Reporting the death of a newspaper - R.I.P. Taiwan News

Discussion Open Forum
1

The Taiwan News will publish it’s final paper edition this Thursday (30 September 2010). The paper was established in 1949 as the China News. It became the Taiwan News after it was purchased by the I-Mei Corporation in 1999. In 2008 it switched from the traditional broadsheet format to a tabloid format. Here’s the story from the Taiwan News itself:

[quote=“Taiwan News”]During a press conference yesterday, Taiwan News President Jack Wong announced that the 62-year old newspaper is going digital.

“The unthinkable is finally upon us,” said Wong. “On Tuesday, Sept. 28, Taiwan News will launch the previously impossible integration of text, color images, and sound in a digital multimedia format. It will be the world’s first and log-on is for free.”

In response to the recent global trend toward digital publishing, Taiwan News has switched to an all-online format. “The whole world will witness an electronic newspaper that leaves all others behind in its digital technology and multi-media capabilities,” added Wong.[/quote]

I think the claim of being the world’s first in a “digital multimedia format” is a bit of an exaggeration. Interestingly the Taipei Times carried an ad for the Taiwan News’ “audiovisual multimedia app” on its front page today.

2

Too funny! They even sent spam to my gmail account to tell me about this great thing they’re doing. GOSH!
But it begs the question: How can an utterly shitty and useless rag suddenly become useful just because it has figured out … GASP! … THE INTARWEB?
Well, maybe its really and truly TRUE! Maybe this time next year we’ll be seeing this cockstrapped piece of shite winning awards. For what? God knows! Maybe the world’s press will devise a whole new category for ahem esteemed organs such as the Taiwan “News.”
How about the award for “Most Likely to Continue Despite a Complete Lack of Talent, Vision, Management, or Even the Most Basic Concept of News Gathering. Except there are Well-connected Foreskins with Access to Government Guanxi on the HA! HA! HA! Management.”
It does have a ring, you have to admit.

Bye-bye, you useless douchebag. It was NOT nice knowing you!

3

Got to love their website though.

Touch me please. :roflmao:

4

Thing I like the best is that if you type Taiwan News into google search, you get no English! Well, you do. You get a 404 error. I swear, you can’t make this stuff up! After that, the first English linky you get is… Taipei Times.
God! This is not shooting yourself in the foot. This is feeding yourself into a wood-chipper.
How can they BE such utter, utter FOOLS?

5

Well, I understand that another ‘blue ocean’ breakthrough has been figuring out to run an online publication without any staff. I’m sure management experts will be coming from everywhere to learn from the first unstaffed newsroom and editorial staff.

To be fair, I Mei is a business venture and English-language media in Taiwan is a charity program.

6

I see little to rejoice about. We are changing our suscription to China Post. :frowning:

7

anyone who reads an English daily in TW is a sucka (lol, just kidding…but not really).

My pet chickadee really enjoyed taking a shit on that pile of nonsense, so I am sure he’ll be a tad upset to see it go.

8

It was always the worst of the two–then three–overpriced, under-contented, poorly edited, and no-discount-for-subscription English rags here.

9

I always chose it over the post back then–it had better comics and was always warmer and more comfortable feeling. it was always a real rag, but my rag. when the internet came around and i didn’t need to shell out the 12NT for my news i ditched it like a hot brick and started bringing a book on the bus. it’s been little more than a pamphlet the last couple of years anyway, i choose to remember it as it was.

10

Though it was the first rag to carry cricket news,courtesy of yours truly–back in the day.
Won’t shed a tear. Instead, I rue all the hours I sweated for a pittance. Cheapskates @#%&*.!

11

Well, it’s the passing of an era. But I think I’ll cope somehow.

Now if we could get rid of work permits instead…

12

Am I looking in the wrong place or they are actually using the newspaper format for their digital paper? :loco:
imbook.com.tw/20101001/index_1.htm

13

Jesus! It’s got EVERYTHING! Godawful layout, godawful fonts, godawful colours, right down to the un-asked for cheesy music!
Just unbelievable! :notworthy: :laughing:

14

[quote=“sandman”]Jesus! It’s got EVERYTHING! Godawful layout, godawful fonts, godawful colours, right down to the un-asked for cheesy music!
Just unbelievable! :notworthy: :laughing:[/quote]
It’s quite spectacularly bad, isn’t it? It’s as if they hired a crack team of designers and then deliberately ignored all their advice.

15

[quote=“Taffy”][quote=“sandman”]Jesus! It’s got EVERYTHING! Godawful layout, godawful fonts, godawful colours, right down to the un-asked for cheesy music!
Just unbelievable! :notworthy: :laughing:[/quote]
It’s quite spectacularly bad, isn’t it? It’s as if they hired a crack team of designers and then deliberately ignored all their advice.[/quote]
It’s going to die a quick death. They will get absolutely NO traffic, apart from the first few days of rubberneckers checking out the trainwreck. :doh: Contrast the Taiwan News with Canada’s Globe and Mail, which made the following announcement yesterday:

[quote]Welcome to the most significant redesign in The Globe’s history - a newspaper that has colour on every page and several pages on glossy stock, starting with the editions on sale today - and welcome to this website that underwent its own transformation Thursday evening.

