Taiwan Today

The year was 1975 and Tai­wan's economy was strug­gling in the midst of the first worldwide energy crisis. Fuel prices were soaring, cutting deeply into the profit margins of the island's many manufacturers. Since 98 percent of these were small or medium-sized companies, most creating products for export, many business owners were facing real danger.

In the midst of these troubles, man­agement consultant Frank Hung (洪良浩), general manager of Harvard Management Services Inc. (no relation to the U.S. university), turned the situation to his advantage. To help businesspeople survive, he established an organization offering weekly meetings on manage­ment called the Harvard Enterprises Club. The club soon attracted one hundred members who began gathering every Sat­urday afternoon to listen to successful en­trepreneurs share strategies on topics such as quality control and market survey tech­niques. Since not all members could come to every meeting, Hung began transcrib­ing the speeches and mailing out copies. Eventually these transcripts evolved into a 145-page monthly magazine, Manage­ment, which is now Taiwan's longest-run­ning business publication.

Today, the Harvard Enterprises Club has long since disbanded, but the maga­zine sells about 5,800 copies per month. Hung launched another monthly focusing on the sales industry, Breakthrough, in 1979. This second venture now reaches nearly as many readers.

Such accidental successes in busi­ness publishing were fairly common dur­ing the 1970s. Twenty years ago, the handful of business magazines sold com­mercially were small-scale operations produced on a shoestring. "At that time, anyone with a background in economics could set up a magazine," says Hsieh Chin-ho (謝金河), executive director of the Wealth Group, which publishes a daily newspaper and two magazines. Most of the early magazines were pro­duced by a staff of two or three. "The edi­tor in chief was responsible for writing half to two-thirds of the articles in the magazine," Hsieh says.

Business magazines have come a long way since then. Periodicals covering economic, financial, and commercial fields now have the third largest reader­ ship of any magazine category, after en­tertainment magazines and educational publications, most of which are for stu­dents of English as a second language. Last year, 964 magazines, or one out of every five, registered with the Govern­ment Information Office, were business publications. While most of these are in­ house newsletters produced by companies or financial institutions for a limited circu­lation, roughly fifty business magazines are available commercially. Of these, the top three exceed 37,000 readers each.

The launch of CommonWealth monthly in 1981 brought a new level of professionalism to the industry. It was founded by U.S.-educated journalist Diane Ying ( 殷允芃), who had worked for UPI, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, Wang Li-hsing (王力行), former editor in chief of the Taipei-based The Woman magazine, and University of Wisconsin economics pro­fessor Charles Kao ( 高希均 ). The maga­zine gained immediate recognition for its objective, thorough, and careful reporting. The first issue sold out at 10,000 cop­ies and the readership grew rapidly.

Current Deputy Editor in Chief Alice Yang (楊艾俐) explains that in the early 1980s, CommonWealth's policy of using only professional journalists was a break from long-standing tradition. "In the past, an important part of the editor in chief's job was to use connections to convince friends to write for the magazine," she says. Another change initiated by the magazine was to gear editorial content to readers' interests. Before CommonWealth hit the newsstands, many magazines had mainly published whatever the editor or publisher wanted to see in print. Instead, the editors of the new magazine deter­mined their content by contacting local businesspeople and finding out their needs and concerns.

At the time, those needs and con­cerns focused largely on surviving the second major oil crisis and the resulting rampant inflation, and the ramifications of political isolation in the international arena. The United States had broken offi­cial ties with the ROC in 1979 and many people not only feared that Taiwan might suffer a military attack from Mainland China but also that export trade would be affected as well. Businesspeople were ea­ger for information that would help them analyze the big picture and to find a way out of the slump. CommonWealth at­tracted readers by writing well-researched articles and by using accessible language to explain economic theories, analyze the domestic and global economic environ­ments, and make economic predictions. "We tried to offer a wide range of busi­ness information to our readers and to en­courage them to overcome difficulties and work their way up from the bottom," Yang says.

The strategy worked. From its first issue, CommonWealth has reigned as the top-selling business magazine in Taiwan. Today, it has a circulation of 67,000, despite a high price of US$8.40, and is widely considered to be one of Taiwan's most respected and reliable magazines. "Each of our writers writes only one story a month—sometimes they spend two months on one story," Yang says. "Often, they interview more than ten people for a single article. We try to cover all points of view." CommonWealth's broad-based polls and surveys have become a trade­ mark and their overseas reports are an­other distinctive characteristic. Early this year, for example, the magazine sent eight reporters to Singapore for a series of articles on one of Taiwan's major export competitors.

