Cold blooded. My sympathies.
So who got canned? Inquiring minds want to know.[/quote]
Elementary, my dear Larceny. Taiwanese reporters are never sacked. They’re forced to resign by making them lose all face (that way the Taipei Times management doesn’t have to fulfil petty obligations such as severance pay and can’t be challenged for unfair dismissal).
And there is only one long-time foreign reporter in the features department. 
It’s simple deduction really.
[quote=“monkey”]
Elementary, my dear Larceny. Taiwanese reporters are never sacked. They’re forced to resign by making them lose all face (that way the Taipei Times management doesn’t have to fulfil petty obligations such as severance pay and can’t be challenged for unfair dismissal).
And there is only one long-time foreign reporter in the features department. 
It’s simple deduction really.[/quote]
Thanks, Sherlock. You know one key fact that I did not, until just this moment, which is that there is only one long-time foreign reporter in the features department.
So is it going to be “last one out, turn out the lights” at Taipei Times as all the good people leave or will the revolving door just keep spinning?
Its what’s been happening at the English-language rags in the 15 years that I’ve been here. As there’s never any shortage of people who fancy themselves as hacks, its not a problem for newspaper management, especially since quality or even basic ability seems to be such a low priority.
I’m not trying to play coy with the info. I just don’t know how much the involved party wants known. He was definitely sacked though.
[quote=“Larsen Ni”][quote=“monkey”]
Elementary, my dear Larceny. Taiwanese reporters are never sacked. They’re forced to resign by making them lose all face (that way the Taipei Times management doesn’t have to fulfil petty obligations such as severance pay and can’t be challenged for unfair dismissal).
And there is only one long-time foreign reporter in the features department. It’s simple deduction really.[/quote]
Thanks, Sherlock. You know one key fact that I did not, until just this moment, which is that there is only one long-time foreign reporter in the features department.
So is it going to be “last one out, turn out the lights” at Taipei Times as all the good people leave or will the revolving door just keep spinning?[/quote]
While enjoying beverages about town over the past few years, I’ve met by chance more than a half dozen people who were at The Taipei Times when it first started, but who no longer work there. As much as I like hearing about the old days, and their views on the Tony Lawrence vs Laurence Eyton rivalry, the tone of bitterness about what’s happened to the paper does wear on the nerves. I’m curious: when ex-Taipei Times people say that the paper has gone down the toilet or that “all” of the good writers are gone, do they really mean it or is it just a reflex statement? Do they really believe that, given the market in Taiwan for English newspapers, that the Taipei Times is so bad?
A lot of the one and a little bit of the other.
I LIKE listening to the ex-TT lot bitch about it! But there ARE other things to be bitter about, namely the influx of “hacks” onto all of the newspapers payrolls with no editorial experience (in a English-speaking country, that is).
All three of the dailies have been guilty of offering people “editorial experience” and a “way out of other jobs” but at the same time insisting that, as they have no “real” experience, they’re not going to be paid as if they had. This has had the dual-effect of a general lowering of copyeditors salaries at the papers (I know it’s true at two of the papers; I’m guessing it’s the same for the other) and, I’m sorry to say, a lowering of editorial standards (I don’t think THAT can be disputed for all three)
The current Taipei Times team of prima-donnas certainly puts out the best overall product, but there are at least nine people on the copyeditor’s desk, compared with no more than TWO full-timers at the China Post. Do the math - which editors are “better”?. The last I heard was that the Taiwan News had five full-timers. Correct me if I’m wrong; I can be.
Of course, considering their respective reputations, neither the people at the Post nor the News have to deal with their ENORMOUS EGOS getting in the way of their work.
So keep up with the bitterness please! MORE I say! 
So have we all accepted as valid the premise that any of these newspapers is trying to put out a newspaper which foreigners will want to read ? Surely these papers are just tat for local consumption ?
That’s a good point. So given the resources, the China Post’s copyeditors are doing a pretty good job – and without continually whining about how the management is evil.
Another good point. I’m not sure what’s driving those egos; perhaps it’s all those awards for “best design” The times has won. I’m sure each and every reporter and copyeditor who has ever worked there is partially responsible for those.
As long as they’re buying the beers…
But still, I’d like to go back to my original queries, in re: to my meeting a number of ex-Taipei Times employees over the years and hearing them speak of the decline of the newspaper since their time working on it. Is it a reflex statement based on prolonged bitterness or do you really think that the Taipei Times, given the local market for English newspapers, is so bad?
You mean “reflux” in the medical sense…
I said this over a year ago here: flush out the phonies by having everyone write down their job descriptions, ie, what they do every day.
You’d see that the editor in chief of the TT does nothing that contributes to the paper and you’d also see that many other Big Swinging Ricks are sucking on the teat of the paper at the expense of those who actually do the work.
