For some Chinese celebrities, if 2006 was the year of blog, 2007 may be the year of the e-zine.

With a growing number of Chinese actors and entertainers abandoning blogs, the e-zine, short for electronic magazine, is slowly occupying their online time and space.

Slate, an e-zine in the United States, was ranked the fourth most influential media outlet in the country following The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal in 2005.

A combination of sound, images, animation and video clips, the e-zine offers a brand-new real-time reading experience, and this is what is attracting Chinese stars.

Yang Lan, the famous TV producer, began her e-zine titled Lan on Dec. 15, 2005, and this has now become a profitable business. Other celebrity bloggers, including actresses Xu Jinglei and Gao Yuanyuan and TV host Chen Luyu, now claim to be editors-in-chief of online magazines.

Compared to blogs which only offer daily commentary, most e-zines target young urban women, providing fashion news, gossip, cosmetics tips, home furnishing guides and love advice.

Yu Feier, vice general manager of Sino Media, Chinese biggest e-zine company, says:"An e-zine is just like a magic book, in which you can have an amazing reading experience. Movies, drama, animations, audio and video are all the ways of representation. Readers can comment online, and have snapshots with the stars they like."

As for celebrities, the biggest advantage of the e-zine over the blog format is the former's ability to generate advertising. It is difficult to insert ads into blogs, but easy to do so in an e-zine.

"At present, more and more advertisers pay attention to e-zines because through Internet, advertisers can have a clear view on a certain e-zine's downloading volume, reading times, as well as subscribers' age and reading habits," said Liu Bing, an Internet industry analyst.

When Xu Jinglei announced that famous writers Wang Shuo and Han Han would contribute articles to Xu's e-zine, some companies soon showed their willingness to sponsor the online magazine.

Editor: Wing