The China Post yesterday reported that the China Times, the Chinese language paper that was once the Xinhua of Taiwan and remains ardently pro-Blue, will reconstitute itself in tabloid format in a couple of months:No date has been fixed for the downsizing, which the paper said is necessary after the rise in the cost of operations and the advertising revenue shrinkage due to Taiwan's economic downturn.Taiwan's crowded media market offers three English language papers alone, plus several 24 hour news channels, in addition to a slew of Chinese-language news organs. I would bet money that more local news organs will be downsizing to survive over the next couple of years.
Lin Sheng-feng, president of The China Times, said the adjustments will be completed in two months for the change to actually become a tabloid. Financial stringencies have already forced the English-language Taiwan News in Taipei to appear in tabloid form.
According to its schedule, The China Times will appear in downsized form in early September.
Union leaders at The China Times were seriously concerned over the proposed layoff of close to 600 or half of the paper's staff members.
They hope the Taipei municipal bureau of labor would mediate in the negotiations for the severance pay of the staff who will be laid off.
At least, union leaders said, the workers who will lose their jobs should be paid just like those when the China Times Express closed in 2005. The afternoon paper of The China Times was closed on October 28.
That may not be possible, according to Chou Sheng-yuan, publisher of The China Times.
In a letter to the staff, Chou apologized for failing to improve the operation of The China Times over the past year. The paper has been losing money.
He said he would leave The China Times along with those workers who have to be separated.
The China Times tried to diversify its media operation by acquiring two TV networks. Neither electronic media has made money.
One of the networks, CTI, has increased its advertising revenue since its introduction of a popular songfest program, The Starlight Highway.
The other, China TV, has continued to lose money, though the loss was lowered to NT$246 million last year from NT$764 million in 2006.
"We believe," a union leader said, "the paper has made a wrong venture, which made its financial situation worse to the extent that many of us have to be fired."
Whether The China Times will survive as a tabloid remains to be seen, as the Ming Pao Weekly of Hong Kong will debut in Taiwan today.
[Taiwan]
I'm guessing the word tabloid used here is not the same "tabloid" definition that is commonly associated with scandals and fake stories in the United States?
ReplyDeletei love it when the entire economy is blamed for poor business practices. our business is booming - the economy is great!
ReplyDeleteThey must be sorry they can't use old CSB to sell papers anymore. They could be more critical of Ma... but that would be a blaspheme.
ReplyDeleterichard, tabloid just refers to the size of paper used not the quality of the content.
ReplyDeleteI can't understand how the Ming Pao weekly is going to affect the China Times. One is a daily newspaper and the other is a weekly magazine. Aren't they competing for different markets?
The article also fails to mention how the internet is affecting sales of newspapers and magazines and advertising revenues.
Actually, mj, I love it more when the local economy is blamed for what amounts to a worldwide decline in print newspapers that is linked more to the rise of other media which is engulfing what has become an oversaturated print journalism market.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't news that newspapers are in trouble worldwide. People simply read less of them these days. Those that can't compete get bought out or closed down.
Of course, could the mouthpiece of the ROC dictatorship ever suggest that it was being less than competitive in a changing market, which favours the rise of other media? No.... better to look for an excuse in Taiwan's "poor" economy.
The China Post will prob be next to downsize. The new Taiwan News looks absolutely terrible. If it was a piece of shite before, it's garbo now. Worthless in print. But the Taiwan News website is good. Maybe all papers should ditch paper and go digital. By 2025 that will be case worldwide...
ReplyDeleteLeave it to a (K)eep (M)arginalizing (T)aiwan rag to lie up until it very last breath.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the economy or online news that did them in, its the Apple Daily News that killed them.
The long-term trends have been the Liberty Times and Apple Daily trending upwards and China Times and United Daily News trending downwards, with Liberty Times in first place and Apple Daily just behind it.
ReplyDeleteOnline, UDN is way out on top with no one else really mattering, though China Times is second.
This is an interesting situation where the top papers are taking share, but have small online presences.
Ha! For the last couple of days I actually thought they were going to officially become a tabloid newspaper. You know, a la The Enquirer, Star, etc. I figured they were finally going towards "truth in journalism"! Truth in being a tabloid that is! LOL!
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting to note that the Liberty Times is a traditional supporter of the DPP and the Apple Daily is a Hong Kong based tabloid. I don't know where the KMT supporters get their information...besides TV talk shows.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting to note that the Liberty Times is a traditional supporter of the DPP and the Apple Daily is a Hong Kong based tabloid. I don't know where the KMT supporters get their information...besides TV talk shows.
ReplyDeleteI get it from Reddit. Btw, Apple tabloid magazine rules (for entertainment purpose only!)
Here in Los Angeles, the local cable monopoly Time Warner Cable bundles Taiwan's CTI channel and China's CCTV channel as a single selection. FTV and other "green" Taiwanese channels are currently not available in Los Angeles (FTV was available for a while but not any more). Also, the World Journal, published in the US and Canada by Taiwan's UDN, has been for the past 30 years the most widely read Chinese language daily in the US. In summary, the "blue" media seems to have a monopoly on the Chinese American market.
ReplyDelete