Before entering the newspaper business, Wang was an army officer with an unusually strong interest in journalism. From childhood he had avidly read several dailies and became fascinated not only with the news but also about the process of news reporting. Wang expected to be in the army for the balance of his professional life, but one day in late 1950, a senior acquaintance presented a compelling challenge, urging him to assist with Taiwan's rapid development: "Since you are so Interested in newspapers, and because we need capable men to work In the cultural field, why don't you try running a newspaper?"
It was the perfect idea for the right person. Wang gave way immediately to his passion for Journalism in a move that totally changed his life. He filed his resignation from military service and rejected attractive temptations to ensure his own financial and career security. His military superiors told him that they would give him permission to be a military officer and publisher at the same time. Wang demurred "Absolute obedience is required from a career army officer, but as a newspaperman, I will require absolute freedom. There's no way to compromise the two roles. I have no choice but to retire from the army."
Wang's pioneer newspapering days were in a limited, 1950s market dominated by a few government and political party-sponsored newspapers with 84 per cent of all newspaper circulation. His new paper had to share the remaining 16 percent with several other struggling, private publishers. In those early postwar years, most of the people on Taiwan led very frugal lives; business was not at all prosperous, and advertising expenditures were limited. Wang was forced to dig into family savings in order to keep the paper afloat.
For years, the 120-odd staffers of the United Daily News, the successor to the United Edition, worked in rather primitive conditions in an assortment of rented facilities. But it was difficult for them to complain because Wang himself shared their working quarters and often ran errands on a bicycle. In frequent peptalks to his staff, Wang included one prescient promise: "If we work hard enough, some day we'll all be sitting in the fanciest newspaper offices in town."
Wang's orientation was energetic and aggressive. When Taiwan's economy was just beginning to boom in 1967, he moved to form the first financial newspaper. The idea met with considerable initial opposition from his co-investors and most of the staff. They argued that businessmen and manufacturers were only a small segment of the population and their way of doing business was old-fashioned, making a modern financial newspaper unnecessary and certainly unprofitable.
But Wang was not deterred. He recalls insisting that financial newspapers were indispensable in the developed countries of the West, and that they soon would be equally necessary for Taiwan's development. By April 1967 the Economic Daily News was on the newsstands.
It was a baby born to hardship. For six years, few cared that the paper existed. Wang's editors struggled to attract a readership, changing the format dozens of times. Eventually they added a special promotion department, which offered more services to local businesses, and published several business directories that offered a wide range of practical advice and information. The paper finally took off and Wang is particularly proud of the results: "The Economic Daily News speaks directly for our industries, commerce, and agriculture. It has contributed significantly to the acceleration of ROC modernization."
Wang's creative energies continued to clash with the more conservative management views of his financial partners. In 1973, they agreed to withdraw from all United Daily News operations. Now that he was in full control, he began implementing previously blocked ideas, leading ultimately to a total of five newspapers and other related operations.
Today, the more than one million daily circulation of the United Daily News is matched by only one other paper, the China Times, both feature aggressive coverage of local and international news, and many readers subscribe to both papers. Besides the Economic Daily News, a second domestic daily was founded in 1978, the Min Sheng Pao (News of Daily Life). This is a special innovation. After observing the rapid economic development and rising living standards on the island, Wang shrewdly decided to create a newspaper aimed specifically at the blossoming middle class; it would headline the new lifestyles, consumer protection needs, leisure-time pursuits, and recreational activities. The paper was an immediate success.
Wang also established the World Journal and European Journal for overseas Chinese readers. He had visited many U.S. cities during the early 1970s and learned that there were more than one hundred Chinese-language newspapers, but all very small scale with limited-area circulations. Since their news coverage was also unsatisfactory, many highly-educated Chinese in America read only English-language newspapers. Wang saw a need and decided to launch a first class Chinese-language publication.
A state-of-the-art, highspeed Harris press.
In February 1976, the World Journal was founded in New York with a limited budget but a dedicated staff that labored to cultivate circulation in a traditionally barren market. Everyone accepted heavy workloads and refused to be discouraged by the small offices and initially slow acceptance of the paper. Gradually circulation climbed. Now almost every Chinese-speaking family in America has a Chinese-language newspaper at the breakfast table. Because the World Journal also covers news from Taiwan, Hongkong, and the Chinese communities of North America, it also has subscribers in Central and South America.
The European Journal, founded in Paris in December 1982, had an even more difficult start. Throughout the '70s and '80s, large numbers of Vietnamese refugees immigrated to European countries, fleeing the Communist quagmire that had overcome their homeland. Many were of Chinese derivation, and they knew little or nothing of the new languages and societies they were entering. Some inadvertently broke laws and were imprisoned without even knowing why.
Wang focused the new European Journal on a mission to help these Chinese immigrants adapt to their new living environments. Now that it circulates in every country in Europe, the Journal has also become an organ of cultural interflow as well as a means to promote commercial interaction between Chinese residents and Europeans.
