VZCZCXRO9744
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHIN #1541/01 3050707
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310707Z OCT 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0229
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 8683
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0130
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 2875
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 1466
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 2286
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0308

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TAIPEI 001541 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R, EAP/TC, EAP/P, EAP/PD 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KPAO TW
SUBJECT: HARD TIMES FOR CHINA TIMES -- TAIWAN'S DAILIES FACE REVENUE 
PROBLEMS 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  The China Times, one of Taiwan's oldest and most 
respected newspapers, has laid off half its staff, seen its 
circulation drop by half, reduced its daily page count and announced 
its intention to transform itself into an "elite" daily. 
Advertising expenditures on the island have fallen across the board 
and for newspapers in particular.  The price of newsprint surged by 
50 percent last year.  Taiwan's public increasingly receives its 
news from television and the Internet, and although the China Times 
Group has two TV stations and a Web presence, so far it has not 
figured out how to prosper from electronic news media.  As in other 
developed markets, newspapers as a news delivery medium are becoming 
outdated and unprofitable, and the China Times could become the 
highest-profile casualty of the decline of the newspaper business in 
Taiwan.  The general decline of newspapers as a news medium also 
lessens the U.S. ability to deliver complex policy messages to the 
Taiwan public.  End Summary. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Rise and Decline of Taiwan's News Dailies 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Nearly two decades after an explosion in newspaper 
publication in Taiwan with the coming of democracy in the 1980s, the 
newspaper market in Taiwan is feeling the squeeze.  The Independence 
Morning Post ceased publication in 1999, followed by three other 
island-wide Chinese-language dailies in 2006:  Min Sheng Daily News, 
Central Daily News and Taiwan Daily.   The venerable China Times, 
one of the four largest remaining Chinese-language dailies in 
Taiwan, announced on June 18 that it would soon transform itself 
into an "elite" newspaper, reducing the number of pages and 
streamlining its operations.  The China Times Group -- composed of 
two newspapers, two TV networks, a weekly magazine, a publishing 
company, an online media company and a travel agency -- is an 
influential conglomerate in Taiwan whose assets were once assessed 
at over NT$10 billion (US$307 million).  The group closed its 
17-year-old evening paper, the China Times Express, in November 2005 
and has been suffering severe deficits over the past few years. 
 
¶3. (U) The paper cited the rising cost of operations and shrinking 
advertising revenues as the reasons for its "transformation."  Chou 
Sheng-yuan, then-publisher of the China Times, was quoted in June as 
saying that the paper would shut down one of its three printing 
houses and close all its regional bureaus around the island. 
Sources from within the paper confirmed in early September that the 
paper has reduced its work force from 1,200 people to about 700, 
with Publisher Chou among those who left.  Beginning August 1, the 
China Times reduced its page count from thirteen to ten or fewer 
broadsheets, expanded its editorial and op-ed pages, and moved the 
international (mostly wire service) news to its front pages -- an 
unusual move among Taiwan's Chinese-language dailies, which focus 
heavily on local news. This is a striking change for this 
58-year-old island-wide daily, which once ran as many as 25 
broadsheets on weekdays and ranked among the top-circulating 
newspapers of the mid-1980s.  It continued to run neck-and-neck with 
its rivals, the United Daily News and the Liberty Times, into the 
late 1990s. 
 
-------------------------- 
Newsprint Up; Revenue Down 
-------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) According to China Times then-President (now Publisher) Lin 
Sheng-fen, the overly competitive media environment in Taiwan in 
recent years and huge drop in advertising revenue has made it 
difficult for the China Times to maintain its current operations. 
Lin attributed the difficult newspaper environment to the soaring 
cost of newsprint, which has surged 50 percent from US$600 per 
metric ton to US$900 last year.  An Apple Daily reporter told AIT in 
September that Hong Kong-based Apple Daily, with circulation of over 
500,000, had signed a seven-year futures contract for newsprint when 
it set up its Taiwan edition.  They would undoubtedly feel the heat 
in 2011, however, when the contract is to expire. 
 
¶5. (U) Weber Lai, an associate professor at the Graduate School of 
Applied Media Arts at National Taiwan University of Arts, elaborated 
further.  Lai said a majority of local newspaper managers were 
traditionally promoted from the ranks of editors and veteran 
journalists.  They lack real management skills and the ability to 
deal with challenges of a digital era, in which many people receive 
their news online without having to pay a cent.  China Times union 
 
TAIPEI 00001541  002 OF 004 
 
 
leaders as well as some media watchdog organizations, by contrast, 
blame the newspaper's managers for hollowing out the daily's assets 
by expanding operations too rapidly.  In addition, they acquired two 
TV networks, in 2002 and 2005, respectively, but the financial 
results have been mixed, with the entertainment channel making money 
and the terrestrial station and the all-news cable channel not 
faring well. 
 
