Share this

Feb 9, 2009

SCMP in ROC (TW)

Update via Thomas' comment: The SCMP published a clarification today. They say they have no intention of opening an online paper in Taiwan and that the Economic Daily News story was false.

Seemingly big news, but it's kind of funny a DPA article was the best source for this:

Hong Kong’s ‘South China Morning Post’ to launch in Taiwan

SCMP, which is still a very enjoyable and sizable paper, has increasingly fallen into the orbit of Beijing since the Hong Kong handover. According to insiders, phrases like "Taiwan and China" are routinely altered to "Taiwan and the mainland" in the editing process, even for editorials. If I recall correctly, in the Hong Kong edition of the paper, Taiwan gets placed under the "China" "National" section.

It is no great surprise that the articles notes the KMT itself is pledging part of the funding to help set up the paper here.

Important note though:
Since Taiwan already has three English daily newspapers and its market for English papers is saturated, the newspaper decided to focus on online operations with most content in Chinese, but some information in English.

The 106-year-old daily is the leading English newspaper in Hong Kong with some 100,000 subscribers and is known as one of the top English-language dailies in Asia.
So don't expect to read your SCPM at a Mr. Brown cafe any time soon.

2 comments:

Tommy said...

I have to read the SCMP every day at my job. Yes, it is ridiculous the lengths they go to to say that Taiwan is a part of China. And no, Taiwan is not part of the "China" section. It is a part of the "National" section. So there is not even any room for "separate interpretations". Taiwan is grouped under all PRC news.

Tommy said...

FYI: The SCMP published a clarification today. They say they have no intention of opening an online paper in Taiwan and that the Economic Daily News story was false.