Another thing is that the TT lost its potential early on and today, the quality that WAS there has slipped significantly. Sure, in such a small pond it is still the biggest fish, but the scales have fallen from the eyes of the workers and the informed public about just how good it really is.
[quote]I’m sure each and every reporter and copyeditor who has ever worked there is partially responsible for those [design awards].
[/quote]
— HakkaSonic
…uh, right…
Surely you must know that the Taipei Times was launched to “Bring Taiwan to the world.” The Taipei Times was even printed in the US as part of this “mission.” Documents (still 
) exist outlining the TT’s plans for publishing overseas and predicts staggering print runs and readerships outside of Taiwan.
Needless to say, the interest in a newspaper such the Taipei Times wasn’t there. The printing overseas stopped, subscriptions in Taiwan fell drastically, the Taipei Times, with it’s apparently bottomless reserves of cash starting giving away more newspapers than it sold to substantiate its boast that it was Taiwan’s “leading” English daily.
The paper was reduced in size, foreign workers sacked, and its prime directive now is to appeal to children.
Now, does that sound like a winning resume, even by Taiwanese standards?
[quote=“wolf_reinhold”][quote]I’m sure each and every reporter and copyeditor who has ever worked there is partially responsible for those [design awards].
[/quote]
— HakkaSonic
…uh, right… [/quote]
I believe it is one person who is responsible for the awards, and that person was lured from the Post.
The Taipei Times, as I have written before, reminds me of those new apartment buildings that are advertised as having a great pool, gym, etc. But after a while the pool turns dirty and closes and the gyms’ equipment is never replaced or it goes bankrupt and closes and the whole building goes to hell. It was all done to attract buyers and then let go.
The same goes for the Times. They were supposed to be the South China Morning Post of Taiwan, in the same league at the Herald Tribune, but it was all to raise investment dollars and ads. I can’t believe how so many foreign reporters and editors trotted over there, thinking it would really be different and that a new (permanent) era in Taiwan’s English press had begun (and that they were going to hit the big time), oblivious to the way business is done here. At least some foreign reporters and editors could smell a rat and left within weeks. Some of the current foreign reporters and editors are a lot more talented and deserve a lot more than the horror stories I have heard about that place.
[quote=“wolf_reinhold”][quote]I’m sure each and every reporter and copyeditor who has ever worked there is partially responsible for those [design awards].
[/quote]
— HakkaSonic
…uh, right… [/quote]
Sorry, Reinhold, I should have dumbed down my message with smiley faces to indicate I was being sarcastic.
[quote=“monkey”]Needless to say, the interest in a newspaper such the Taipei Times wasn’t there. The printing overseas stopped, subscriptions in Taiwan fell drastically, the Taipei Times, with it’s apparently bottomless reserves of cash starting giving away more newspapers than it sold to substantiate its boast that it was Taiwan’s “leading” English daily.
The paper was reduced in size, foreign workers sacked, and its prime directive now is to appeal to children.
Now, does that sound like a winning resume, even by Taiwanese standards?[/quote]
Whether or not it’s a winning resume was not the issue raised. What I asked was:
Besides providing the usual bitterness and exageration (“prime direction now is to appeal to children”) that has come to be expected of a former Taipei Times employee, you’re saying that there wasn’t a market for the original Taipei Times (“the interest in a newspaper such as Taipei Times wasn’t there”), and thus the paper was reduced in size, etc. Of course it was and of course quality suffered because of it, but I’m still impressed that ex-TTers are so passionate about trashing these changes. When I’m sipping my beer and listening to them, it’s never, “Yeah, the paper’s not as good as it used to be”; it’s “it’s a piece of shit now.”
Flicka, I’m no expert, and I’m just going on what ex-TTers have told me over beers, but I’m of the understanding that along with luring the head designer from the Post, there was also an art director (from the Taiwan News?) who played a major role. Having some decent illustrators didn’t hurt either. Maybe someone who was there at the time could provide the details…
I would agree up to the “bankrupt and closes” part. Maybe the pool is dirty and the gym equipment cracked, but it’s still a decent building and better than living in one of those scorching, corrugated metal topped, rooftop apartments.
[quote=“HakkaSonic”]Whether or not it’s a winning resume was not the issue raised. What I asked was:
[/quote]
So you’re searching for someone “out there” who knows us to answer the question on our behalf?
The only way that the Taipei Times will ever get better is if the DPP loses the election next year.
Why do you say that? Please elaborate on your totally unsupported statement.
Personally, I don’t see the remotest connection between who occupies the President’s Office and the management style of the Taipei Times. However, if you have some inside information, please share it with the world.