media - Looking for a job as a journalist in Shanghai?

It happened three, four times to me over the past weeks and now it shows even up as a search question on my weblog: journalists from Europe or the US looking for a job in Shanghai. The prospects do not look very well back home, as the media industry is in the middle of a drastic reshuffle, so it might look logic that people start to look for other opportunities.
What I'm going to tell you now goes for almost every job here in this booming city: do not start packing yet.
The economy might keep on steroids and perform in double digit, it does not mean that somebody is here waiting for you. There is a huge demand for people, but it might not be for you and it is most certainly not for the salary you would expect.
Let's focus on the media. First, unlike for English-language teachers, the market is fairly limited. Chinese media do not hire you, even when your mandarin is quite ok. English-language media - there are a few - would need mainly people who help them with their English, so a teacher would actually be better.
Local English print media do need people. They pay because of the stiff competition among people who want to write for them about 3 yuan (€ 0.3) per word, so you would have to write quite a lot before you can complain about that payment over a beer (unless you buy it in the supermarket and sit on the street like the Shanghainese in the summer).
Foreign media do still need people, but the number of foreign correspondents is not growing together with the economy. While some the larger foreign media are going strong, most of the smaller posts have been scaling down or even been closing their posts. The jobs that are still available are very much wanted, so they do not have to recruit externally. Support jobs (or indeed the jobs themselves) are increasingly done by Chinese journalists, who have become pretty good in their jobs compared to ten years ago.
So, have I covered all the job opportunities for foreign journalists in China? Well, there is one possibility: when you arrive here covered with assignments for the next few years. Otherwise, start unpacking.

(this is not an endorsement, but a way to make money)
The Publishing Industry in China