Taipei - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is negotiating to buy Taiwan's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, a newspaper said Thursday.

Three parties are seeking to buy the loss-making China Times Group, but Lai's Next Media Group was seen as the likely winner because it is willing to accept a package sale while the other two bidders only want to buy the China Times Group's two profit-making television stations, the Economic Daily News said.

The takeover talks were near completion and Next Media was expected to announce the takeover in early November, the News quoted unnamed industry sources as saying.

Both Next Media and the China Times Group refused to comment on the news report.

If the takeover materializes, it would make Next Media the largest media group in Taiwan with two TV stations, two magazines and four newspapers.

Lai - vowing to change the reading habits of Taiwan's people, who preferred to read "serious" news reports and scorned gossipy news - launched the Taiwan versions of his Hong Kong publications the Next weekly and Apple Daily in May 2003.

Although criticized by Taiwan readers as gossipy and sensational, the Apple Daily quickly became the best-selling newspaper in Taiwan. It daily circulation has reached 526,000 copies and is threatening the survival of other dailies.

Next magazine, with a scoop in nearly every issue, has become the most popular news magazine in Taiwan.

The Chinese-language China Times daily was launched in 1950 and later expanded to become Taiwan's largest media group but is facing financial difficulties.

The group owns the China Times daily, the Commercial Times daily, the China Times Publishing Co, the China Television Company and Chung Tien TV. (dpa)