本文作者以親身參與之觀察與體驗，配合文獻分析及深度訪談，從「讀者是消費者」及「新聞是商品」兩大概念，剖析《蘋果日報》的市場導向思維。至於其實際運作，本文從「基本運作原則」、「反映市場變化機制」，以及「實際新聞產製過程」等三個面向進行探討與分析。 本文主要發現為：《蘋果日報》非不重視新聞規範，然其新聞規範只為確保商品品質，故從而屬於商業規範。作者期望本文能提供學術界對《蘋果日報》的正確認識，進而成為後續研究的基礎。

This research will discuss the market-driven thoughts underlying the operations of Apple Daily, namely, the readers are consumers, and news is a commodity. The operation of this daily will be analyzed along the three following dimensions: the primary operation rules, the market mechanism, and the process of news production. The research methods employed are participant observation, documentary method, and in-depth interview. It is found that the traditional norms of journalism have been upheld in the Apple Daily, which serves to maintain the quality of news production. In other words, the norms of journalism in a sense are second to the interests of business in this newspaper.