Ziff re-marries in China

We are less interested in Ziff's announcement that they will have launched PC Magazine in China than in their choice of partner. The choice of SEEC Media straddles the ease of a Hong Kong-based launch (SEEC is technically a Hong Kong company) with the influence of a good Beijing partner (SEEC Media is a kissing cousin of the publisher of Caijing magazine, the Stock Exchange Executive Council (and thus SEEC), China's top financial services regulator. We have commented on this before.

The results are now in and the first edition of the new monthly PC Magazine China has weighed in at 160, one of the first serious competitors to IDG's 23 year dominance of the sector. Previous efforts by the company to launch in China have revolved around financial partners trying to leverage a set of contacts similar to those used by IDG itself.

In the company's press release yesterday, Robert F. Callahan, Chairman and CEO, Ziff Davis Media was quoted as saying “Ziff Davis searched over a year for the ideal partner to launch the Chinese edition of PC Magazine; a partner with a deep understanding of the business of publishing magazines and operating other media in China...We’ve found that partner in the SEEC Media Group, a Hong Kong listed public company (HK: 205) that has a well-established reputation as a leading source of news and financial information in the greater China region. ”