BEIJING - We were given the heads-up last week that changes were underway at That’s Beijing which could affect staff at the magazine.

 

Now Beijing Boyce, who writes a nightlife and entertainment blog, has posted the known details:

 

True Run Media, which has produced that’s Beijing since 2001, will move on. The magazine’s publisher, China Intercontinental Press, owns the “that’s” trademark and will take over the entire gig as of next issue. If you are in the publishing industry, you might guess the magazine’s biggest problem: it made money. That was, is, and will always be its problem.

 

If what happens to that’s Beijing is anything like the that’s China saga of a few years ago, we can expect an immediate nosedive in quality and a whole feedlot of stories about pork biotechnology (hmm, I wonder if that had anything to do with those science park ads?). In any case, True Run Media will not remain idle. Expect a new magazine next month that is similar in layout and content to that’s Beijing. The name: The Beijinger.


The that’s series of magazines has a long and sordid history.  Chris Chaplin wrote an article on Zhongnanhai on March 24 outlining the much-publicized story of the magazines' original founder, Mark Kitto:

 

In 2004 CIP, the publisher of the That's series in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, sparked a legal battle with Mark Kitto, the then CEO of the three publications. Seeing the huge profits the monthly English language listings magazines were making, the Chinese publisher launched a rival title, That's China. That the new title directly infringed on the That's brand name and duplicated its content was of little concern to CIP.

 

Kitto was eventually pushed aside, and sold his only remaining properties - the three magazines' domain names - to Asia Xpat. Chaplin pointed to an article written by Kitto in Prospect Magazine detailing his experience.


Needless to say, this seems like the latest in a series of moves to rein in a popular and profitable magazine.  The move to separate True Run from China Intercontinental Press was not wholly unexpected, as they re-branded and re-named their website The Beijinger late last year.

 

Details of this restructuring are still surfacing, so anyone with further information is encouraged to comment below.