Retirement of Xinwen Lianbo anchors prompts calls for overhaul of flagship CCTV news bulletin
The need for new faces to front CCTV's flagship show seen as a chance to also change the strict format and appeal to the young
They're not senior party leaders, but their retirement has created a nationwide stir.
The news that Li Ruiying and Zhang Hongmin are stepping down as anchors of China Central Television's prime-time news programme has sparked widespread reaction.
Since its debut in 1978, CCTV's Xinwen Lianbo has become arguably the world's most watched news programme, with more than 100 million viewers tuning in for the daily 30-minute bulletin from 7pm. Li, 52, and Zhang, 53, have been the programme's anchors since the late 1980s, making them household names on the mainland.
They covered a host of major events including the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, the Sichuan earthquake and the Beijing Olympics, both in 2008. They are regarded as the highest profile of the four pairs of newscasters.
With the Communist Party keeping a tight grip on the media, CCTV has all the advantages in television news production, with exclusive access to major news events such as key state ceremonies, diplomatic occasions and government policy addresses.
However, the show has long been criticised for its rigid format and skewed news values. It has apparently lost much of its allure, particularly among young people. Some internet users summed the programme up in three phrases: the leaders are busy, the people are happy, and other countries are chaotic, referring to the formula that sees the news programme divided into three parts. The first third is generally dominated by reports on the activities of the country's top leaders in order of their rank in the party hierarchy. The second part is domestic news, dominated by reports trumpeting progress in the regions and focusing on happy citizens. The last third is international news, usually leading with war, natural disasters or social and economic conflict.
That formula has been followed so strictly over the years that President Xi Jinping recently called for its overhaul, saying the state broadcaster should report less on leaders' activities and instead select stories based on their "newsworthiness and social impact". Now Li and Zhang's retirement has brought fresh calls for an overhaul of the dated format.