The Study on News Service of Chinese Portal Sites

[[abstract]] With the increase of Chinese websites and the introduction of more and more services, the management and development of the news service have become one of the focuses of many Chinese portal sites. In order to understand the content and style of the news service on Chinese portal sites and Internet users’ needs and viewpoints, “content analysis” and “Internet survey” were adopted in this study. Through content analysis, it was discovered that in addition to real-time news service, news search, link service, rankings, discussions, and personalized service in many Chinese portal sites have been upgraded with advanced functions, and new news-related services are offered at all times. In terms of the presentation of news service, it could be noticed in all Chinese portal sites that news and links are directly displayed in the homepage with multi-layered web pages to classify different news service types. Despite the fact that the news displayed in the homepage and its coverage differ from region to region, headlines and pictures are mostly shown at the upper left corner of the news homepage. Moreover, the news content template is often composed of a banner at the upper part of the webpage and two columns below it. Pictures in the news article are generally placed in the beginning of the text. According to the Internet survey, Internet users have a strong need for the real-time news service on portal sites, and their needs for news search engines, the link service for the latest news, a news discussion board, the ranking of hot news, and the function to change the text size are also considerable. Speaking of the news template, it was mentioned by Internet users that the news homepage should not be too lengthy, and using a banner to indicate news types is appropriate. Besides, headlines should be displayed on the upper part of the homepage, while news pictures should be shown in the beginning of the article. Additionally, Internet users in different regions showed different needs for the news services. For instance, compared with users in China, a higher need for news search, link service, and personalization can be found among Taiwanese users. Meanwhile, individuals who read news on the Internet everyday would need the news link service more than those do not. Basically, Internet users’ needs from Chinese portal sites include: rich news content, a simple and easy-to-read template, and a higher proportion of pictures. If all these needs can be fulfilled, Chinese portal sites can not only satisfy the needs and expectations of more news readers and listeners but also boost the web traffic and the visitor number.