For a moment, look beyond that. The redesign is not just about design, or paper quality, or our new online navigation, or social media groups. It’s about confidence. A few years ago, The Globe and our printing partners came to a profound decision: that quality newspapers such as The Globe have many years left as a printed product. Our printers, in turn, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in state-of-the-art German printing presses, the ones that reproduced our redesigned newspaper Thursday night in six Canadian cities. Our part of the bargain was to create a newspaper that was equally daring - one that did not seek to prolong the past, but burns to invent the future. We crafted new designs, developed a variety of story-telling forms, took a chance on more expensive newsprint and convinced a great range of advertisers that print is not dead. If done beautifully and intelligently, its latest chapter - a thriving, ambitious, newspaper - has just begun.

Why change? Over the past year, our weekday print circulation grew 5 per cent last year, and 6 per cent on weekends - when our competitors were all in retreat. Our online traffic is up 20 per cent. Our mobile traffic is up 500 per cent. And our journalism keeps winning international recognition - this week with our second consecutive Emmy Award for our work in Afghanistan.[/quote]

It’s all about the management.

16

Print is oddly surviving quite well in some areas. I still would prefer a good magazine like the Atlantic or Economist, or a good paper, to be printed. Nice to sit down with one for breakfast. Reading online means I am always at the computer. I do wonder if print will stay viable simply because people don’t want to get all their entertainment and news from one source (I mean their computer). Of course design and content have to be worthwhile.

17

I agree. If there were newspapers here, I’d read them in print rather than online ANY day of the week.
Sure, I read and enjoy online newspapers, but only because you can’t get any newspapers here.

18

The old (functional) version of the Taiwan News website is still available at taiwannews.com.tw/etn/index_en.php. It doesn’t seem to have been updated much in the last couple of days.

I just had a look at today’s issue of the paper online at imbook.com.tw/20101001/index_1.htm. Even though they are no longer publishing a print version they seem determined to maintain the style of the newspaper in digital format. It is completely stupid.

The saddest thing though is that the editorials for the last couple of days have been syndicated from U.S. newspapers. The Taiwan News wrote some great editorials on important political issues in Taiwan. It seems that my use of R.I.P. in the title of this thread should not just apply to the printed version of the newspaper, but the organisation as a whole.

19

I was wondering if I had gotten the page wrong, since it is so difficult to read the articles under that format. The only reason I can begin to imagine for such a setup would be -maybe, and this is a great maybe- to put it on an e-reader or inspired by an e-reader. Then it would be really cool to have something that looks like a paper-paper but in a tablet, and then being able to read it as if it was a normal newspaper. Alas, perhaps I am thinking too much…

You know, my boss did not believe me when I told her we would not have any Taiwan News no more. She was quite surprised this morning when there was no newspaper on the table. :smiley:

20

[quote=“maoman”][quote=“Taffy”][quote=“sandman”]Jesus! It’s got EVERYTHING! Godawful layout, godawful fonts, godawful colours, right down to the un-asked for cheesy music!
Just unbelievable! :notworthy: :laughing:[/quote]
It’s quite spectacularly bad, isn’t it? It’s as if they hired a crack team of designers and then deliberately ignored all their advice.[/quote]
It’s going to die a quick death. They will get absolutely NO traffic, apart from the first few days of rubberneckers checking out the trainwreck. :doh: Contrast the Taiwan News with Canada’s Globe and Mail, which made the following announcement yesterday:

[quote]Welcome to the most significant redesign in The Globe’s history - a newspaper that has colour on every page and several pages on glossy stock, starting with the editions on sale today - and welcome to this website that underwent its own transformation Thursday evening.

For a moment, look beyond that. The redesign is not just about design, or paper quality, or our new online navigation, or social media groups. It’s about confidence. A few years ago, The Globe and our printing partners came to a profound decision: that quality newspapers such as The Globe have many years left as a printed product. Our printers, in turn, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in state-of-the-art German printing presses, the ones that reproduced our redesigned newspaper Thursday night in six Canadian cities. Our part of the bargain was to create a newspaper that was equally daring - one that did not seek to prolong the past, but burns to invent the future. We crafted new designs, developed a variety of story-telling forms, took a chance on more expensive newsprint and convinced a great range of advertisers that print is not dead. If done beautifully and intelligently, its latest chapter - a thriving, ambitious, newspaper - has just begun.

Why change? Over the past year, our weekday print circulation grew 5 per cent last year, and 6 per cent on weekends - when our competitors were all in retreat. Our online traffic is up 20 per cent. Our mobile traffic is up 500 per cent. And our journalism keeps winning international recognition - this week with our second consecutive Emmy Award for our work in Afghanistan.[/quote]

It’s all about the management.[/quote]

The Globe and Mail print edition was far better when it wasn’t obfuscated by huge full page ads for overpriced & luxury fringe products. I know they have to shore up their revenue accounts in the days of diminishing subscriptions, but I think they’ve gone a little over the top with all the adverts. I hardly buy it any longer due to all the ads, preferring to read the on line version, the ads of which are easier to overlook.