In a surprising move, publisher People’s Daily of China has struck a content-sharing deal with the UK’s Mail Online.
The non-cash deal works as a straight content swap, with each publication taking about 40 stories a week from the partner site.
The Mail Online selects People’s Daily stories which are then translated by a Mandarin-speaking staff member.
Their origin is marked with the tag “This story was produced in partnership with The People’s Daily – people.cn”.
Mail seems more interested in picking up bizarre stories (rather than political ones which might be controversial) that might help drive traffic to its site.
According to the latest available figures for June, Mail Online recorded 236m global unique browsers and an average of 15.1m a day.
Like other media groups, the Mail Online’s parent company, Daily Mail and General Trust, is seeking to increase its digital advertising to offset the sharp decline in print revenues threatening the newspaper industry.