Staff cutbacks tipped at leading Taiwan daily

TAIPEI: Faced with a steep revenue decline, China Times, one of three major dailies, is said to be entering the second phase of a restructuring to shed 500 jobs in the next 10 months. The paper declined comment on the expected cutbacks, which follows its retrenchment of 100 journalists in May. The problem facing China Times - and all Taiwan media - is the drying up of advertising dollars as the technology-dependent economy slumps. Newspapers were among the first to feel the pinch. China Times and United Daily News saw advertising revenue drop 8.2 and 5.6 per cent respectively last year, while Liberty Times squeaked by with zero growth. Adex figures from Rainmaker Industry show newspapers' ad revenue slumping 10.5 per cent to NT$8.1 billion (US$233 million) for the first half of the year, against $9.1 billion in 2000. Online readership of news has also compounded problems for dailies, with research by NFO World Group showing that 37 per cent of the Taiwanese public were cutting back on reading newspapers. Despite lower operating costs, Taiwan's smaller papers are also reeling from the harsh climate. The Formosa Plastics Group, which kept Taiwan Daily News afloat for the past five years, has stopped funding it. PRINT ADSPEND (ntdollars '000) 2001 Newspapers YOY change (%) January 1,168,509 -27.95 February 1,151,531 -0.01 March 1,533,725 1.42 April 1,418,114 -8.71 May 1,457,705 -8.56 June 1,404,686 -15.36 Total 8,134,268 -10.54 Source: Rainmaker Industrial Ltd.

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