The Central Daily News, the nation's oldest newspaper, announced yesterday that due to financial losses it would close its doors today after 78 years in business.
In its final issue, the newspaper said its 70 staff would stay on for one or two months while the company looks for a buyer.
"We are closing temporarily and hope to re-open soon. Please wait," the paper said in an announcement on its front page.
The newspaper is owned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The KMT, once one of the world's richest political parties with assets estimated at US$6.5 billion in the 1990s, has already sold its gleaming 12-story headquarters in central Taipei and will move into a modest building this month to try to shake off its corrupt image.
The party is no longer willing to absorb the Central Daily News' snowballing losses, which totaled NT$800 million (US$25 million) as of April, and has so far failed to find a buyer for the newspaper.
The KMT has been in the decline since President Chen Shui-bian (
But an insider trading scandal implicating Chen's son-in-law has been a godsend for the KMT, which has also sold its television and radio stations and a film company in recent years to fund elections.
"[The party] can survive only if it is pragmatic ... My heart is heavy and I hate to part with it," KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
The Central Daily News was launched in Shanghai in 1928 as the mouthpiece of the KMT, and moved to Taiwan in 1949 after the KMT lost the Chinese civil war to the Communists.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS