipment and technology, and give priority to the use of unconventional water sources such as reclaimed water and rainwater.

　　(4) Greening water-saving quota

　　10. Promote refined water management for landscaping. Strengthen the investigation on the basic information of public green space, garden, woodland, wetland and other landscaping, establish a detailed list of landscaping, implement the indicators of water use plan to the management unit, improve the water metering facilities, accelerate the realization of "full measurement" and "full charge" of water use, and strictly control the water use plan. Trees and flowers with drought resistance, water saving and strong adaptability to the environment are selected for landscaping, and efficient water-saving irrigation facilities such as micro-irrigation and sprinkler irrigation are built according to local conditions.

　　11. Increase unconventional water utilization in landscaping. Increase the promotion of reclaimed water, rain flood, river and lake water utilization, strengthen the construction of rain-collecting green space, study the feasibility of using underground space such as green space and woodland to build rainwater and reclaimed water to irrigate storage tanks, and gradually withdraw the water for landscaping from tap water and groundwater irrigation.

　　(V) Industrial water saving and emission reduction

　　12. Optimize and adjust the industrial structure. Strictly implement the Catalogue of Prohibitions and Restrictions on New Industries in Beijing, continue to carry out special actions to ease and rectify and promote upgrading, and promote the withdrawal from the general manufacturing industry.

　　13. Vigorously promote industrial water-saving transformation. Improve the water metering system and online monitoring system. Popularize water-saving technologies and technologies such as efficient cooling, washing, recycling water, recycling of waste water, and substitution of high water consumption production processes. Strengthen the quantitative supervision and assessment of industrial water quota standards, support enterprises to carry out water-saving technological transformation, key enterprises should regularly carry out water balance testing, water audit and water efficiency benchmarking, and enterprises that exceed the water quota standards should implement water-saving transformation within a time limit.

　　14. Actively promote the cascade utilization of water cycle. Promote existing enterprises and parks to carry out green and high-quality transformation, upgrading and recycling transformation focusing on water saving, and accelerate the construction of water saving and water recycling facilities. Newly-built enterprises and parks should co-ordinate the construction of water supply and drainage, water treatment and recycling facilities, promote the optimal integration of water use systems among enterprises, promote water use in series and in different quality among enterprises, and realize multi-purpose and recycling of one water. Accelerate the establishment of the "three cities and one district" water-saving benchmark park.

　　(6) Building water saving and quantity control

　　15. Strengthen water management on the construction site. Construction units should fully consider unconventional water utilization and formulate measures for water saving and water resources utilization. Establish a joint law enforcement inspection mechanism for housing and urban-rural construction and water departments, and find that there is waste of water resources on the construction site, punish and urge the construction unit to carry out rectification according to law.

　　16. Strictly limit the construction precipitation. Actively adopt curtain waterproof and other new technologies and processes to limit the precipitation in construction projects. If precipitation is really necessary, the construction precipitation scheme, groundwater recharge and utilization scheme should be prepared, and it can be implemented only after being approved by experts and obtained drainage permission. The groundwater discharged in the precipitation stage should pay water resource tax according to regulations.

　　(7) Education and water-saving guidance

　　17. Strengthen the cultivation of campus water-saving culture. Adhere to education first, schools should incorporate water conservation into the education of kindergartens, universities, primary and secondary schools, strengthen the education of market conditions and water conditions, popularize water-saving knowledge, carry out water-saving publicity, and lead families and the whole society to save water. Encourage the establishment of water-saving associations, select "water-saving ambassadors" and carry out activities such as summer water-saving social practice.

　　18. Innovative comprehensive water-saving mode in colleges and universities. Give full play to the advantages of technical talents in colleges and universities, actively carry out innovative activities such as water-saving design, renovation, measurement and consultation, promote the new mode of water-saving by contract, effectively improve the water-saving level of schools, and play a leading role in water-saving in the whole society.

