Lai tips Apple's rise to top of Taiwan's newspaper heap

The Taiwan edition of Apple Daily, which mirrors many aspects of its racy Hong Kong counterpart, shook up the newspaper market when it launched in May 2003. According to the Audit Burea of Circulation, Apple Daily -- the only daily in Taiwan to audit its circulation -- achieved daily circulation of 436,000 copies as of December last year. Market leader, Liberty Times, has a claimed circulation of 1.2 million. At a lunch for advertisers in Hong Kong, Lai claimed that the market's three biggest players -- Liberty Times, China Times and United Daily -- had not attempted to change or improve their product when Apple Daily launched. Although the three titles did not undertake a full scale revamp to counter the racier newcomer, media agencies countered that they did become more flexible with advertisers. "Advertisers reallocated most of their ad budgets (to Apple Daily). Its rivals immediately made some changes, which they never did in the past," said MediaCore Communications group media director Vince Cheng. The papers started offering colour ad spaces instead of their previous black and white-only formats. Despite the headway made by Apple Daily, agencies believed Lai's market leadership predictions may be overly optimistic. "Political news really carries weight in Taiwan," said Cheng, who felt that Apple Daily lacked the strong political coverage of its Hong Kong sister title. Agencies said Apple Daily Taiwan tended to be more gossip-oriented and photo-centric. Next's Lai explained that the difference lay in the governments that were in place in both markets. The Hong Kong paper appears to have taken a more robust political stance to provide readers a voice in a market where there were no direct elections unlike Taiwan, where locals can vote for their political leaders.