China's best-selling magazine launches E-book

LANZHOU - China's most popular magazine, known as the Chinese version of "Reader's Digest," launched its first E-book gadget Friday in northwest China's Gansu Province.

The Duzhe ("Readers"), with an average monthly circulation of 7.5 million copies, is now available in E-books to its dealers and soon to readers, said Ji Xiping, chairman of the Readers Publishing Media Co. Ltd..

The Reader e-book has a display that is slightly larger than that of an ordinary iPhone, it would contain more than 400 books and selected articles of the Reader magazine over the past decades.

The price of the gadget and subscription rate for its electronic E-book version have not been announced.

A traditional Chinese version will be launched for overseas Chinese readers, and an English version is also being planned, Xi said.

With more than 120 copies sold per month, "Readers" has been a best-seller over the past years for 45-year-old Zhang Yong, who runs a book stand near the headquarters of Readers Publishing Media.

He is worried about the likely enthusiasm from young readers for the E-book, but has confidence that elder readers will still buy the hard copy.

"Seniors have more difficulties using electronic products than youths," he said.

The magazine, founded in March 1981 in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu, mainly carries articles on culture, life and inspirational topics, similar to "Reader's Digest" in the United States.