MailOnline and People’s Daily Sign Content-Sharing Agreement

In April 2016, the British online newspaper MailOnline entered into a content-sharing arrangement with the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. Under the deal, the two outlets agreed to exchange approximately 40 articles per week, covering current affairs, travel, and lifestyle, as well as content from both the Chinese and English editions of the Global Times (環球時報), a tabloid newspaper under the People’s Daily. Articles published under the agreement carried a disclosure banner identifying their origin. MailOnline publisher Martin Clarke, confirming the arrangement to The Guardian, said “there is no cash involved” and made the odd suggestion that the Party-run mouthpiece, which is generally full of highly specialized Chinese political discourse, would help the outlet “better understand the country’s social and political structures.”