¶6. (U) In a legal filing by China Times to the Taipei District Court 
in June, as reported by Taiwan's Business Weekly, China Times has 
suffered accumulated losses of over NT$4.5 billion (US$138 million) 
between 2001 and 2005.  Adding in the financial losses of the paper 
over the last two years, it is estimated that China Times' deficit 
has exceeded NT$5 billion (US$154 million) since 2001. Statistics 
from the Taiwan Advertisers' Association (TAA) also show that China 
Times' advertising revenues have shrunk severely over the past few 
years, plunging to barely a third of those in its best year, 1998. 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
Declines in Advertising Hurt Most Taiwan Dailies 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶7. (U) China Times is not the only paper that has suffered such a 
downturn.  TAA's statistics show that advertising revenues for 
Taiwan's dailies in general have been declining successively over 
the past nine years.  With the sole exception of the sensationalist 
Hong Kong transplant Apple Daily and the economically-oriented 
Economic Daily News, advertising revenues for most Taiwan dailies 
have dropped nearly 10 percent over the last two years, according to 
TAA. 
 
¶8. (U) A study in the June issue of the Taiwan magazine "Brain" 
revealed that China Times suffered the most severe losses in 
advertising income among Taiwan's twelve major dailies: a 15 percent 
slump from NT$2 billion (US$62 million) in 2006 to NT$1.7 billion 
(US$53 million) in 2007.  The other dailies include three other 
general Chinese-language dailies, two papers specializing in 
economic news, one evening paper, two regional papers and three 
English-language dailies.  Liberty Times had the highest ad revenue 
in this group with NT$3.8 billion (US$117 million) in 2007. 
 
¶9. (U) NowNews, a Taiwan online news network, reported in mid-August 
that the United Daily News, whose advertising income plunged by 12 
percent in 2007 from the previous year, had laid off, and would 
continue to lay off, more senior employees.  Jimmy Lai, Chairman of 
Next Media, Ltd., and founder of the Apple Daily, which was the only 
general daily to register an increase in advertising revenue in 2007 
(6.7%), also complained of a severe drop in profits last year. 
 
¶10. (U) Newspapers specializing in economic news in Taiwan have 
fared better, thanks to a more targeted readership and advertisers. 
Economic Daily News of the United Daily News Group registered 16 
percent growth in its advertising revenues in 2007.  The Commercial 
Times, a publication of the China Times Group, was able to retain 
the same level of advertising income as in 2006. 
 
¶11. (U) Not only did advertising revenues for most newspapers see a 
decline, but the entire advertising market in Taiwan has suffered a 
slump as well.  China Times President Lin Sheng-fen noted that 
Taiwan's overall advertising revenue has dropped from NT$100 billion 
(US$3.07 billion) in 1990 to NT$50 billion (US$1.54 billion) in 
¶2006.  Statistics from a study by Nielsen Media Research on the five 
major media -- television, newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasting 
and outdoor advertising media portfolio (including billboards, 
buses, etc) -- indicated drops of between two to ten percent in 
Taiwan's advertising market from 2005 to 2007, varying by medium. 
Newspapers are the media that have been hit hardest by the 
advertising slide, the study said. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Central News Agency Chairman Huang Chao-sung, who is the 
former president of the China Times Group, told AIT in September 
that, during his tenure at the China Times Group, the real estate 
companies in particular put the squeeze on the newspapers.  Aware 
that they were the largest single source of advertising for 
newspapers, they negotiated advertising discounts with the 
newspapers, nearly halving the revenues from this sector.  In 
addition, the food giant Uni-President stopped advertising in Taiwan 
entirely and devoted all its advertising to mainland China, with the 
exception of ads for its 7-11 stores.  Nielsen statistics for the 
 
TAIPEI 00001541  003 OF 004 
 
 
first half of 2008 indicate that Taiwan's advertising on cable 
networks accounts for 30% of the market, versus a 28% market share 
for newspapers. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Newspapers Not the Public's Medium of Choice 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶13. (U) Not only has the shrinking advertising market dealt a heavy 
blow to Taiwan's newspapers, but changes in the public's media 
consumption patterns have also taken a toll of print media.  A 
survey released by Taipei's Shih Hsin University's (SHU) College of 
Journalism and Communications in December 2007 revealed that 66.6 
percent of respondents said they acquire news from television.  Only 
16.3 percent said they read news from the print edition of 
newspapers and 10.2 percent said they get news online.  Dr. James 
Hsiung, dean of SHU's College of Journalism and Communications, also 
told AIT that the future trend will be for more and more people to 
get their news online. 
 
