By Chris Hawke and Huang Jingjing

China's most famous muckraking editor has taken control of a weekly general news magazine, bringing along members of her team that resigned as a block with her from the groundbreaking business magazine Caijing.

Hu Shuli has widened her editorial reach into mainstream news as the editor of the little known Century Weekly, published by an obscure think tank called the China Institute for Reform and Development.

The announcement Wednesday gives the first clues of Hu's future plans since she resigned in November from Caijing over issue of financial and editorial control, followed by about 200 editors and reporters.

Spokeswoman Zhang Lihui told the Global Times the new magazine will be just one product of Caixin Media, the new company formed by Hu's team.

Caixin Media also plans to launch a news website, publish books and organize conferences, Zhang said. She would not elaborate, saying announcements would come early next year.

She said only some of the team are working on Century Weekly, with the rest focused on other projects.

While at Caijing, Hu's team wrote a number of stories about corruption, protected by the powerful Stock Exchange Executive Council and its chairman Wang Boming, who represented powerful business interests that sought transparency to help nurture China's developing financial markets.

Zhang would not answer questions about who owns or backs Caixin Media.

Caixin Media staff, who resigned without any clear idea of Hu's plans, are happy with the news.

"Finally we will have a platform to let our stories be published. It's an exciting news," Liu Jingjing, a Caixin employee, told the Global Times.

"I trust Hu; otherwise, I wouldn't have left Caijing to follow her," he said.

Liu and his colleagues have been busy at Caixin Media's new headquarters in the former Yahoo offices in Beijing's central business district.

"To prepare for the first issue, we have written many reports," he said. "We will maintain the content and style of Caijing."

"The first issue under Hu's team will be released in the second week of January," Chen Suohua, deputy director of the Information and Publishing Center of the institute, told the Global Times.

"We will become a true weekly. The magazine will give readers a brand new look," he said.

Hu and Wang founded Caijing in 1998 and developed the magazine into arguably China's most important financial magazine, known for its gutsy reporting of corruption, pollution, public health scares and other sensitive topics in financial and social areas.

After the two parted ways, Wang, Caijing's publisher, said the magazine will carry forward with its tradition of indepen-dent reporting. Caijing appears to have held onto its advertisers and replaced a number of the staff that walked out with aggressive reporters who admired what the magazine stood for.

Zhang, the spokeswoman, said Century Weekly will not be a direct competitor to Caijing.