Since news media requires government permission - perhaps blog reporting on life/living in kunming would be an interesting alternative?
Example - life around the subway station exits (culture, food, entertainment, sports, tourism, etc ad infinitum).
Depends more about content and size of audience than the medium I think, and the platform where it gets published.
If foreign internet platforms, Chinese government has limited methods to control what foreigners publish in those anyway. Whether it is innocent tourism blog or critical political commentary doesn't make much difference.
If Chinese internet platforms, no matter how innocent the content starts with, it is more about size of audience until you get flagged as a "citizen journalist" and treated accordingly. There would be room to maneuver in relevant laws to flag you as news media regardless.
Plus in the latter case I imagine there is lot of competition from local native bloggers.
Little Red Book (小红书) does that. The platform has been gaining traction for a while now. Blogging about Kunming in English would help you stand out from Chinese bloggers/vloggers.
Like Weibo, politically sensitive topics would be moderated by their own if not flagged, as the company would be held accountable for not doing so.
No homegrown, tech company is safe from scrutiny these days.
I was thinking of gokm sanctioned roving reporters, edited by the gokm editor(s) before being released, and paid bounties (cash or barter) for published articles.
On that note - as opposed to one-off articles - I was also thinking about "theme"-based article/blogs with pilots (like movies) to test user and just as importantly, advertiser interest.
It was just a thought...
Whole lot of issues around that... work permits of these roving reporters to begin with, if they are getting paid in any way, and not permanent residents.
On topic of publishing in Chinese internet platforms, these are usually financed by commercial revenue whether the authors themselves get paid a dime or not. Advertisements, subscriptions, whatever.
In past when I moved on marriage visa and was working remotely for foreign employer, PSB (which I informed of the situation) very clearly worded how my work may not source direct or indirect revenue from China or create economic benefits for any Chinese company in any way.
If one posts on advertisement-driven blog site or whatever, that kind of establishes advertising revenue for the enterprise already - if your posts have any audience.
Ultimately I think it boils down to defining whether such blogging is part of normal life these days (equal to buying groceries or taking subway), or a job.
Maybe I am creating revenue for GoKunming as I write this, but I would argue that in this case I am just living the life so it's OK. If I started publishing regular blog on this site, it might not be.