Other magazines have adopted simi­lar strategies of closely tracking readers' needs. The history of twenty-year-old Wealth magazine, which claims (along with Money magazine) to be Taiwan's second best-selling business publication, also illustrates the changing interests of businesspeople. The magazine began in 1974 as Stock Market Outlook. It was founded by Chiu Yung-han ( 秋永漢 ), a stock market analyst and novelist who had emigrated to Japan and become known in Japanese investment circles as "the god of making money." Chiu re­turned to Taiwan in 1972 and planned to enjoy similar success in the Taiwan Stock Exchange. But Chiu's local investments performed poorly. He attributed his diffi­culties to insufficient information for in­vestors. So, in 1973 he invited several Japanese journalists to advise him on es­tablishing a quarterly stock magazine in Taiwan, which soon became popular among local investors.

The magazine changed its style in 1982, under Hsieh Chin-ho, who served as editor in chief before becoming execu­tive director of Wealth Group. After changing the name to Wealth, Hsieh be­gan writing his own in-depth articles to add zest to the magazine's stock market reports and investment data. The first covered the operations of the direct-sales gi­ant, Amway, which had recently been in­troduced to Taiwan. At the time, direct-sales marketing had become highly profitable but was little understood. When the story hit the newsstands, that issue sold 7,000 copies, rather than the normal 2,000. Another of Hsieh's early ventures, a cover expose on cement tycoons who had benefited from personal connections with government officials, sold 9,000 copies. "These sales figures told us that our new editorial direction was right," Hsieh says. Today the magazine sells about 37,000 copies per issue.

In the past decade, Wealth has be­come popular for its investigative re­ports. One-fourth of the copy in the 400-page digest-sized magazine still covers stock market information, but the bulk of the articles are feature stories. The opening of the political environment during the past seven years has spurred the magazine to increase its political cov­erage. Recent stories have covered scan­dals involving political figures, shakeups within the military, and power struggles within the KMT (Kuomintang), the major­ity party.

The economic boom period be­ginning in the mid-1980s brought on a new era for busi­ness magazines. The second oil crisis had ended and Taiwan's exports were soaring as local factories attracted a growing number of foreign companies eager to produce their products cheaply overseas. Most of these companies were U.S. makers of clothing, toys, electronics, or other low- or medium-tech products. As the trade surplus with the United States grew, foreign exchange reserves soon reached an astounding US$76.7 bil­lion. Meanwhile, the New Taiwan dollar appreciated at a mind-boggling pace from 1984 to 1986, rising from 1:39 against the U.S. dollar to 1:28.

In the midst of this booming economy, Taiwan families continued their long tradition of saving a large per­centage of their income. In the mid­ 1980s, the average personal savings rate reached a high of 38 percent. The time was ripe for a magazine that addressed the growing class of newly monied families in need of investment advice. The 1986 launch of Money magazine, subtitled "The Personal Finance Magazine," filled this void. "Nearly every family had some extra money on hand, but most didn't know how to manage it—putting everything in a savings account was the most common route," says Jennie Shue ( 薛禎麗), editor in chief of Money.

The magazine's goal has been to pro­vide accessible information for people without a background in finance. "We only offer practical information," Shue says. "We don't talk about ideology or theory. We just teach our readers how to earn money, how to manage it, and how to spend it." The magazine covers the pros and cons of investment options from sav­ings accounts to stocks, bonds, and com­modities. One of the most popular columns is "Case Study," in which an ac­countant helps a reader to develop a per­sonal financial plan.

Shue says the tone and content are dif­ferent from other business publications. A recent story focused on how to find a home amid Taiwan's high real estate prices. While CommonWealth also covered this story, Money took a more personal tack. "We focused on solutions," Shue says. "We told readers where to find apartments for less than NT$5 million (US$190,000). We even listed the addresses."

