Real estate companies also set the benchmark in deviating from conventional in-house publications in that they took the lead in printing content not conspicuously related to their business and designing layouts comparable, if not better, to magazines on market stands. The quality is partly due to sound financial backing– the real estate industry produced half of the top 10 billionaires in China today.

When asked about the yearly costs to produce a monthly in-house magazine with a circulation of 25,000, Soho Mini Press chief editor Li Nan is evasive: "I would say it is cheaper than taking up several full color pages of advertisement in the newspaper."

Li, a former lifestyle journalist, says she has more editorial freedom in running a publication that is not dependent on sales and advertising revenue. She has a free hand in deciding story ideas – which usually coalesce during chit-chatting sessions with colleagues over meals and drinks – regardless of market demand. What about corporate interference? She replies: "My big boss only set three rules: no incendiary materials, no pornography, and no advertisements."

That said, she does tailor her content to an imaginary readership, namely the educated middle class who are potential Soho property buyers, and speculates on what they are interested in.

"Our content cannot be self-centered, as our intelligent readers rejected outright self-publicity. We show our concern for social and urban development issues. Being the forerunner in economic development, the image of real estate companies and developers may not always be positive; we are trying to create a balance to that image," says Li.

Outside Mainstream Media Control
Based on data collected by Corporate Publications Research Center (CPRC), which is formed by various corporations' editorial personnel and has organized annual corporate media seminars for the past 11 years, Beijing has the most number of in-house titles, followed by Shenzhen. Wuhan too has a substantial number.
 
Its second chief secretary, Chen Ruijiang, believes that better salary package offered by companies with sound financial standing has attracted editorial talents into corporate publishing, adding that this has partly enhanced the quality of in-house publications in recent years.

"Some of the publications are very technical and industry-specific; overseas, these would have been termed "custom publishing", something like business-to-business media," explains Chen, adding that strict publishing regulations in the country is one other major reasons that in-house publications flourished.