TAIPEI (Taiwan News) —  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will close two of its longstanding foreign-language publications this year, Taiwan Today and Taiwan Review. 

Citing “business considerations,” ministry personnel on Friday confirmed in a message that Taiwan Review will cease publication after its March-April issue, while Taiwan Today will halt operations at the end of the year. However, Trending Taiwan and Taiwan Panorama will not be affected by the closures. 

A ministry employee, who spoke to Taiwan News on condition of anonymity, said the department's director-general informed them of the decision on Thursday afternoon. The source said that at least 25 staff members from the two periodicals will be laid off. 

The Taiwan Today shutdown will affect all of its foreign language editions, including English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese. It is uncertain whether the annual booklet “Taiwan at a Glance” will be affected. 

Taiwan Review, a bimonthly English magazine, began publication in April 1951 as Free China Review, before being renamed Taipei Review in April 2000, per Taiwan Politics Database. The current name was adopted in March 2003, and publication intervals were reduced from monthly to bimonthly after the April 2016 edition.

Taiwan Today, an online English news portal, was launched on June 1, 2009, as a successor to Taiwan Journal and incorporated the existing French version called Taiwan Info. A Japanese version of Taiwan Today was launched in 2011, followed by French in 2012, Spanish, German, and Russian in 2014, and Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese in 2018.