From the ubiquitous newsstand kiosks to multi-floored bookstores, the evidence of sweeping attitudinal changes abound. More liberal, international, and practical—locally published and imported magazines and journals now cover the spectrum of subjects found in the most advanced of societies.
Rapid transformation has its rough edges, and there is evidence of this as well. But the trend is clearly toward development of higher standards in the form and content of locally published magazines. Osman Tseng, Vice President of the China Economic News Service and a regular contributor to FCR, assesses this process, and associated complexities of the magazine field, in the following article.
The magazine industry in the Republic of China on Taiwan is experiencing vigorous growth, reflecting the nation's ever-increasing economic prosperity and its quickened pace of development toward a more pluralistic society. By the end of 1987, according to the most recent data available, there were some 3,200 Chinese-language magazines competing for readers among the island's population of 20 million. This was a 21 percent increase over 1986. There is every reason to expect higher figures for 1988, because of the much more liberal publishing atmosphere prevalent in Taiwan compared with only a year or so ago.
Magazines that scored the largest gains in circulation during 1987, as in previous years, were economic, financial, and trade journals, followed by those concentrating on academic, social, political, and religious issues. Given the intensified activities in these areas locally, the increased demand for publications covering these topics comes as no surprise.
Economic activity, for example, has never been more active. Corporations in growing numbers are switching from labor- to technology-intensive industries because of rising wages. At the same time, more and more businesses are striving to upgrade operations to cope with rising competition resulting from the government's policies of liberalizing investment restrictions and import controls. In all cases, up-to-date information on such fields as industries, markets, and management is essential for efficient transformation. Local newspapers do not usually report these topics in depth, nor do they adequately assess trends key to business and economic penetration of the international marketplace. People therefore turn to magazines.
Domestic periodicals deal with widely diverse topics, ranging from government policies to management, quality control, marketing, and finance. In response to Taiwan's rising per capita income and high private savings, new magazines designed to give advice on managing funds and making investments have mushroomed. These assess and predict developments in such fields as stocks, gold, real estate, art objects, foreign currencies, and overseas financial products. The total number of economic, financial, and business magazines now runs a high 570, accounting for nearly one-sixth of the total periodicals being published locally.
As with economic development, the government's increased efforts in political reforms during recent years have spurred the growth of political magazines, now totaling approximately 220. Thanks to the ending of the decades-old martial law in July 1987, all kinds of political issues and national events can now be openly discussed and debated without restraint. And ever since the government tacitly permitted the establishment of new political parties (official permission is pending until revision of the law governing civil organizations, which is presently being debated in the legislature), there has been broadened political participation, which in turn has stimulated public interest in political affairs.
There is much more diversity to report as well. With the newly formed opposition "Democratic Progressive Party" (which is still technically illegal) becoming increasingly active and influential in central and local legislatures, material that can be used for political periodicals is plentiful, varied, and often sensational.
Another sign of greater pluralism in Taiwan is an increase in special-interest magazines focusing on environmental protection, labor rights, and other social causes. There are some 234 magazines of this type currently in circulation. Academic and cultural journals total 362, and there are 362 religious publications. Both categories experienced extraordinarily large growth rates, 80 percent and 50 percent respectively, in 1987.
The magazine industry as a whole owes much of its prosperity to a steady increase in the number of special-interest audiences and a growing dependence of businesses on magazines as a major advertising medium. Taiwan's sustained economic growth and concomitant expansion of higher education have cultivated a large class of business executives and professionals. These people rely increasingly on special-interest magazines for new knowledge and the latest information on developments in their respective fields.
As personal income rises, the amount of disposable income spent on magazines has also increased. This trend has been verified in a recent survey conducted by a local junior college of journalism. Findings indicated that both newsstand purchases and subscriptions were on the rise.
Pre-purchase perusal—readers now expect higher quality layout and contents for their money.
Magazine advertising is growing in quantity and quality. As businesses face stiffer competition, they are targeting special-interest magazines to promote their products and services. By reaching more delineated audiences, they are reaping better returns per advertising dollar. Other media cannot perform these advertising services as effectively. Nor can newspapers, for example, match the standards of color printing and high quality paper found in more appealing magazine advertisements.
