The People's Daily is no longer a traditional kind of newspaper, but a multimedia group ranging from print to website, mobile phone app, microblog and online TV, Ma Li, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper, told students at Xiamen University on Wednesday.

Ma led a delegation of senior journalists from the Communist Party of China's top newspaper to exchange their understanding of the newspaper's mission with students in the prestigious university based in Southeast China's Xiamen, Fujian Province.

"New media has become one of our body organs, or the sixth sense. The transformation from traditional media is inevitable," Ma told hundreds of students in a speech.

"If you dare not cross the boundary, someone will rob you," added Ma, who is also chairwoman of the board of directors of People's Daily Online.

Many students expressed their surprise that a Party newspaper that they thought stern had so many different faces and was full of vitality.

"The newspaper used to be like a poker-faced old man in my mind, but now I find it more like a young man or a pretty woman," a student told the visitors.

The students raised questions concerning how traditional media should adapt to the new time and what a Party newspaper can do to get closer to young readers.

The journalists said The People's Daily does not avoid reporting problems in society, but it approaches the problems in a constructive way.

"Only after you fully understand the situation of a news event with an objective approach do your questions over the issue become constructive," a journalist said.