Hong Kong listed Beijing Media, the advertising arm of the Beijing Youth Daily Group, has established a joint venture with the publishers of Hebei Youth Daily, China Business News reports. According to data provided by Beijing Media, the Beijing company will hold 60% of the joint venture, and will initially invest 18 million yuan with 32 million to be supplied later. As a separate part of the deal, Beijing Media paid 20 million yuan for control of and revenue from Hebei Youth Daily's printing, distribution, and advertising operations. For Beijing Media, this deal represents the first step in its nationwide expansion, and will reduce its reliance on advertising revenue from the Beijing Youth Daily stable of publications (which includes China Business News). The advertising company was founded in 2001 and listed in Hong Kong in 2004. Last year it was rocked by a financial scandal in which its profits for the first half of 2005 fell 99.7%, leading to allegations of corruption.Link: http://dycj.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=7713697