Shanghai's Oriental Morning Post reportedly set to halt publication

Oriental Morning Post (東方早報) is reportedly to stop publishing at the end of this year, according to Chinese online media company Sina.All of the paper’s staff would be transferred to the post’s digital news outlet, The Paper (澎湃新聞), which covers contentious issues on its popular app.The news first broke and circulated on social media from an official Weibo account named Shanghai No 1, saying that managers of the publication had decided to formally stop publishing Oriental Morning Post at the start of next year (1/1/2017).According to some sources of the newspaper, the senior managers said the closure is coming, though it has no concrete timetable yet.Some netizens said they are not very surprised about the closure as the post has been gradually transferring many of its reporters to The Paper over the last couple of years, as part of an effort to remain relevant in the new media age.The 13-year-old newspaper is considered one of the outspoken newspapers in Shanghai, particularly in its coverage of disasters including high-speed train crash in eastern China in 2011 and the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan.The newspaper is owned by Shanghai United Media Group (上海報業集團) and is overseen by the city’s Communist Party Committee which owns a clutch of other Chinese media outlets.