Hong Kong's Next Media Ltd (壹傳媒集團), controlled by Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英), will launch the Taiwan version of the Apple Daily (蘋果日報) in April, said the deputy editor-in-chief of the Apple Daily's international division, Wu Chieh-min (吳傑民), yesterday.
"Mr Lai will launch the Apple Daily in mid-April with the aim of selling 400,000 copies per day. We have hired between 400-500 reporters," Wu said by telephone.
Like the Apple Daily in Hong Kong, the Chinese-language Apple Daily in Taiwan will have 40 sheets or 160 pages, twice the number of pages of Taiwanese papers.
Wu denied that Taiwan's Apple Daily will be a gossip paper, saying it will be a paper that caters to the needs of readers.
"We will constantly study the readers' reaction and adjust our editorial policy accordingly," he said.
Lai launched the Taiwan version of his Next magazine (壹周刊) in May 2001. Now the Chinese-language weekly has become one of the best-selling magazines in Taiwan, selling about 160,000 copies per week.
In March 2002, Next Media announced the purchase of two buildings in Neihu for NT$780 million, amid shutdowns and cutbacks at struggling local media companies. One of the buildings will be occupied by Next Media Taiwan, publisher of Next magazine (壹周刊), while the other will be occupied by the Taiwan edition of the Apple Daily.
The Apple Daily, known for a diet of sex, scandal, gossip and graphic front-page pictures, sells about 1.5 million copies a day to Hong Kong's population of 6.7 million.
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