According to market and investment banking sources, Guangzhou Daily will inject the advertising, printing and sales operations of 12 subsidiary publications into its 37 per cent-held Qingyuan Jianbei (Group), which is traded over the counter on the National Electronic Trading System.

After the injection, Guangzhou Daily will increase its stake in Qingyuan Jianbei to more than 50 per cent and relaunch the listing vehicle on Shenzhen's main board.

Publicly listed companies are not allowed to own the editorial operations of newspapers, magazines or broadcasters.

'It will be faster for Guangzhou Daily to go for a back-door listing rather than an initial public offering,' said a source close to the newspaper group.

Guangzhou Daily is China's most commercially successful newspaper group, with advertising revenues at its flagship paper reaching 1.3 billion yuan last year. It is followed closely by Beijing Youth, which had advertising sales of more than 900 million yuan.

Beijing Youth recently concluded the 12-month preparation period required by the mainland securities regulators and is planning to raise at least one billion yuan through a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange this year.

The back-door ploy is Guangzhou Daily's second attempt at a public listing.

An earlier IPO plan was abandoned two years ago after a corruption scandal led to the detention of the group's president and editor-in-chief.

'They are pushing really hard for [the listing] this time after screwing things up two years ago,' a banking source said. 'Hopefully, they can list within the year.'

Guangzhou Daily and its adviser, BOC International, declined to comment on the listing plans.

Qingyuan Jianbei chairman Liang Hanhui was unavailable for comment. A company spokeswoman said he was 'too busy with listing work'.

Last month, Qingyuan Jianbei secured State Press and Publication Administration approval to apply for a formal listing.