Interfax has released a list of the top 20 Chinese print media by ad revenues in the first quarter of 2005, in a report about the China Daily's plans to launch yet another mundane newspaper — a Shanghai-focused English language daily.

Compiled by Zhiyang Damen Market Research, the ad revenue numbers are best taken with a sprinkling of salt. Here is the list of publications together with the quarterly ad revenue stated by the Interfax report:

1. Beijing Evening News RMB 401.23 milllion
2. Guangzhou Daily RMB 290.27 milllion
3. Beijing Youth Daily RMB 288.07 milllion
4. Peninsula City News RMB 283.82 milllion
5. Shanghai Morning Post RMB 248.74 milllion
6. Chengdu Economic Daily RMB 192.45 milllion
7. Beijing Times RMB 191.25 milllion
8. Xinmin Evening News RMB 173.9 milllion
9. Shopping Guide RMB 173.81 milllion
10. Shenzhen Special Zone Press RMB 171.47 milllion
11. Chutian Metro Daily RMB 165.42 milllion
12. Qilu Evening News RMB 160.69 milllion
13. Chinese Business View RMB 156.8 milllion
14. Huaxi City Daily RMB 156.25 milllion
15. Dalian Evening News RMB 152.29 milllion
16. Today Evening News RMB 140.64 milllion
17. Qianjiang Evening News RMB 134.91 milllion
18. Nanfang City News RMB 133.75 milllion
19. Beijing Entertainment News RMB 120.85 milllion
20. Wuhan Evening News RMB 111.67 milllion

On a related subject, a few weeks ago Hong Kong blogger ESWN translated a post by Liu Jin from the Yannan online forum about the real circulation figures of Beijing's newspapers. These are the numbers Liu gives as genuine:

Here are the true figures:

Beijing Evening News prints 700,000 copies — 450,000 for retail and 250,000 for subscribers. Of the retail copies, 50,000 to 100,000 are unsold.

Beijing Daily Messenger prints 180,000 to 200,000 — 60,000 for subscribers; of the 120,000 retail copies, at least one-third is unsold.

Beijing Morning News prints 180,000 — 130,000 are for subscribers; of the 50,000 retail copies, at least 20,000 are sold by the distribution center director as waste paper.