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There's a reason why Next Media sells so well

Every day the Central New Agency (CNA) sends press releases to media outlets. These press releases are regarded as "connecting copy" by these agencies, but how they use such copy varies. Sometimes it is used in its totality, sometimes partially used and sometimes simply discarded, serving as a prompt for the agency to send its own reporters to investigate.

But recently, the function of CNA's reports seems to have been overtaken by the publications of the Next Media Group's Apple Daily and Next magazine. It only takes one piece of news to be published by the magazine or newspaper for the story to be covered by other media outlets in the following days. Examples of how local media have followed up on stories first published by the Next Media Group are too numerous to list.

The reason that the stories in Next Media publications are often quoted or even imitated by other local media outlets is not so much because of their so-called tabloid news style, but because their perception of news value and their theory of reporting are completely different from those prevalent in the Taiwanese news media.

For example, although the Taiwanese media often engage in investigative reporting, they normally operate around specific cases or issues. In Next Media, the culture dictates that investigative methods are brought to bear routinely and in every instance. Beat reporters for the group do not have the title of investigative reporter, but they are deeply immersed in a culture of investigative reporting. While most reporters go around in press packs and cover superficial, scripted events, reporters for Next Media have their eyes open and their ears to the ground in search of the next big story.

Another example can be found in the case of Lo Shih Li-yun (羅施麗雲), President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) housekeeper. While the vast majority of other reporters accepted everything Chen said about the incident, only Apple Daily pressed the matter, and it paid off. It was discovered that Chen's version did not match the facts. The local media had no choice but to follow Apple Daily's lead. If Apple Daily had not followed up on the story, the matter would probably have ended with Chen's explanation of the incident.

Using or following up on stories by other news agencies is something that happens all over the world, but only on an occasional basis, not as part of routine operations. The situation in this country where local media routinely chase stories first published by Next Media is unique. Any journalist must surely realize that this is nothing short of a crisis in the nation's news media.

If the news reported by the Next Media Group is of such importance that it is regularly followed up by competitors, then why haven't the local media agencies learned from Next Media's methods? Why don't they create their own home-grown Next magazine or Apple Daily? Why, after so many years, are they content to feed from the trough of Next Media's investigative journalism? The dignity of their competition is surely lacking.

Reporters working for powerful media organizations are often quoted or their work followed up by other marginal media outlets. So, local media should feel a sense of desperation at the fact that Next Media is usurping the role of news wire services like the CNA. This is not only a question of one media outlet outperforming another, but a degeneracy which cannot be ignored if Taiwan's media wants to be avoid being bumped out of the market by the people at Next Media Group.

Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.

TRANSLATED BY Ian Bartholomew
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