The Apple Daily is a tabloid-style newspaper in Taiwan. It is owned by Hong Kong-based Next Digital media group, which prints the similarly-titled Hong KongApple Daily. The Media Group experiments on cartoonifying news with the Next Media Animation, provides animated news stories on scandals and crimes in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as on pop culture in other parts of the world, and gained a huge success.
History
Apple Daily first published on 2 May 2003. It is the first newspaper in Taiwan to publish 365 days a year, and it is the only newspaper in Taiwan subject to the circulation audit from . On 4 April 2019, the Apple Daily became an online newspaper, and it will begin charging a NT$10 monthly subscription fee in September 2019, following a trial period between June and August 2019.
2012 sale and anti-monopoly campaigns
In 2012, the Next Media Group withdrew from the Taiwan market and sold its Taiwan operations, including Apple Daily, Sharp Daily, Next Weekly and the Next TVcable network. In November 29, investors including Want Want China Times group president Tsai Shao-chung, Formosa Plastics Group chairman William Wong and Chinatrust Charity Foundation chairman Jeffrey Koo, Jr, signed a contract with the Next Media Group in Macau. Tsai Shao-chung is the son of Tsai Eng-ming, the chair of the Want Want Group. Tsai Eng-meng has made a controversial comment in an interview with Washington Post, stating that reports about massacre in the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 were not true. Tsai owns China Times, one of the largest newspapers in Taiwan, and has acquired 60% of the second largest cable TV services on the island. If the Next Media buyout deal were approved by the Taiwan Government, the Want Want Group will control nearly 50% of Taiwan's news media. Fearing that Tsai's pro-Beijing position and the media monopoly would hurt media freedom and democracy, protesters campaigned to urge the Taiwan Government cancel the Next Media sale.
Reception
In January-May 2020 the website appledaily.com.tw and the website appledaily.com were among the most popular and reliable sources in Chinese Wikipedia. According to Alexa, the website appledaily.com is the 63rd most popular website in Taiwan.