¶14. (U) A study conducted by Dr. Su Herng, chair of Taipei's 
National Chengchi University's Department of Journalism, in 
September 2007 illustrated the same point.  Newspaper subscription 
rates saw a sharp drop over the past few years.  People also spend 
less time reading newspapers every day, particularly since more and 
more TV anchors in Taiwan tend to read the news in the newspapers to 
their audience.  Su's study further revealed that Taiwan newspaper 
readers nowadays favor soft news over hard news and prefer graphics 
to words.  Even though most readers still focus on current events, 
those who prefer news about entertainment, recreation and lifestyle 
have increased. 
 
¶15. (U) In addition, since rapport with political and business 
elites acts as a guarantee to secure more advertising income for 
newspapers in Taiwan, newspaper managers are bound to maintain close 
relationships with the political and business leaders.  Taiwan's 
papers are "under the dual delimitation of economic and political 
power," Su noted.  When discussing the difficulties of China Times 
in July, some journalists speculated that, without a powerful 
political backer and not being a "squarely Blue" daily like the 
pro-KMT United Daily News, the somewhat centrist but KMT-leaning 
China Times has gradually lost its appeal among "pro-Blue" Taiwan 
readers.  The paper's financial fortunes saw no upturn with the 
KMT's return to power in May 2008. 
 
¶16. (U) Even after the current revamping of China Times, industry 
sources believe there will be another wave of downsizing for the 
paper before the end of 2008.  Sources within the paper also 
revealed that China Times has cut the print run from around 400,000, 
a level it had maintained for the past several years, to 220,000. 
As the paper's deficit continues to widen, China Times is mulling 
over innovative approaches to improve the situation.  Its plan is to 
slash the number of copies printed to between 120,000 and 150,000, 
sources said. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Advertising from the PRC?  No Salvation for Now 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶17. (U) Taiwan's "Business Today", a popular business weekly, 
disclosed in June that TOM Online has been in close contact with the 
China Times Group since last year.  TOM Online is a leading Chinese 
wireless Internet application company controlled by Hong Kong tycoon 
Li Ka-shing, who also established Cite Publishing, Ltd., which owns 
more than 40 magazines in Taiwan. The China Times Group is 
reportedly hoping that TOM Online will invest in its operations. 
Neither the China Times Group nor Cite Publishing was willing to 
comment on the matter, according to Business Today. Market sources 
said that several parties are interested in buying the China Times 
Group.  Only Apple Daily Founder Jimmy Lai's Next Media Group is 
seen as the likely winner, however, as it is willing to accept a 
package deal (China Times, Commercial Times, and CTI TV), while the 
other bidders only want to purchase the more profitable CTI TV 
network.  Takeover talks are reportedly near completion, and an 
announcement about the deal is likely to be made in early November. 
If the takeover materializes, it would make Next Media the largest 
media group in Taiwan with one TV station, one magazine, and four 
newspapers. 
 
¶18. (U) During a meeting with the Government Information Office in 
 
TAIPEI 00001541  004 OF 004 
 
 
June, the Taipei Newspaper Association suggested a new approach. 
The Taiwan authorities should lift the ban against Chinese 
businesses, particularly the real estate industry, placing 
advertising in Taiwan's print media, so as to increase newspapers' 
advertising revenues.  But Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council told 
AIT that the proposal is still under consideration, and the ban on 
advertising from China is not likely to be lifted in the near 
future.  Without external financial support or assistance from the 
Taiwan authorities, this 58-year-old paper could become the next 
casualty of the decline of Taiwan's newspaper business. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Comment: TV - A Less Thoughtful Medium 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶19. (SBU) The decline of China Times and the general hardships faced 
by Taiwan's news dailies reflect the woes of print media in many 
places elsewhere:  the decline in popularity of the daily newspaper 
as a news medium.  As more people - especially young people - turn 
to other media sources, circulation drops.  Advertisers, already 
suffering from unrelated economic difficulties, buy fewer ads.  This 
leads to less revenue to newspapers, thus diminishing newspapers' 
capacity to produce a quality product, thus further diminishing 
circulation.  And so the downward spiral continues. 
 
¶20. (SBU) Although the China Times has no more sterling a record for 
accuracy than some of its print rivals, it functions on a 24-hour 
news cycle, which allows at least a moment's reflection before 
publishing news - a chance to check facts and consult several 
sources.  This is a positively stately pace compared to that of 
Taiwan's six breathless round-the-clock cable news channels which 
broadcast first and think later.  As circulations of comparatively 
responsible print media decline and more people in Taiwan turn to TV 
for their news, the overall standard for news reporting is likely to 
continue dropping, while sensationalism becomes more prevalent. 
 
YOUNG