Publishing in Taiwan

There have been some interesting de­velop­ments in Taiwan’s publishing industry. Amidst a tide of e-books, Ministry of Finance figures put the industry’s 2019 turnover at NT$51.3 billion, up by 2.2% over 2015 (NT$50.2 bn) and by 11.6% over 2018 (NT$45.96 bn).

Within this figure, printed magazines earned revenues of NT$16.79 billion, an increase of 9.69% over 2018, while printed books earned NT$19.07 billion, a rise of 1.19%. However, revenues for digital publications (including digital magazines, books, and other reading materials) were only NT$610 million, accounting for just 1.2% of total income for the whole publishing industry. This shows that Taiwanese continue to prefer printed reading materials.

Looking at exports, books printed in tradi­tional Chinese characters earned roughly US$99.17 million in 2019, an increase of some 16.38%. There was especially strong growth (+26.67%) in sales to Southeast Asia (to US$15.33 million) and to Japan (to US$4.07 million, a rise of 18%), indicating that ethnic Chinese in these lands maintain great interest in publications from Taiwan.

A report from the National Central Library shows that while borrowing of printed works from libraries declined slightly in 2020 (80.15 million loans, down by 1.41% over 2019), the total number of library cards held by the public reached 18.39 million, an increase of 8.88%. In contrast to printed books, digital borrowing increased markedly, with a total of 3.63 million e-book loans. This represents growth of 42.35% over 2019, perhaps indicating that during the pandemic, many people who don’t ordinarily read much were inspired to borrow e-books.

Whether print or digital, it is difficult for any media outlet to survive from advertising and subscription rev­enues alone. Digital media in particular need to monetize large volumes of website traffic, so they must spend more than print outlets to generate content. Hence the key to success is to establish one’s brand value, and in recent years an increasing number of printed publications with lower circulation but high quality have appeared, stressing depth of content and top-notch design.

The value of print magazines lies in higher brand consciousness compared to online reading matter.  This is because readers must deliberately choose a magazine to read, so there is greater brand identification, unlike the Internet where all kinds of articles come to people mainly through social media. In the end we live in a physical world, and physical objects are more likely to be noticed. Even if the future lies in digital reading, print magazines will still be a way for individuals to express their tastes, as vinyl LPs are today.

How can one create a magazine that has depth and cachet? How can one make its content thought-provoking and its visuals eye-catching? How can we respond to the various forms that reading will take in the future? In terms of marketing, how can one secure intellectual property rights and cross over into events, film or TV adaptations, and merchandise development, as well as hand­ling self-­media and developing target market segments? You will perhaps find answers to some of these questions, and some inspiration, in our cover story this month.