Understanding the Taipei Times Audience – Tricky Taipei (original) (raw)

Between May 14 and May 18, I requested Taipei Times readers do a quick 10-question survey to find out who’s reading the paper, how they’re reading it, why they’re reading it and where. In those few days, 109 people responded. These are the results.

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75% of people who answered the survey are based in Taiwan.

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The most popular ways to read Taipei Times are online via laptop/desktop, smartphone/tablet and social media.

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Most respondents are regular readers. Almost a third are daily readers.

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Most people seem to read Taipei Times out of habit or by default.

A few responses from Other:

• “They cover interesting local news that I seldom see other outlets covering.”
• “Good coverage of Taiwan politics.”
• “The editorial pages are almost always great.”

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Not surprisingly, the website deters most people from reading Taipei Times more. Readership is also shifting, with many saying they don’t buy print newspapers.

Common responses from Other:

• “Website difficult to navigate and print edition often sold out at my local store.”
• “No breaking news function. All the news comes out the next day.”
• “Not enough groundbreaking news about Taiwan.”
• “Poor quality articles.”

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The statement below is from the Taipei Times About Us page. With an average score of 4.8 out of 10, the survey shows people feel pretty neutral about Taipei Times’ role as one of the most “authoritative and trusted voices among English media in Asia”.

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The statement below is Taipei Times’ mission statement. It earned a slightly positive average score of 5.9.

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People shared a lot of suggestions for Taipei Times on how it could improve.

Common answers include:

• “Hire more journalists to produce more original content. Too much space is dedicated to wildly out of date wire stories.”
• “Hire copy editors and decent writers.”
• “Invest in good journalists, do some investigative reporting.”
• “Better website, more online content.”
• “Better social media (see Japan Times). It is rare that I see great, well written/reported/edited and shareworthy articles.”
• “Quality journalism, less standard AP Text more focus on Taiwan and insights.”
• “Besides some interesting local reporting, it’s not a good news source or is presented well.”
• “Cover more actual news. The New Zealand Herald is almost literally an inch thick and New Zealand only has about 4 million people and is mostly farms, there’s literally no reason for the Taipei Times to be a flyer.”
• “Don’t stay so obviously partisan.”
• “The editorial team lean green quite heavily. I don’t disagree, but balance could be better.”
• “I would have no clue what Taipei Times was if I didn’t live in Taipei. It’s a solid English language choice, and it has a lot to say; but it needs to amplify its voice internationally.”

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People rely on a variety of media outlets for their Taiwan-related news. All of Taipei Times’ competitors are online-only.

Popular responses in Other:

• Focus Taiwan
• Taiwan Sentinel
• ICRT Twitter
• New Bloom

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This survey was completed by people from a broad range of age groups with most respondents falling within the 31-50 range.

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If you have any questions about this survey just leave a comment below.