`Min Sheng Daily' to be closed today

A woman thumbs through one of the last issues of ``Min Sheng Daily'' at a convenience store in Taipei yesterday. The United Daily News group announced yesterday that it was shutting down the entertainment newspaper after 28 years. PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, AP

The United Daily News group announced yesterday that it is shutting down its entertainment newspaper -- the Min Sheng Daily -- after 28 years. The Min Sheng Daily is largely devoted to pop culture, sports and travel.

"Because of the rapid changes in the market, we have decided to say goodbye to our readers tomorrow," Min Sheng Daily director Hsiang Kuo-ning (項國寧) told reporters. "The Min Sheng Daily will be folded on Nov. 30 after completing ... its mission."

The United Daily News group -- one of the country's largest newspaper publishers -- would move about one-third of the Min Sheng Daily's 250 employees to other units while the rest would be laid off with favorable severance payments, he said.

Many have suffered dwindling sales and advertising income in recent years, losing readers to TV and the Internet.

The China Times group terminated its evening paper, the China Times Express, in October last year.

In May, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) shut down its 78-year-old newspaper, the Central Daily News, before reshaping it into an Internet-only publication.

It is believed that the Min Sheng Daily's readership had fallen dramatically since the Apple Daily was launched in May 2004.