Taiwan Today

Except for her off days, she has not taken dinner with her family in almost twenty years. Unlike many another incharge person, her busiest and most intensive hours come not in daytime, but from 6-12 pm.

Ms. Huang Chao-heng, 48, publisher and president of the China Daily News, finds her rewards in such a life as the na­tion's first female top executive for a major news publishing organization.

Although her top role at the News is scarcely one year old, Huang's achieve­ments are evidenced in a stunning series of statistics: last year, a record 31 percent sales increase (compared with an annual 5 percent over the past 11 years), by far the highest in the paper's 38-year history; an ever-increasing circulation, resulting in a 20 percent rise in advertising reve­nue; and most welcome of all, after years of deficit, a bottom line that put the paper squarely in the black for the first time.

She started in journalism as a reporter, went to chief reporter, deputy director, and then director of the domestic news department of the Central News Agency (CNA), and then to vice-presi­dent, acting president, and president and publisher of the China Daily News.

When she first stepped into the vice­-president's office at the News in August 1981, she was determined that the then­-subsidized paper must stand on its own feet. Squeezed between the nation's two massive-circulation dailies, the United Daily News and China Times, and the offi­cial Central Daily News, Huang's China Daily News was once dubbed by a whimsical senior journalist, Ma Hsin-yeh, "a small kingdom in ancient China;" it has certainly had to struggle for survival among the imperial journalistic powers that surround it.

As a new vice-president, she was a veteran newswoman, but a completely green hand at business management. She had not encountered the demand pressures of readership before, nor un­derstood the intricacies of marketing or sales. But twenty-plus years as a reporter and editor of the news had made her truly aware that the contents, circulation, and ad linage of a paper are linked like quality, service, and marketing in a factory.

"As I saw it," she remarked, recalling her assumption of full stewardship of the News, "it was a patient in the last phase of cancer, requiring strong medicine if there was to be any chance of an effective cure."

She insisted on a complete revision of the paper's coverage formulas, disregarding its limitations in both finances and personnel. She felt strongly that "partial or gradual revision would dead­en the impact of her cure."

When she first submitted her comprehensive revision plans to her board of directors, they praised her courage and creativeness, but were clearly worried that large-scale changes would not go down with the paper's loyal—if limited—readership. One senior director probed: "No newspaper president dares so massive a revision. If circulation drops after your changes, what will you do?" Huang answered with curt finality: "I will go home."

She based her revisions on informa­tion collected from an intensive fact-finding tour around the island, on views exchanges with numerous readers, and on seemingly endless discussions and arguments with all concerned subordi­nates. Her resulting brainchild-much different from other local newspapers—made its debut on the ROC Reporter's Day, September 1, 1982.

The launching editorial clearly stated the new format's aims for readers and ad­vertisers: reporting on what most con­cerns News readers; providing the latest information; producing material for the younger generation of readers; and becoming an ideal family paper.

The major changes included: the second section, originally various major events, now focused on metropolitan Taipei news; the third section, social news, changed into a lifestyle section; and the sixth section, transformed into a full page of sports news. Moreover, the contents of regular supplements on family and children's literature were greatly enriched.

The abandonment of a social news focus and the new coverage of the people's lifestyle registered positive and en­thusiastic readership response after a full year of trial.

Most revealing, the China Times and United Daily News have followed the China Daily News' lead.

Hsu Chia-shih, a professor of mass communications, declared the paper's switch from the "market-minded policies which are featured in a majority of today's mass communications media, to one spotlighting the general public's interest-oriented concerns, both a moral and courageous decision."

Dr. Chai Sung-lin, chairman of the ROC Consumers Foundation, was moved to comment: "A good newspaper should help cultivate an informed citizenry, not stuff its readers with big and small tidbits empty of substance. The China Daily News has taken a promising stride with its new format. I hope it will continue its march forward."

Tao Hsi-sheng, one of the nation's journalism pioneers, quoted another veteran newspaperman to illustrate the News' achievement in its lifestyle section. Tao once discussed with Chen Ching­-heng, then editor-in-"Chief of the old Shanghai Shen Pao, the type of details requiring a reporter's special attention in the then contemporary July-August 1946 events, when General Marshall was acting as negotiator between the Chinese Communists and the Kuomintang, China's ruling political party.

The Shanghai editor expounded on the need for concern and precision in this way:

"Many reporters weigh every word of a story for a headline. And actually, headlines often deal with big shots who are able to stand either praise or censure. I have been working on the Shen Pao over many decades. But every night, I have to check the social news section carefully, because each social news item involves just one or several persons, sometimes one or two families. A few lines or a couple of words could have immense impact on such small people's reputations, even lives. Shouldn't we take great care?"

