NYT Partners with Sina Weibo for Chinese Edition

Expect more whining from the G & M

The New York Times, the august newspaper turned digital media company, is venturing onto thin ice brave new territory tomorrow with the launch of the Chinese version of its website. It’ll be online at cn.nytimes.com, which is currently blank and inaccessible behind a login. To mark the event, the New York Times has just joined Sina Weibo, China’s hottest Twitter-esque site, with the official account pictured above.

So far, the NYT’s Weibo – the page is here – has posted three things, all in Chinese, and one of which is the official announcement of what’s coming:

The New York Times Chinese Edition begins operation today, and tomorrow will begin releasing news. We welcome our new friends and followers and look forward to engaging with you.

So far it has just over 3,300 fans after only a few hours in action. It’s not clear what cn.nytimes.com will hold – translations of selected articles from the main edition, or original material written in Chinese? And what of its legal status as a media company in China?

Other major news portals have Chinese editions…both cn.WSJ.com and the Financial Times in Chinese are accessible – and it seems to be a digital market that the NYT wants a part of.

From Tech in Asia via Yahoo