Funds are desperately needed if Jimmy Lai’s Apple Daily in Taiwan is not to follow its former Hong Kong stablemate into oblivion, following appointment of a new liquidator.

Bloomberg News said it was quoting “people familiar with the matter” when it reported that publisher Next Digital would “run out of funds” in Taiwan this month and would close the paper. It said “about 300 staff members” would receive severance packages.

Apple Daily Hong Kong closed in June after authorities froze funds there, and a new provisional liquidator, Kenny Tam & Co has been appointed following the resignation of Ernst & Young, the paper said.

Last week, Lai – who is in jail on charges related to Hong Kong’s new security laws – was named winner of the ‘Golden Pen of Freedom’ award by the World Association of News Media’s World Editors Forum.

Despite Bloomberg’s assertion that Next would “run out of funds in December and stop publishing”, a statement on Apple Daily Taiwan’s website denied the “assumption” that Taiwan operations would close when a liquidation began in Hong Kong.

“Our company has no knowledge of where the origin of such an assumption comes from,” it said.

The union chapel in Taiwan is reported to have held an emergency meeting last week after news emerged that a Hong Kong court might liquidate the Hong Kong operation on December 15. Fears have been heightened by a reported approach by a Hong Kong-based liquidator for information about Apple Daily Taiwan’s assets and staff. The union is understood to have raised concerns that employees could be prosecuted under Hong Kong’s national security law should their personal data and reporting materials be passed to the city’s government and the Chinese Communist Party.

Next has a substantial office in Taipei, plus printing facilities – anchored by three Goss newspaper presses – outside the city. Both newspapers were noted for their fastidious attention to origination and print quality, and were regular winners in industry technical competitions.

Bloomberg reported that Next Digital had unaudited bank and cash balances of approximately HK$337.8 million ($43.3 million), “some of which were held in accounts frozen by the government, the company said”. It said the Hong Kong government-appointed inspector filed to liquidate the firm late September.

There are ongoing reports of discussions on a possible sale following an offer made for the Taiwan operations in June, although a new owner is unlikely to have the commitment to independence that Lai had… exactly the outcome Chinese supporters might wish to foster ahead of any act by mainland China to “reunify” Taiwan, to which president Xi Jinping has said he is committed.

WAN-Ifra was to have held its gala earlier this year, moving the event from June until September before postponing the live event to 2023 and replacing it with the virtual event which closed last week. Strategic partner for the live event is Taiwan’s United Daily News Group.

Above: Happier days as Apple Daily team members collect Asian Digital Media Awards in 2014