To please advertisers, so-called "industry reporters" began concocting "placement marketing" stories that blurred the line between advertising and news reporting, a practice that was much criticized. Within a few years, the landscape changed. In 2003, the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily entered the Taiwanese market, using copious images, sensationalism, commercialism and gossip mongering to sweep the island.
近幾年報社大幅裁員縮編，員工人心浮動，而中時晚報、中央日報、民生報等傳統大報在過去兩年中陸續停刊，更宣告了台灣報業寒冬正式到來。