Governmental efforts to open the local market to overseas products have given the local advertising business a substantial boost. Consumer products from abroad, such as wine, cigarettes, food, cosmetics, automobiles, and household appliances, now compete with locally manufactured goods. Suppliers of these imported products have set aside huge amounts of funds for advertising in periodicals.
Because of these trends, the advertising revenues spent by industries in 1987 jumped by a substantial 30 percent to NT$1.7 billion (US$60 million). Advertising now generally accounts for about two-thirds of the total income of local periodicals, with the remainder coming from circulation sales. This is a sharp departure from the past when advertising revenue was miserably scarce and magazines had to rely on scant subscriptions to survive.
With strengthened financial foundations, many periodicals have been investing heavily in improving their content, layout, and printing. This often includes computerizing their operations and expanding their advertising and circulation departments by hiring people specially trained in the fields. Editorial content has changed as well, often being directed in a manner that not only appeals to readers, but also stimulates them to buy the goods that are being advertised in the publication.
Those magazines reluctant to invest in improving quality, strengthening advertising, and promoting circulation often discover the bitter taste of competition. Each year, a substantial number of magazines fail because they did not jettison old-fashioned operations in time. In 1987, at least 13 percent of the magazines published during the year suspended publication due to poor performance in circulation and advertising sales. This was one percentage point higher than the number of failures for 1986.
Unlike magazines published in Western countries, those in Taiwan have quite limited circulations. None has subscriptions and newsstand sales exceeding 200,000 copies. The China Times Weekly, a newsmagazine edited to appeal to a wide range of audiences, claims to have the largest circulation of any Chinese-language publication in Taiwan, but it sells no more than 150,000 copies per issue. Taiwan's most successful business monthly, Commonwealth, which covers government policies, major social issues, and corporate management, has a circulation of only 80,000. The monthly Money magazine, which advises its readers on how to manage their funds, has a circulation of about 60,000; this is regarded as being quite successful since it has been published just over two years.
There are large numbers of weekly and monthly magazines with subscriptions well below 10,000 copies, a minimum circulation figure deemed necessary to convince businesses that they will receive adequate returns on their advertising dollar.
Because Taiwan at present has no Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) or a similar organization, accurate circulation figures are difficult to compile. Magazines, like local newspapers, usually do not disclose statistics on this topic. Generally speaking, only a few of the most successful magazines are willing to disclose circulation figures to advertisers and advertising agencies.
Many observers of the local publication scene are encouraging formation of an ABC organization to check circulation figures, arguing that it would serve the long-term interests of the magazine medium. With careful checks of circulation figures, magazine publishers would have a better understanding of their readership. Accurate information on reader composition would assist magazines in pinpointing market areas for advertisers, and would enable editors to define their editorial policies more clearly. This move would particularly benefit special-interest publications.
One major problem with many special-interest magazines in Taiwan is that they are not actually specialized. Although claims are made about targeting specific readers, quite often editors prefer using a shotgun rather than a rifle approach to content. Because specialization is expected to continue as a major trend in the industry, advertisers can be expected to insist on genuinely specialized media to reach their customers.
While some change in this direction is already underway, tabloid magazines that mix information with light entertainment still sell fairly well. But these general interest magazines, edited on a lower level, have received widespread criticism for their failure to pay sufficient attention to journalistic ethics. Most frequently the complaints focus on their tendency both to print hearsay information without checking the facts and to publish articles that violate the privacy of public and private figures. They frequently carry unbalanced reports, giving no consideration to the fundamental journalistic principle that "There are at least two sides to every story." Moreover, considerable space is given to crime and to social and political conflict just for the sake of sensationalism.
Many experts believe that publications of this type will eventually fail because they are published to suit the less-educated, general interest audience, making it difficult for them to secure adequate advertising support. In addition, as readers become better educated, they will reject magazines that carry superficial and irresponsible reporting. While experience in other countries, such as the U.S., indicates that there is always a market for superficial and sensational journalism, it can be expected that the intensified competition, especially among special-interest magazines, will bring higher standards of journalism to the majority of the media industry. This will contribute to the overall health of Taiwan's magazine business.