While the readership of most busi­ness magazines is primarily male, 40 percent of Money readers are women. The reader profile consists mostly of people twenty-five to forty-five who own prop­erty worth US$20,000 to US$600,000. Shue positions Money as "a magazine for the little millionaire." With this distinct readership, the advertising in Money differs from that of other local business maga­zines. Along with the ads for real estate, cars, and luxury watches that run in other magazines and are geared mainly for men over thirty-five, Money runs ads depicting women's fashions, convenience foods for working mothers, and trendy sportswear for young professionals.

During the late 1980s, the magazine built a reputation for maintaining a mod­erate, cautious approach to investment in the midst of rampant speculation on land values and the stock market. From 1987 to mid-1989, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (Taiex) price index climbed from 1,000 to 10,000 points. By 1990, 3 million people, or one-third of the work force, were active in the market and more than thirty stock market magazines were being circulated. "Almost every major stock and invest­ment company issued its own publica­tion," Shue says.

All this changed after October 1990, when the stock market crashed. Accord­ing to a Gallup poll of Taipei investors, 54 percent reported suffering an overall loss from investing in the Taiex. After the stock market craze, most stock market magazines were discontinued. It was good news for Shue. "Since then," she says, "Our readers have been more likely to accept the moderate, long-term invest­ment approach of our magazine."

Other magazines have followed Mon­ey's lead. Last year, Wealth magazine be­gan a regular department on the topic. Says Editor in Chief Andy Liang (梁永煌 ): "These days, Taiwan readers don't want ideology or hard-to-grasp concepts—they just want to understand new developments in society and they want some practical in­ formation they can apply right away."

Another motivation for maga­zines to keep their business stories lean is the growing number of alternative sources for more current data and information. In­ternational news programs such as CNN deliver constantly updated news and busi­ness information. Meanwhile, local news­ papers have improved their business coverage with expanded sections. And lo­cal companies now enjoy growing access to up-to-the-minute international infor­mation via fax newsletters, twenty-four­ hour business wire services, and online computer data services.

One way to beat the competition has been to join it. In 1988, Wealth magazine began a daily newspaper covering the stock market, Wealth News. The paper now reaches about 50,000 readers.

Other magazines have responded by rethinking their role and revising their content. In addition to the new competi­tion, readers' needs have changed. Busy lifestyles and hectic work schedules have left many people with little patience for tackling long, complex articles. As with U.S. magazines, local publications are feeling increasing pressure to keep their articles short, snappy, and packed with practical information. That means cover­ing complex topics such as the effects of internationalization on business, liberal­ized trade with Mainland China, and the coming return of Hong Kong to China in short, lean stories.

Chang Yao-chung ( 張耀中), a mid-level manager in the Taipei office of a Japanese trading company, says he reads Wealth more for its readable style and controversial topics than its hard data. "I like to read [Wealth's] investigative sto­ries on subjects that haven't been covered before, like corruption in the military," Chang says. "Although some people chal­lenge the magazine's credibility, I don't worry about that—the information is in­teresting and fresh. It's just for reference."

Chang adds that while he enjoyed more serious and in-depth magazines when he was a student, he lacks the time and energy for them now that he is working. "CommonWealth is a good magazine, but it's too serious and dry for me," he says. It gives me a headache to read it. Wealth is a magazine you can read while watching TV or lying in bed—something that's not too heavy but gives you some information."

Such messages are having an impact on CommonWealth and other more ana­lytical publications. "Readers' tastes have changed—they don't like to read articles that are serious and solid," says Alice Yang. "They want something light and juicy." In response, CommonWealth has compromised. "We now run investigative stories," Yang says. "But because we need more time for fact-checking, our readers may find such stories in our maga­zine only once every three months."

Smaller publications such as Business Weekly are moving to adopt a lighter, more entertaining style in hopes of boost­ing circulation. Begun in 1987, the publi­cation reaches a readership of under 10,000. Editor in Chief Tung Tsai-hsing ( 童再興 ) hopes that revisions begun in July will change that. Since then, the magazine has added more investigative reports and a livelier writing style. "In the past, we ran some commentaries by scholars," Tung says. "Now we think the time for serious stories has passed. We are softening the magazine. Hopefully, this strategy will boost circulation."

CommonWealth's Yang says the trend toward "lite" reporting is having the biggest impact on business magazines to­day. "After martial law was lifted, the nouveau riche mindset became dominant in our society," Yang says. "People want to be entertained. They don't want to read anything serious. Our competition is not newspapers anymore. It's karaoke parlors."