Hong Kong’s Next Media Group announced on April 28 the termination of the sale of Taiwan Apple Daily and other businesses on the grounds that the buyer’s terms were “not in the interest of the company. On May 14, Taiwan Apple Daily published an open letter to readers from President Chen Yuxin, announcing that the paper would cease publication on May 18 and focus all resources on digital.
Taiwan Apple Daily President Chen Yu-hsin released an open letter to readers today (May 14), announcing that the paper edition will be discontinued from the 18th, and all resources will be focused on digital.
Hong Kong Next Media Group announced on April 28 that it was terminating the sale of Taiwan Apple Daily and other businesses on the grounds that the buyer’s terms were “not in the interest of the company”. Taiwan Apple Daily published an open letter from Chen Yuxin to its readers through the app on the afternoon of April 14.
The open letter said, “Eighteen years ago, on May 2, when the SARS epidemic in Taiwan was at its worst, Taiwan Apple Daily announced its launch. Now, as the new pneumonia (Chinese Communist virus) has entered the community in Taiwan and caused panic throughout the country, I would like to announce to all readers today that the paper version of Taiwan Apple Daily will cease publication from May 18, after the last publication on May 17.
“For 18 years, the paper version of Taiwan Apple Daily has changed the media environment in Taiwan with its innovative content, but today, we are also being changed by the media environment. Due to continued losses in operations, and as a very last resort, Next Media Group has decided to discontinue the paper version of Taiwan Apple Daily and focus its resources on developing Apple News Network.”
“Taiwan Apple Daily was once the highest selling and most widely read newspaper in Taiwan for a long time.” “But the digital flood is beyond our imagination, especially the monopoly of digital platforms such as Google and Facebook, causing a massive loss of advertising resources, which is no less than a heavy blow to the paper media.”
“The accelerated deterioration of Hong Kong’s political situation has left democracy in the dust, and press freedom has been comprehensively suppressed. Founder Lai Chi-ying is now in prison in Hong Kong after being convicted for his remarks in the pursuit of democracy. The pro-China forces have blocked all kinds of advertising resources, making the operation of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily very difficult, but fortunately, thanks to the support of readers’ beliefs in the pursuit of freedom, it still holds the most important bastion of press freedom.
“We lost on another battlefield: the monopolization of advertising resources and the deterioration of the situation in Hong Kong, which made it impossible for us to sustain our losses in the long run. We had to announce the cessation of paper publication and focus all our resources on digital.”
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