State control can turn the media into the government’s mouthpiece and weaken the media’s incentives to meet market demands for corporate news. We study China’s official party newspapers and commercially oriented, non-official newspapers and find that despite official party newspapers’ heavier state control, they continue to play an informational role by providing a different type of news than non-official newspapers. We show that compared to non-official newspapers, official newspapers provide a greater proportion of value-relevant industry and market-wide information relative to firm-specific information.

About the Speaker:

Prof. Tianyu Zhang is a presidential chair professor in Shenzhen Finance Institute and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. His research focuses on political institutions and governance in China emerging market. His recent research is featured with application of textual analysis in understanding China institutions. He has papers published in top accounting, finance and economics journals. His research has been featured by overseas media, such as Wall Street Journal and Associated Press, and domestic media, such as Caixin. He is now sitting on the editorial board of The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research. He worked for City University of Hong Kong and The Chinse University of Hong Kong before joining The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.