Chinese media will shift to Taiwan: Lai

Speaking at the 2009 SOPA Awards on Thursday, Lai argued that closer ties between Taiwan and mainland China would boost the media industry in Taiwan. The fact that Taiwan is Mandarin-speaking will help its cause. “Taiwan will be very exciting as it has free links with China, rule of law, NGOs, freedom of speech and its economy is largely integrated into China,” said Lai.

However, Lai believes that Hong Kong will not develop further as a media centre, as its focus will remain firmly on finance.

Next Media, publisher of Apple Daily in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, is shifting more of its business to Taiwan, especially in TV. Lai believes Taiwan offers a great opportunity for new TV stations. Lai argued that there was a big opportunity for Chinese-language TV production made in Taiwan and sent to China.

Lai said Next Media would focus on TV in the next two years, developing video as an important part of its news coverage. “Newspapers won't disappear, they just need to become multimedia and combine with TV. We are going to integrate video and animation into our newspapers’ websites. We are in an image era - watching TV, playing games, watching cartoons are all image-oriented,” Lai said

Lai added that Next Media might use a micro-payment model to monetise his sites, but added that there was a psychological barrier for readers to pay for reading news online.