Press
Interview with Chao Cheng-ming
1. May I ask what you’ve been busy with lately?
Busy with publishing Dan Brown’s latest novel Origin, and making arrangements for his visit to Taiwan. In response to the continued decline in Taiwan’s publishing market, I’ve also been busy with the restructuring of the publishing business as well as expanding the use of B2C for readers.
2. How has China Times Publishing grown over the last two years, and has it been in line with your expectations?
Although the total output value of the publishing market in Taiwan has fallen from TWD36 billion to TWD18 billion over the last six years, Times Publishing has continued to maintain a close to 10% growth in annual sales over the last few years. In 2017 however, sales fell by 2% year-on-year. Fortunately, net profit continued to grow annually.
The approach we have adopted in response to the market was to expand the number of publishing categories to diversify risk. We have launched focused campaigns, vigorously promoting well-known authors and works. We have also tried our best to meet the needs of different readers, developing different marketing strategies for different groups of readers.
3. What reforms has Times Publishing adopted in the last two years to cope with the new technology and new media wave?
We have limited countermeasures. Basically, we have expanded Internet sales, increased promotion via Facebook, and opened live channels. We have accelerated our investment in ebooks, with growth at approximately 80% last year.
More than two years ago, we set up new entities within a few operating centers, hoping to develop several communication and digital sales avenues. Unfortunately, the tiny Taiwan market is itself a constraint, so we’ve not progressed very far, but we’re not giving up. We’re still putting in the extra effort, and looking at various areas including IP mandates, audio content development, as well as joint development of topical publications. There are also opportunities to develop partnerships with the market in Mainland China.
4. Do you think it’s possible for Taiwan’s print book market to grow in the future?
I think Taiwan’s print book market has already fallen to its nadir! Then again, we thought this was the case two years ago, but it’s still on-going. Although the upward momentum of a handful of bestsellers is, at this time, faster and stronger than before in Taiwan, sales of most books are still on the downtrend, and have come to a virtual standstill.
I think this downtrend has bottomed, but the prospects of a rebound is unlikely. Non-book content on mobile phones (such as social networking software, videos and mobile gaming) has now become the new reading lifestyle. The issues confronting Taiwan’s publishing industry include how to attain business equilibrium, how to simultaneously attend to diversity in publishing, as well as attend to the ecology of authors whose publications are for a minority, while seeking cross-business restructuring partnership opportunities.
5. Do you think there are any significant features in the Taiwan book market when compared to that in Mainland China? Are there any markets with similar conditions as that of the Taiwan book market?
The publishing markets on both sides of the Taiwan Strait appear to be diverging. The Mainland Chinese market is looking at topics such as studying business trends, Chinese cultural research, children’s books and parenting. Taiwan, on the other hand, tends to favor in-depth studies of the local society, health care, as well as cute and humorous illustrated texts, among others. Psychotherapy and workplace incentives are some of the subjects that interest readers on both sides of the Strait, as well as young people.
One can imagine therefore that a lot more effort in terms of layout, design and packaging would have to be put into print books, the market of which is in decline, so as to gain love for and dependence on print books among readers. It is inevitable that there will be greater room for cross-Strait cooperation in terms of copyright transactions, translation exchanges and development of topics.
6. As the Chairman of Taipei Book Fair Foundation, what are some of the things you think the annual book fair can do to lift the book market?
Taipei Book Fair has adjusted its positioning in the last two years, from a model centered on selling books to one that also engages in reading activities, in addition to selling books. We believe that if we are unable to awaken readers’ passion and participation in reading activities, promoting the sale of books would be extremely difficult.
Therefore, we have enhanced the design and spatial planning of the exhibition venue, and significantly increased reading salon and reading sharing activities. Based on a curatorial concept and the idea of a carnival, we have successfully and significantly boosted the number of attendees at the book exhibition. During the six-day exhibition, we facilitated 1,200 reading events, and 1,500 copyright negotiations. We also held more than 20 professional publishing forums as well as research and studies. We’ve also seen more active participation in areas related to digital experience among youths.
We have broken away from book exhibitions that sell books for the sake of selling books with this approach, which has instead restored people’s passion for reading and helped them embrace the joy of reading. We believe that as long as a reader’s heart and habit for reading still exist, books will still enjoy good prospects, authors will remain motivated, and the publishing ecology will continue to grow. It is precisely this role that book exhibitions should assume to pass on the baton for generations to come.
Chao Cheng-ming will be speaking at the StoryDrive conference in Beijing (28 May - 1 June 2018).
