Live Issue... Taiwan's China Times must either learn to adapt, or die

Lin blamed rising newsprint costs for the decision, and said the China Times would relaunch as a thinner, but elite national newspaper by September.

Industry observers are now questioning whether this strategy will be viable. “If they can offer this kind of quality content, why didn’t they do it before?” asks Purple Kuo, general manager of MPG.

Kuo says that for Taiwanese in their 40s and 50s, the China Times remains a strong brand. “We grew up with this newspaper, but it hasn’t grown up with us.”

The China Times, along with rival daily United Daily News, ruled when advertising was growing fast, and media options were limited. But those days are long gone. Taiwan’s above-the-line adspend has been shrinking for a decade, and two new dailies - Liberty Times and Apple Daily - have doubled the competition. In a reversal of fortune, the China Times now sits at the bottom, with a circulation that has dwindled to 100,000 copies, slightly lower than United Daily News. The Liberty Times has an audited circulation of 700,000, while the Apple Daily’s is 500,000.

Liberty Times’ success is partly explained by politics. Launched in 1998, it provided a fresh ‘opposition’ voice, in contrast to the Kuomintang-leaning China Times and United Daily News. But Apple Daily, launched in 2004, proved the real watershed. It gained readers by giving them what they craved - political scandal and celebrity gossip. Since then, Apple Daily has surged, and now offers entertainment and society sections filled with advertising from luxury goods and cosmetics brands. The other dailies have tried to follow suit, with some strange results. “Now the Taiwan media only report what they think people might be interested in,” says Vince Cheng, managing director at MEC.

Edelman Asia-Pacific president Alan VanderMolen says that the melding of news and entertainment has led to the lowest trust levels in media in the region, according to his agency’s annual stakeholder research. This lends some credence to the China Times’ intention of relaunching as a serious newspaper.

ZenithOptimedia CEO Robert Hsieh says the plan is to target “an elite demographic - high education, income and social status.” Forecasts by his company predict Taiwan’s national newspapers will take in NT$13 billion (US$428 million) in advertising this year, shrinking to $11.7 billion by 2010. Kuo believes the China Times can succeed if its management learns to adapt to today’s mixed media environment.

“It has two top television stations [CTV, CTi], two newspapers, a popular weekly magazine and the internet,” she says. Management needs to learn how to bundle these into integrated deals with different media exposure and value for money. So far, this is a missed opportunity.