<![CDATA[ShanghaiDaily's blog]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/ zh-cn PBlog2 v2.4 ShanghaiDaily's blog http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/images/logos.gif http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/ ShanghaiDaily's blog http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=577 <![CDATA[Monthly newsroom awards announced]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Wed,18 Nov 2009 17:04:26 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=577 Shanghai Daily unveiled its monthly "Best Stories" and "Best Pages" awards last week.

The best story for September went to feature writers Yao Minji and Xu Wei for their story "Half and half, Chinese and Western, get best of both worlds" (September 18) - which was praised for its interesting topic, solid interviewing and good writing.

 

The best page award for September was shared by the special National Day Guide and Expo Shanghai Newsletter.

"A guide book to the National Day celebration" (September 30, A9), which detailed information on the celebration and parade with an eye-catching page design in vivid colors, was written by reporters from the Metro department and designed by Chen Jie. Our Website designers and online team also contributed to the page.

The Expo Shanghai Newsletter, produced by Shanghai Daily, is the current weekly four-page official newsletter of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination. Shanghai Daily has published the weekly, formerly bi-weekly, newsletter since September.

The best picture of the month went to photographer Dong Jun. He captured the dynamic moment when China's Olympic champion Liu Xiang returned to the track at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix (September 21, A1, B16). 

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=576 <![CDATA[The 31st issue of e-magazine is out now!]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Wed,18 Nov 2009 11:00:46 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=576 The issue has 8 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Technology, Consumer, Energy, Real Estate and Auto, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=575 <![CDATA[ShanghaiDaily.com looks better in Firefox]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Thu,05 Nov 2009 12:07:05 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=575 ShanghaiDaily.com is now more compatible with web browsers other than Internet Explorer 7.0, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

Following the launch of Shanghaidaily.com V5.0, the online department received constant complaints that the website did not display properly in Mozilla Firefox Browser.

One user, unable to view the website using Firefox without the layout getting all jumbled up, was so disappointed that he considered the revamp "a step backward rather than a move forward."

We apologize for this issue, which was due to very short testing time caused by tight schedule. We aim to make the website look better and function better and we realize that every step forward would not have been possible were it not for the help and support from our users.

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=574 <![CDATA[ShanghaiDaily.com completes major revamp]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Sat,10 Oct 2009 13:43:59 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=574 The online department has just launched Shanghaidaily.com V5.0.

The site is considered "V5.0" because it is the fifth version of Shanghai Daily's Website. The first one was a totally fee-based Website that offered subscribers PDF file downloading services. The second version was launched around October 2005 and the next design, Version 3.0, was officially launched on January 1, 2007. The fourth version, which had been thoroughly revamped, was put into use on May 1, 2008. The current version, improved from the fourth version, was launched in October 2009.

The new version differs little from the previous one structurally, but graphically it has taken a new approach. Text blocks now look more compact and images have been enlarged. Each section has its own color identity to better stand out.

Some new functional features include:

Mobile Newspaper

Mobile phone users in Shanghai are able to receive Shanghai Daily mobile newspaper every morning. The mobile newspaper focuses on top news in Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta and other provinces in China to feature a wide variety of local news and practical services messages with Expo coverage as its highlights. News in the mobile paper also has Chinese abstracts.

The mobile newspaper will be issued once a day in morning editions, 3 yuan a month. No GPRS fee will be charged for receiving the MMS newspaper. Forward the newspaper or click through URLs contained in the newspaper might trigger GPRS charges.
 
Mobile Browser Version

This is a WAP-style fast-loading version of ShanghaiDaily.com, optmized for mobile phone users with GPRS connections.

For more information on ShanghaiDaily.com V5.0, please see About Us.

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=573 <![CDATA[Celebrate National Day on the Web]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Tue,29 Sep 2009 11:27:32 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=573
At the eve of such a meaningful event, Shanghai Daily Online decides to release the web edition of National Day Special. We focus on the milestones and achievements in the past six decades as well as the highlights of present day celebration events.

Special reports on the National Day celebration such as parade and official fireworks have been streaming in and related stories are produced in a fashion that fully utilizes Shanghai Daily’s multi-media channels. Exclusive photo coverage is displayed as slideshow on the front page of the website, granting viewers the freedom to go to the associated stories at will.

