Unlike media economists, organizational ecologists define market competition by the use of resources, so when two organizations are utilizing the same resources, they are competing against each other. According to organizational ecology, the impact from environments is much greater than that from the internal operation of an organization; thus, the factor which determines organizational survival is not the efficiency of its operation, but rather the appropriateness of an organization with its environment. The key to understanding the fitness of an organization with its environments is the niche theory. Niche is the resources utilizing pattern of an organization. Adopting the niche theory, this study analyzes the competition between electronic newspapers and two tradition news media -television news and newspapers- to understand how market competition influences the resource utilization patterns of the three media in Taiwan.
According to Dimmick(1993), the three most important resources in media industries are media content, advertising income, and audience. By examining the uses of the three resources, researches will understand the competition advantages among the media. This study measures audience reader perceptions about their need satisfaction provided by the three news media to analyze the competitive relationships among the media. A convenience sampling with 407 valid questionnaires was conducted to examine the level of perceived gratification provided by the three media. Data analysis shows that the strongest competition exists between electronic newspaper and traditional newspapers, and that television news and electronic news are more complementary than competing with each other. More findings are discussed in the paper.