Despite dwindling profits, the leading papers will continue to operate because they carry "a sense of mission" to the society, said Liu You-li (劉幼琍), journalism professor at National Chengchi University.
Most of the smaller papers, owned by business groups or political parties, can afford the losses because their owners are looking more for political and social influence than profits, Liu said.
Newspapers are taking cost-saving measures to wade through the slump.
Although large-scale layoffs have not happened, vacancies are left unfilled. Less productive senior staffers who were retained during the boom years are asked to take early retirement. Dailies belonging to the same media group pool their reporters and photographers, instead of sending several to cover the same event.
The United Daily News, a leading Mandarin-language paper, has refrained from laying off senior editors and reporters, but would caution them if they are less productive, business manager Ouyang Yuanmei (
The UDN group continues to buy expensive equipment, such as machines making double-page color printing, in preparation for an economic recovery, she said.
It is also preparing for the worst. The group operates a money-losing online paper and several other Web sites just in case Internet papers become the future trend, she said.
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