The rise of digital around the world won't hurt print in China, where press freedom is scarce, but state-run newspapers have continued to succeed, due to government ownership and media monopolies, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported today.

The largest newspaper in China, the government owned People's Daily, prints 2.8 million copies per day. The newspaper derives its main revenue from subscriptions and big business advertising, many of which are also state owned.

In a country where the press and many advertisers are run by the government, it's not hard to see why the state is keeping itself in business. Editors at People's Daily in Beijing told visiting Filipino journalists that the paper does not fear the growth of online sources of news. The editors stressed that financially, the newspapers are self-supporting and ideologically, the Chinese people are reliant on the government papers for news.

The editors said they believe their monopolized sources have readers committed to newspapers and cautious of blogs and online news, according to the Inquirer.

The People's Daily publishing group has 30 branches across the country as well as bureaux overseas. The group also publishes two English-language newspapers, China Daily and the Global Times. Each of the English language papers publishes three pages of international news, drawn from Hsinhua, the national news agency, and The Associated Press.