Celebration events hosted by the government and major businesses are shown in chronological orders. We designed it to float over most of the web entries on the right hand side to serve as a constant reminder of today’s events. Viewers can also check a list of them to sort by different criteria to help better plan their schedules during the Golden Week.

The special features of our National Day website are the unique retrospective presentations of the Republic’s achievements and milestones.

We have acquired the data collected by National Bureau of Statistics of China in yearly basis for the past six decades and created interactive charts in Flash animations. By using FusionCharts’s open source API, we generated XML files from the data tables in the yearbook—China Compendium of Statistics 1949-2004 as well as the figures we found from other sources on the web, and nested them under the UI level Flash presentations.


We chose as many as 8 aspects of the achievements and presented up to 26 different fields of data to juxtapose their counterparts or relevant fields. The only problem was that when rendered for the entire six-decade period, many of the figures from early years (especially before the 1980s) became insignificant in term of scales compared with the late 1990s and 21st century figures. In many cases, it was so severe that the quantified graphical nodes were even close to ground zero so it became difficult to visualize an interpretation of the development in the early few decades, while it was actually quite fascinating. So we also separated several sets of data to scale the chart down to display data for every two decades.

Thanks to this process, many of the interesting facts are visible now, that after the government’s encouragement of innovation during the “a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend” campaign in the 1950s, which causes the numbers of both titles and copies of publications rose rapidly, the Culture Revolution wiped out most of these new-comers to the publishing business and repressed the figured back close to ground zero; that when millions of people starved and both the population and growth rate decreased during the Great Leap Forward, bogus numbers of economic growth reported by the local governments kept rising skyscraper high. After thirty; that after 37 years of falling way behind government revenue, the total outstanding amount of saving deposit of Chinese people finally surpass it and eventually accumulated to the point we see today (more than 3 times the government revenue).

To demonstrate the milestones in both geo-political and economic means set in the 60 years, we also produced an animated P.R.C. timeline presentation. It is, too, made in Flash. On the single X-axis of the Republic’s lifespan, we marked the memorable moments and slide-show them as if the viewers have get on a subway train of time travel. Images flash in front of their eyes as if the history is being reconstructed. We intended to design this presentation as a reminder to viewers of the long path behind us since the founding of the nation.


Finally, the 2009 National Day celebration’s biggest highlight will undoubtedly be the October 1st Parade. As the tradition, the head of the state will represent the people to inspect the troops on Tian’an Men Square. The scope and scale of the troops involved and the variety of military equipment appearing in the parade are kept confidential to bring the element of surprise. However, some details have been announced. Therefore, we determined to draw comparisons of this year’s parade with the major ones in the past. From the record, we acquired the past numbers of parade participants, the models and makes of the weaponaries. Based on these facts, we constructed the images to symbolize the scale of each parade by breaking them down to several groups: paraders, missiles, personnel transport, armed vehicles, aircraft and artillery. Participating aircraft models are also illustrated in side view sketches. In this way, the advancement of the strength of P.L.A. became clear.


The National Day Special website will stay active during the Golden week and the week after. Please stay tuned by checking it out at: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/60th/ .
]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=572 <![CDATA[The 30th issue of e-magazine is out now!]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Thu,03 Sep 2009 14:38:11 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=572

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Energy, Real Estate, Food & Beverage, Cosmetics and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=571 <![CDATA[Shanghai Daily recruiting Expo student reporters]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Fri,21 Aug 2009 10:07:40 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=571 Shanghai Daily and its Chinese language sister paper, oriental Morning Post, are recruiting student reporters for Expo.

The selected student reporters will have the opportunity to cover various events and activities at the 2010 World Expo and interview celebrities from all over the world and work with senior reporters.

Both Chinese and foreign students studying in Shanghai, aged under 16, are eligible.

The reporters will get free training in either English or Chinese.

The four-day training program, presented by reporters, editors and news experts, will cover news writing and editing, photography, illustration and page layout. Candidates will find out how a newsroom works.

The first round of training will start next Tuesday and the program will run till November.

Free training will also be offered to elementary- and middle-school teachers to help their students understand newspapers.

Candidates can get more information and apply online at http://www.dfdaily.com/club/.


Application form: http://www.dfdaily.com/application/exponewspaper/
Telephone: 5292-1569, 6247-4264

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=568 <![CDATA[Monthly newsroom awards announced]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Fri,24 Jul 2009 15:07:59 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=568

Shanghai Daily unveiled its monthly "Best Stories" and "Best Pages" awards yesterday.