　　(8) tapping the potential of unconventional water

　　19. Improve the utilization level of reclaimed water and rainwater. Strengthen the diversified, cascade and safe utilization of unconventional water such as reclaimed water and rainwater, and improve the infrastructure such as reclaimed water pipe network, water adding station and rainwater collection and utilization according to local conditions. Reclaimed water or rainwater shall be used for landscape water and other municipal miscellaneous water in residential quarters and units, and tap water shall not be used. By 2020, the amount of reclaimed water conservancy will reach 1.2 billion cubic meters, and by 2022, the utilization level of unconventional water such as reclaimed water will be further improved.

　　20. Strengthen the construction of "sponge city". Implement the zoning control strategy of sponge city construction, and comprehensively take measures such as infiltration, stagnation, storage, purification, use and discharge to increase the proportion of local absorption and utilization of rainfall. By 2020, more than 20% of urban built-up areas will realize 70% on-site absorption and utilization of rainfall. By 2022, more than 30% of urban built-up areas will realize 70% on-site absorption and utilization of rainfall.

　　(9) Creation of water-saving carriers

　　21 to carry out the reinspection of water-saving areas. On the basis of the completion of the creation of water-saving zones in all 16 districts of the city, a dynamic management mechanism of "one-year assessment and three-year re-inspection" will be established, the indicators for the construction of water-saving zones will be scientifically optimized, and the re-inspection supervision of water-saving zones will be well done.

　　22. Strengthen the creation of water-saving villages (communities). Combined with the construction of beautiful countryside, speed up the construction and renovation of domestic water supply facilities and supporting pipe networks, promote the use of water-saving appliances and promote water metering and charging in combination with the rural "toilet revolution" and the renovation of old residential areas. By 2022, the coverage rate of water-saving villages (communities) will reach 40%.

　　23. Promote the creation of water-saving units. Co-ordinate the establishment of a coordinated management mechanism for water-saving work of central units, troops and departments in charge of various industries in Beijing, intensify the creation of water-saving enterprises (units), set up a number of water-saving models and demonstrate and popularize them. Before the end of 2021, the city’s water system organs and institutions, water supply and drainage enterprises take the lead in completing the creation of water-saving industries; By 2022, all municipal authorities and more than 60% municipal institutions will build water-saving units, and 70% ordinary colleges and universities will build water-saving colleges and universities.

　　(10) Leading by scientific and technological innovation

　　24. Accelerate the research and development of key technologies and equipment. Relying on the advantages of scientific and technological talents in the capital, we will promote the innovation of water-saving technologies and processes, aim at the world’s advanced technologies, and focus on strengthening the research and development of advanced and applicable technologies and equipment such as accurate measurement of water intake, efficient recycling of water resources, intelligent control of water use process, accurate water-saving irrigation control, intelligent monitoring of pipe network leakage, and unconventional water utilization.

　　25. Promote the popularization of water-saving technologies. Establish a water-saving technology innovation system with deep integration of "politics and Industry-University-Research", expand the promotion channels of water-saving scientific and technological achievements and advanced water-saving technologies, accelerate the transformation of water-saving scientific and technological achievements, and gradually promote the marketization of water-saving technological achievements.

　　26. Carry out technical exchanges and cooperation. Strengthen technical cooperation and exchanges with advanced water-saving countries and regions, introduce relevant technologies and equipment, and continuously improve the level of water-saving technology.

　　Fourth, deepen the reform of the system and mechanism

　　(A) the policy system to promote

　　1. Comprehensively deepen water price reform. We will improve the formation mechanism and dynamic adjustment mechanism of urban water supply price that fully reflects the water supply cost, encourages the improvement of water supply service quality, and promotes water conservation, improve the residential ladder water price system in a timely manner, and fully implement the progressive price increase system for urban non-residents to exceed the quota. We will further promote the comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices, and improve the accurate subsidies for agricultural water use and the assessment and reward mechanism for water saving in accordance with the relevant policies of "two fields and one park". Adjust the price of reclaimed water in a timely manner and encourage the expansion of the use of reclaimed water.

