At the center of a firestorm early this year over copyright lawsuits from writers, China's biggest search engine Baidu is attempting to reshape its image and business model through an agreement with the China Written Works Copyright Society.

If successful, the deal will set new standards for revenue sharing in online publishing, said industry insiders.

"We have had many talks and negotiations on authorization, joint pricing and ad revenue sharing with Baidu," said Zhang Hongbo, general director of the society, which serves as collective copyright management organization.