The best stories of June went to metro reporter Cai Wenjun, business reporter Zhu Shenshen and feature writer Yao Minji.

Cai had an exclusive with her story headlined: "HIV grows rapidly among city men who have sex with men" (June 19, A2), which was widely cited by media and Internet bulletins. Cai attended a scientific education lecture and managed to collect enough material that authorities normally are reluctant to disclose to raise social concerns.

Yao and Zhu developed their own idea into the feature story "Telling pigs from porn: Problems with anti-porn software" (June 23, C4-5), which focused on the green-dam software. It was a very timely and in-depth story with resourceful and interesting sidebars. It was critical, yet well balanced and offered a nice read.

The best page of June went to Sunday's Style column (June 23, B4-5), which showed and commented on celebrities walking the red carpet on the opening night of the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival, written by Zhang Yi and designed by Fu Rong.

The best visual art of the month was shared by our illustrator Zhou Tao and the whole new version of "Live in Shanghai" website (live.shanghaidaily.com).

Zhou created an interesting Scope cover (June 3) combining animation characters together in a classroom of "Olympic math."

Website designers Zhu Moqing, Li Hualiang, Zhang Rui and Shen Xinyi were mainly involved in the "Live in Shanghai" project. 

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=567 <![CDATA['Live in Shanghai' embarks on a lively new journey]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Fri,17 Jul 2009 11:44:05 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=567 Since its launch in 2006, "Live in Shanghai" (live.shanghaidaily.com) has always been an important component of Shanghai Daily's Website.

From a simple site providing basic knowledge of life in the city to an ambitious effort incorporating venue listings, classifieds and user involvement through the Web 2.0 concept, Shanghai Daily's Web team has always been after the best way to provide readers with an ultimate guide of the city.

Now, after three years' experience with the site's evolution, the Web team is proud to announce that the latest edition of "Live in Shanghai" - totally redesigned and considerably expanded - has been launched.

The designers first gave the Website a fresh new look, simple but graphically appealing, an important way to dispel the dry and boring feeling of the previous edition's interface.

The core content of the Website, those "classics" that have served our readers since the first launch, are still available and now form the "City Guide" section.

The acclaimed features on Metro, taxi service and many other topics have been fully updated.

The Metro page offers one of the most complete and up-to-date Metro line maps in English. Plotted on the interactive map are not only the operational lines and all the stations in use, with information on train times and a meticulously prepared surrounding map for each station, but also those lines under construction or just planned.

The major expansion in this revamp is the addition of a "Columns" section.

A lot of useful articles covering dining, shopping, health, entertainment and travel regularly appear in Shanghai Daily's Features section. But since ShanghaiDaily.com is fee-based, they become inaccessible by free users after a week and are thus "lost" in the massive news database.

The "Columns" section has been introduced to "rescue" these indispensable articles and make them available to all users. In the section, articles are grouped under several columns and are presented as closely to their layout on the printed newspaper as possible.

Of special interest is the "Block by Block" that introduces a street with surrounding attractions, shops, restaurants, and so on, each week.

The designers attach a formulated map to each street and incorporate all single streets in a bigger Flash map of a district, and then of the city - a complete activity guide for Shanghai is on its way.

The directory listings are now easier to browse and when you search for a particular venue, the accuracy of the results has been considerably improved.

Another addition is the embedded Google Map for each venue. Through the map, the exact position of a venue is now readily available and the map can be enlarged to explore surrounding areas.

The property ads in the classified section now provide more information, such as pricing and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, highlighted to facilitate comparison between different properties.

Last but not least, let's return to the home page, and see how the designers have managed to invigorate the facade of the Website. Apart from the latest issue of the "Block by Block" column and the namesake column of the site, which you are reading now, updates are applied to the home page where possible at all times, making it look fresh every day.

What's more important is the introduction of a "What's Up" panel that logs all additions or updates on the site. This shows the scale of user involvement and the efforts of editors.

Want to find out more new features? Go to live.shanghaidaily.com and experience them now.

]]> http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=565 <![CDATA[The 29th issue of e-magazine is out now!]]> online@shanghaidaily.com(admin) Tue,30 Jun 2009 16:34:10 +0800 http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/default.asp?id=565

The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Auto, Air, Retail, Energy, Real Estate and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.

Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.

Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.

You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.

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