The four magazines in the United Daily News Group are as different from each other as the newspapers. The China Tribune, a semi-monthly launched in October 1975, is aimed at intellectuals both al home and abroad. The United Monthly, which first appeared in August 1981, is a high quality, domestic content periodical aimed at college students and the educated general public. The Economic Magazine and UNITAS are both newcomers, founded in 1985. The former is directed to commercial and industrial executives; the latter is a literary monthly with the ambitious goal of creating a leading, international role for modern Chinese literature.
How does Wang Tih-wu assess his own motivations in all this?
"Naturally, making money is among my reasons for engaging in the newspaper business. But it is really not the most important one. For example, when I consider issuing a new publication, I always ask myself two questions: 'Is it good for our society? Does it have a bright future market?' When the answers to both are positive, I will go ahead no matter how great the difficulties."
The United Daily News masthead with some of its competition at right.
Sometimes, however, he insists on beginning publications devoid of money- making prospects. The overseas airmail edition of the United Daily News has incurred losses ever since its first issue, and Wang sees no indications of future profitability. Nevertheless, it is airmailed to subscribers in 126 countries around the world. When Wang travels abroad, he often meets subscribers and hears this litany: "I receive your airmail edition and it is quite a consolation so far from home. I am really thankful for it." That is payment enough for him.
Wang relishes telling about a completely delightful surprise: "When I decided to publish a literary monthly, I assure you that I was fully aware that all high-quality literary periodicals are foredoomed as far as business profits are concerned. They always lose money. But when the first edition of our UNITAS appeared in November 1984, to everybody's amazement it soon sold out. And here is the punch line: It is the only publication of the News Group that made a profit right from the start!"
Wang's insistence that money making is not the most important goal in his publishing operations is clearly not a mere public relations image. Hiss Lien Ching Publishing Company focuses on fiction and children's books and could be a major money maker. Its titles are widely sold and are often best sellers. However, he has emphasized service to Chinese culture, along with the introduction of new knowledge and technology, by publishing many specialty books that often have very limited markets. While this is a formula for losses, the gain comes from Taiwan's social and economic development.
Wang's public service orientation was further demonstrated by his organization of a translating and editing department for Lien Ching in 1974. He recruited Yu Chao-chung, formerly president of National Taiwan University, to be its director. "Lien Ching has contributed many important books to our society, and there are many more to come," Wang says. "I hope that its books will be handed down to our posterity as cultural treasures. "
The organizational discipline that characterizes Wang's management techniques is a legacy of his military background. "Business tradition is insufficient for running a large enterprise I believe in a disciplined staff, and it is individual, military-styled discipline that has strengthened the foundation of all our enterprises." Along similar lines, Wang acknowledges being a strict parent. Each child had to go through years of preparation before taking on responsibility in the News Group. "Take my eldest son, Pi-cheng, for instance. He worked at General Motors in the United States for several years before I called him back. Then he was my assistant for eight years, with a corner desk outside my office, before he became publisher of the United Daily News." Another son and three daughters have had similar experiences before becoming publisher" in their father's enterprises.
A reception and briefing room reflects the Group's emphasis on quality.
Although he may be old-fashioned and strict in these and other ways. Wang is quick to accept new concepts and aggressively introduce new technology to his businesses. The United Daily News Group has the latest printing and communications facilities. Its newspapers were the first to institute computer processing for both production and circulation, Wang set up United Information Inc. in 1981 to accomplish this for his own business and to carve out a place in the overall ROC market in this area.
Despite his traditional work values, Wang has a reputation for being a democratic boss who carefully respects the individual responsibilities of his staff. When he has an innovative idea, he presents it through channels to the relevant departments for a process of open discussion. A proposal may be supported or opposed. In the end, it must be justified. He avoids saying: "I am the boss; do it my way."
One of his early innovations received enthusiastic support from employees, for it concerned their own morale and welfare. In 1954, when the United Daily News had barely emerged from its original financial straits, Wang began drawing up a complete personnel welfare scheme. A staff welfare foundation was established two years later to dispense funds for weddings, funerals, hospitalization, children's education, retirement, and other employee needs. It was an extraordinary undertaking at the time, because no firm on the still pre-industrial island had initiated such measures. The major government programs for labor were not in place until 1974.
Wang also set up a housing loan program for employees, with total loan outlays of up to US$500,000 per year. And when he heard employees grousing about the company cafeteria, he assigned specialists to redesign and overhaul the facilities and provide food personnel with training in better service techniques.
In September 1985, a new recreation area was opened for employees and their families. "For many years I had a dream of living on a farm and growing flowers and plants, but I could rarely leave the office. I purchased a vast slope in Taoyuan county (near Taipei), and planned the recreation center for my use as well as all the staff. There are cottages and sports facilities—everything for a pleasant vacation. Newlyweds can spend their honeymoons there, and old chaps like myself can celebrate their thirtieth or fortieth wedding anniversaries in the countryside."
Today, the three new office buildings of the United Daily News Group at the far end of Taipei's Chung Hsiao East Road are soaring representations of a productive thirty-six year journey. But the path has become a freeway. Wang Tih-wu looks forward only to "progress and further progress—investment and re-investment." At 73, he wants to keep this country moving.