　　2. Strengthen water metering statistics. Full implementation of online metering management, improvement of Beijing water saving management platform, and statistical analysis of water consumption to towns (streets) and villages (communities). Implement traceability management of measurement facilities to ensure the accuracy of measurement data.

　　3. Strengthen water-saving supervision and management. Strictly implement the supervision and management of planned water use, and conduct special inspections on key areas, industries and products. Explore the establishment of water audit system, and encourage enterprises or parks with annual water consumption exceeding 100,000 cubic meters to set up water managers. Further improve the list of key monitoring water units. By 2022, all industrial and service water units with annual water consumption of more than 500,000 cubic meters will be included in the list of key monitoring water units.

　　4. Improve the water-saving standard system. According to the working idea of "unified deployment, industry leading, and overall release", a mechanism for making and revising water-saving standards is established, which is coordinated by the water department and the market supervision and management department and implemented by the competent departments of various industries. According to the red line of total water consumption control and water efficiency control, "100 water-saving standard projects" are implemented, and an advanced water-saving quota covering the fields of service industry, industry, agriculture, landscaping and so on and a water-saving standard system meeting the basic management and evaluation of water-saving are constructed.

　　(B) market mechanism innovation

　　5. Implement water efficiency label management. Implement the water efficiency labeling of domestic water products, strengthen market supervision, increase the intensity of special inspections and spot checks, eliminate products with lower water efficiency grades, and investigate and punish manufacturers with false water efficiency labeling according to law and disclose the punishment results to the public.

　　6. Implement water efficiency leading. Actively guide water products, water enterprises and public institutions to participate in the leading action of water efficiency leaders, set an advanced benchmark for water conservation, and encourage water efficiency benchmarking activities. In accordance with national requirements, do a good job in the declaration and preliminary evaluation of water efficiency leaders in related fields, and accelerate the introduction of typical water efficiency leaders and public institutions.

　　V. Safeguards

　　(1) Strengthen organizational leadership. Strengthen the Party’s leadership over water-saving work, and regard water-saving as an important part of the Party’s leadership of "whistling in the streets and townships, reporting to departments" and "river-length system". District committees, district governments, and departments in charge of various industries take overall responsibility for water-saving work in their respective jurisdictions and industries, and formulate water-saving action measures and annual implementation plans respectively according to the requirements of "water-saving must be managed in production management, water-saving must be managed in industry management, and water-saving must be managed in urban operation management" to ensure the smooth completion of various tasks of water-saving action.

　　(2) Promoting the rule of law. Accelerate the promotion of local legislation and strive to introduce the "Beijing Water Conservation Regulations" in 2022. Improve the joint law enforcement mechanism of departments and increase the enforcement of water conservation.

　　(3) Increase investment in water conservation. Establish a water-saving investment guarantee mechanism, and incorporate the annual water-saving work of various departments and units into the departmental budget arrangement. Make full use of the national subsidy policies for water saving, energy saving and environmental protection, and broaden the investment and financing channels through water saving by contract and PPP, so as to strive for more funds and capital to invest in the construction of a water-saving society.

　　(4) Improve the incentive mechanism for water saving. In the construction of water-saving areas, the creation of water-saving carriers, the water-saving of "two fields and one garden" in agriculture, and the leading of water efficiency, we will establish a water-saving incentive mechanism, establish specific incentive measures for water-saving units, and commend units and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to water-saving work.

　　(5) Raise awareness of water conservation. All district committees, district governments, and departments in charge of various industries should carry out water-saving publicity in a normal way, vigorously carry out water-saving publicity in crowded places such as cultural tourism, transportation, and urban management, and the media such as television, radio, and the Internet should widely advocate the concept of water-saving and water-saving green living, expand the visibility and influence of publicity, create a good social atmosphere for water conservation, and raise the awareness of water conservation for the whole people.