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News Tipster: new profession in Chinese metropolis ( 2003-11-26 16:59) (Xinhua)
Ah Xiao, a young news vendor in Kunming City, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, has seen his income this month rise above 600 yuan ( US$72.6), his biggest monthly earnings since he came to Kunming from the countryside two years ago. "I can earn 300 to 400 yuan a month by providing news tips to reporters," he said. According to a report in the China Youth Daily, tipsters who provide news clues for the local media, mainly newspapers, are now emerging as a new profession in major Chinese cities. They may work on a full or part-time basis, and Ah Xiao belongs to the latter group, the report said. Chinese urban newspapers, living under pressure from increasingly intense
competition with each other, are offering rewards for those who provide news
clues, in the hope of winning as many readers as possible so as to increase
their own competitive power. A tipster cab receive as much as 1,000 yuan for
just one important news clue. News vendors like Ah Xiao account for most of the tipsters, for their long experience of selling newspapers enables them to foster a good nose for news, according to a survey conducted by the Journalism Department of Yunnan University. Lao Hou, a full-time or professional tipster in Kunming, bought a second-hand cell phone a few days ago in order to provide faster news clues for newspapers than other informants. "More and more people are joining this profession. But if a rival gets the clue to a nwspaper first, you lose out," he said. Lao Hou listens to the radio everyday for news of traffic accidents. He also goes every day by bicycle to where he thinks something newsworthy might happen. "The emergence of news tipsters is a natural result of press
industrialization and newspaper marketization," said Professor Zheng Sili of the
Journalism Department of Yunnan University. "It enlarges the news sources,
lightens the burden on reporters, and promotes the localization and deepening of
news reports."
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