'Like milk': How one magazine became a mainstay of New Jersey's Chinese community

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/31/ [login to see] /chinese-magazine-new-jersey-sino-monthly
Bundles of free newspapers are stacked by the doors of Chinese supermarkets in New Jersey. Plastered with brightly colored ads, most are backed by powerful institutions, be they religious groups, the spiritual movement Falun Gong or news agencies affiliated with the Chinese government in Beijing.

Sino Monthly, a magazine that costs $1.25 per issue, stands out among the Chinese-language press for something else: its independence. It was founded by a local couple in 1991. They're still at the helm.

"My magazine is like milk," founder and editor Ivy Lee says when asked about how Sino Monthly has survived for so long. "Milk has nutrition. It's very inexpensive and very easy to get."

Sino Monthly, with six people on the payroll, never aimed to be a paper of record. In fact, it is one, having become a staple for New Jersey's Chinese community.