Analysis On The Situation And Countermeasure Of Free Ne Wspapers Of Taiwan In New-media Age

The rapid development of Internet technology leads people to a new media era. Its new forms and methods are violently impacting the traditional media market. The original audience loses massively and advertising falls sharply because of the new media. In this context, the traditional media selects to provide free newspaper on the subway as the main channel of distribution, which is not only self-help under the strong pressure but also a new attempt to the fierce market competition.In European and American, the mode of free newspaper has developed quite mature. Swedish city international newspaper group, started with free newspaper and developed to a world-class newspaper is a best example. In Asia, Japan, free newspaper can be found everywhere. These newspapers, emphasis on Local highlights, construction as well as community live and cultures possess a large audience. In China, Hong Kong has large numbers of free newspapers, such as Metro HK, Headline Daily, AM730 etc. In Taiwan the development mode of free newspaper is more mature and distinctive, such as Sharp Daily, U paper. However, in mainland China, free newspaper is still in its infancy. Under the circumstances of the rise of the new media, study on mature free newspaper in Taiwan is with great significance on studying the development of mainland newspapers.Based on the background of new media’s impact on traditional newspapers, this thesis chooses Taiwan’s current success free newspaper U paper as a case study. By analyzing the opportunity and challenge of free newspaper and the current development status of free newspaper in Taiwan, the author tries to reveal the restricting factors of the development of Taiwan free newspaper and thus summarizes a corresponding strategy for providing experience and enlightenment for the development of mainland free newspaper.For traditional media, the development of new media is a double-edged sword. It seriously impacts the traditional media, meanwhile, brings opportunities to the free newspaper. Taiwan’s successful free newspapers-U paper, which not only present development status of free newspaper, but also reveals the restricting factors and corresponding strategies of the development of Taiwan free newspaper. Therefore, in mainland, we can draw on good experience and enlightenment from it for finding out our difficulties of this field, exploiting its strong points and avoiding its weaknesses and providing more useful ideas for the development of traditional media.In this paper, the analysis and research indicates that, in general, as a kind of new media forms, free newspaper is in the rising and developing stage constantly. It enriches the forms of media development, brings rarely seen opportunities for the media ecology. What’s more, it will give far-reaching impact to modern communications media consumption patterns.