Annotations on Deng Tuo’s[1] Report Regarding the Work of the People’s Daily
(December 4, 1949)

Qiaomu’s[2] comments and check marks
This matter[3] should be resolved promptly and should not be delayed too long. Deng Tuo’s opinions appear to be sound.

Mao Zedong
December 4

1. A serious disconnect from reality;
2. Deeply ingrained guerrilla-style work habits; the editorial department’s leadership was in effect multi-headed rather than a tiered system of individual responsibility;
3. A large number of cadres of low quality, improperly assigned, whose initiative could not be tapped;
4. Poor coordination between administrative management and editorial work. To enable the People’s Daily to fulfill the mission of a national newspaper and address the above problems, Deng Tuo put forward the following proposals:
1. Transfer additional key leading personnel who understand the profession to strengthen the leadership.
2. Reorganize the editorial department, adjusting the editorial board members, group leaders, and editorial staff mainly based on the two criteria of moral integrity and professional competence; institute a strict system of reviewing manuscripts; and implement a tiered system of individual responsibility.
3. Designate one deputy director or one deputy editor-in-chief to take special charge of vertical liaison work, actively organize comprehensive news and commentaries with a strong ideological and policy orientation in line with the leadership’s intentions, and rotate responsibility for organizing news dispatches and essays on specialized topics from various departments.
4. Select a number of competent correspondents and send them to the major administrative regions to establish contacts and organize news coverage from those regions.
5. Generally recruit special correspondents in all provinces and municipalities.

--- Notes

[1] Deng Tuo, then serving as editor-in-chief of the People’s Daily.
[2] Qiaomu, namely Hu Qiaomu, then serving as deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Administration of Press under the Central People’s Government.
[3] Refers to the report Deng Tuo wrote on December 1, 1949, to Lu Dingyi and Hu Qiaomu, with copies to Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi, in which he raised problems existing in the work of the People’s Daily and his suggestions for reform. Deng Tuo stated that the People’s Daily’s current problems were: