Today I discovered that the China Defence: Military Weekly has changed from being a ‘broadsheet’ into a tabloid. Of course the newspaper was already laden with nationalistic and colourful military articles, so it’s actually just changing out of its sheepskin. The PLA Daily (jiefang jun bao) describes the Military Weekly as follows:
'As a publication of the PLA Daily, the Military Weekly provides society with an authoritative weekly newspaper about the military. Since its establishment ten years ago, the Military Weekly has continued to provide international analysis and timely, accurate and authoritative introductions to the newest domestic and foreign military developments. The newspaper has also disseminated modern knowledge about military technology. It has been deeply welcomed by many readers and has garnered a relatively large level of influence.'
The first edition of the tabloid-style Military Weekly comes with a front page article that seems to compare Chinese with Jews and a full-page Maotai advertisement that congratulates Military Weekly on its change of format. The new format does look much better than the old one and it has a lot of popular articles such as Prince Harry’s possible deployment to Iraq. I bet you that its real readership is much better than its mother paper, the PLA Daily.
The front page of Military Weekly on May 8 | 