How to Run a Local Newspaper1
(December 20, 1944)
Local news should cover at least two and at most three pages. When arranging
the news, the stress should be on the local, then the domestic, and finally the
international news. As for news concerning other regions and around the world,
this should be changed. The articles by the New China News Agency should not
be printed in their entirety. Some should come out in digests, while others should
be printed in booklets. The newspaper is not run for the New China News
Agency but is for the people in the Shanxi-Suiyuan Border Region. Therefore, it
should meet the needs of the people in the region (staying in touch with the
masses and serving the masses). Otherwise, it will separate itself from the masses
and lose the meaning of local guidance.
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong xinwen gongzuo wenxuan, p. 120, where it is reproduced from
the transcript preserved by the Xinhua News Agency.
1. This is a directive from Mao Zedong to Kangzhan ribao (War of Resistance Daily) in the Shanxi-Suiyuan Border Region.