Tao indicated the News had demon­strated its accomplishment in such reporting concern.

A person of journalistic principle, Huang sticks to convictions about open news treatment. Though committed edi­torially to the Kuomintang, the News also reports extensively and objectively on opposition political activity during election periods.

Last year, when senior journalist Ma Hsin-yeh openly criticized the malpractices of today's newspapers, Huang's News not only carried his statement in full text, but also expanded it via special commentary and interview sections.

The old saying goes that a new broom sweeps clean, and the first thing Huang did after taking the top office was along those lines. She first recruited a dozen new hands via three public exami­nations involving more than six hundred candidates. Then, to cultivate better news handling and improve the interflow between headquarters and the bureaus, she transferred creative, capable report­ers to central and southern Taiwan as special correspondents, and local report­ers back to headquarters to receive stringent re-training.

Huang is a "walking" manager­—cheerful and incapable of idleness, she prefers making her rounds of other of­fices to sitting and receiving in her own. She makes decisions on the spot, greets type-setters, and chitchats with reporters about just finished articles. Chief reporter Lu Sheng-feng maintains, "She knows precisely every reporter's style, capabili­ty, performance, and integrity." She was one of the nation's Ten Outstanding Young Women in 1965 because, she believes, she exercises strict self-discipline.

Huang particularly takes notice of her subordinates' integrity. She sternly warns each newly-promoted executive never to attempt to spoon off funds. She insists that reporters should never bear responsibilities for sales promotion, lest their reputation and subjectivity be af­fected. Moreover, she personally chides subscription salesmen: Don't ever browbeat people into subscribing to your paper, but tell them what we have done for our readers and what our paper features."

Last year, when the paper was buying major supplies of newsprint, she organized a special purchasing unit, and then immediately declared to nine news­print importers that she would brook no "commission" offers, but wanted the bottom price. The fierce price-cutting competition that ensued almost made the importers cry—She ended up saving US$1 million on the supply contract.

Huang does not have a numerical memory, depending on small cards, she carries with her for the important figures. Her business mastery rests on her quickness to grasp every opportunity to learn.

When she worked as a CNA report­er, she would talk with sociable senior officials for hours, absorbing experiences and philosophies-how to conduct one-self in various social situations, handling management affairs, pursuing knowledge. She very often sacrificed her sleep­ing time listening to friends' pouring out their hearts about experiences and life.

She is a thoughtful lady and owns many old and young friends; among the former were the late Lin Yu-tang and Hu Shih, and she has a friend in Chang Chun, 96-year-old senior advisor to the President.

Huang is also known for her solicitude for her staff. When subordinates fail to perform well, she avoids condemna­tion, patiently sitting down with them to review causes and arrive at remedies. She keeps an eye out for people in a low mood and sends a brief note asking the reason. When there is family illness, she assures News employees are guided to the appropriate doctor or hospital. Her concern is repaid in loyalty.

At the same time, when rating employees for raises or promotion, she limits her concern to demonstrated dili­gence or laziness, competence or malperformance-avoiding her personal feel­ings of like or dislike.

Though normally optimistic and active, like others she also has her gloomy moments. Then she prefers either reading a book focusing on the brighter side of life, or just enjoying her home environment.

Her husband, Ma Chi-shen, is a Na­tional Taiwan Normal University professor. In Huang's eyes, he has always been a coach who is never jealous of his play­er's performance. "He knows me very clearly," Huang declares.

Although both of them are busy at their careers, when their children need them, one of them will always be availa­ble. Their son is now completing his mili­tary service after graduation from Na­tional Taiwan University; their daughter, a national violin contest winner, has elected to study physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S.

Inside Huang's spacious News office, rows of books in wall-high bookcases testify to a passionate fondness for read­ing. A native of Fukien Province, she made a literary impression on the late Lin Yu-tang, who remarked, "In her blood there still runs the vigor of the Fukien literati." During her spare time, she devotes herself also to writing. The Biography of Tsai Yuan-pei-A Great Master, a 100,000-word volume she completed two years ago, won her a Na­tional Arts Award. She boldly produced this book in a feature-story writing style-a new departure for biographical literature here.

She is now working to revise the paper's personnel regulations, to computerize its typesetting operations, and especially, to continue to increase its readership.

The path of executive leadership is always overgrown with brambles and thorns. The China Daily News has select­ed a chief executive officer who negoti­ates it well.