Newspapers hit by falling readership

The survey, which examines media consumption habits year-to-year, found readership of Taiwan's newspapers had fallen from nearly 51 per cent in the first half of 2005 to 46 per cent in the first half of this year.

Magazines also suffered a similar drop, with television and radio posting only small declines of under two per cent each. Internet, however, posted steady growth of three per cent.

Helen Pemberton, director, Media Index Asia-Pacific, said the result in Taiwan clearly reinforced the absolute dominance of TV over other media, despite the increasing popularity of the internet.

Pemberton noted that in Hong Kong internet, newspapers and magazines, and cable TV saw growth, while terrestrial television, radio and cinema remained stable.