"If you wanted to read the news from the war zone, you would go to the library and skim through Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo. If you wanted an outlet for your feelings, you would read Xinmin Bao." So says 70-year-old Wang Chang-hsiung, one of the leaders of the New Literature Movement in the Japanese occupation era. He concludes that Xinmin Bao accurately reflected "the way Taiwanese really felt."
當時，新民報的確是台籍士紳很依賴的一份報紙，「要看戰情，去圖書館看日日新報；要紓解苦悶，看新民報」，日據時代新文學健將，如今已七十歲的王昶雄指出，新民報真正能反映「台灣人的心情」。