As the former producer for Dialogue, a popular financial talk show on state broadcaster Central China Television, Luo said that he always felt upset when hosts or hostesses couldn't convey his idea properly. He recalled that at that time he always asked himself, "Why can't I stand on the stage myself?"

When China Business Network, a Shanghai-based financial media group, invited Luo to be a host on one of its TV programs, he didn't hesitate to join but the idea of creating his own media channel always lingered in his mind until he met Shen Yin in 2012. Shen is also a TV producer and he envisioned the trend of media as going toward increasingly smaller and more professional offerings. They decided to set up a new media outlet together.

On December 21, 2012, the rumored end day of the world, Luo's first self-produced talk show, titled Live to Die, was put online and attracted more than 1 million views.

"I regard new media more as a business than traditional media," Luo said. "Now the cost to make your own media is a lot lower. You just need a video camera and tripod, which is less than 40,000 yuan ($6,440)."

Luo releases one video each week and every morning before 7 a.m., his followers can get a 60-second audio segment recorded by him. The content includes almost everything that Luo wants to talk about, from book recommendations to interesting stories from history.

On August 11 last year, after gathering more than 10,000 followers, Luo started his first round of the Love Support campaign among his fans. "If you think you are a regular fan, you can pay 200 yuan ($32.2); if you are a huge fan, you can pay 1,200 yuan ($194)," Luo said.

When answering the question of what followers could get after paying, Luo said, "They can get a secret gift package, a member ID and some surprises from time to time. The membership is valid for two years." But he didn't explain what the member ID can do or what benefits paying followers can receive.

Despite this, within five hours, Luo collected 1.6 million yuan ($258,000), which amazed everybody including himself. On December 27, 2013, in the second round of the "Love Support" campaign among Luo's 100,000 or so followers, the result was even more unexpected—he collected another 8 million yuan ($129,000) within 24 hours.

According to Luo, rewards for participating followers are varied. For example, they can get special discount when they buy the books recommended by Luo from designated online bookshops. Some can get shopping coupons worth 1,000 yuan ($161) from a lucky draw and more than 200 restaurants all over the country joined to offer free meals to Luo's followers, also by lucky draw.

Not just for profit

"Almost everybody is surprised by the 9.6 million yuan ($1.55 million) Luo collected within four months," said Zhang Chunwei, a commentator with Beijing-based China National Radio who is also a new media producer. "But it is a reward after two years of hard work by his production team."

After regular working hours and time spared to take care of her son, Zhang manages to squeeze three hours running her public WeChat account into every day. "It is normal to record more than 20 times to make the final version of an audio," Zhang said. "And as there are a growing number of public accounts, it is harder than before to get as many followers."

"Making new media products is very time consuming. Putting aside the cost, you need to work every day to feed followers with information," said Cheng, who said that he spends four to five hours every day maintaining Cloud Technology and now he has friends joining to work with him.

"Content is still king for new media outlets, but as people are used to getting free information online, it is not an easy task to get them to pay for it," Cheng said.

Although money made through new media itself might be limited, it can help to expand the influence of new producers, which will bring financial rewards in other ways, according to Cheng.

"There are many uncertainties about new media, among all the new media accounts that I follow, only my own and another one update information every day," said Wen, who added that a single person's efforts is not enough to run a new media outlet.

In contrast to full-time new media producers, many people have been getting involved in the trend just for fun.

Yang Chenyi, 25, has been running a public WeChat account that collects funny comments from movie reviews since late 2012. Yang graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and is a big fan of movies and loves to read movie comments online. "Some comments are interesting but the sources are very scattered, I want to gather them together with my account," Yang said.

Actually the account covers about more than just movies. The followers can talk about anything including their love lives or how to ask for leave from their bosses.

"I never thought of making money out of it, as relying on writing for a living is very difficult," Yang said. "It is like a 24-hour party among all my followers, and I enjoy it a lot."

Email us at: yuanyuan@bjreview.com