Su Zulin and Liu Zixuan / Staff reporters and staff writers
Culture Minister Lee Yongdeok said Friday that he supports charging digital news media to subsidize traditional media because newspaper profits have nearly halved over the past decade.
Lee spoke at a forum focused on news media responsibility hosted by the Graduate School of Journalism, National Taiwan University (NTU).
A study was presented at the conference that measures the impact of digital media on the print industry.
Photo: Reuters
As the printing market shrunk, so did advertising revenue and employment in the industry, according to a study sponsored by the ministry.
Digital platform operators such as Google and Line Today sent representatives to the forum, but Meta, the most high-profile player, was absent.
Attendees included industry veterans, government representatives and academics to discuss how the news industry can work with digital platforms.
Liu Changde, a professor of journalism at the National Chengchi University, said newspaper circulation in 2012 was double that of last year.
Newspaper revenues also halved during that period, he said, as digital advertising on print websites did not make up for losses in the print division.
By comparison, research shows that an estimated 60-80% of Taiwan’s digital advertising originates from the world’s largest international digital platforms, Google and Facebook.
It showed that about 25% of jobs were lost as the industry declined.
In interviewing multiple news outlets for this study, we found that reliance on Facebook’s algorithms and Google’s keyword rankings led them to create provocative headlines and exaggerated content. . This is a practice that goes against traditional industry values.
Through algorithms and opaque revenue-sharing mechanisms, digital platforms are distorting news offerings to increase awareness, the report shows.
Media operators say surveys have robbed them of the means to maintain their professional and financial independence, hampering their ability to serve as their “fourth wealth.”
Journalism graduate director Hung Chen-ling said digital platforms should be required to add value to the news industry through negotiations, royalty payments for links to news content, special funds or taxes. I suggested there is.
Hung called on the government to draft a bill to ensure the survival of the news industry, adding that the Ministry of Digital Affairs would be the supervisory body and the industry would have to negotiate with digital platforms.
Anita Chen, senior manager of public and government affairs at Google Taiwan, who participated in the forum via videoconference, said that Google is creating a media environment that supports the digitization of news outlets and will continue to reach out to stakeholders. He said he would continue to talk to him and find a solution. Suitable for media environment in Taiwan.
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