MEDIA
WORANUJ MANEERUNGSEE
Batt: Online news is more cost effective |
The monthly magazine Kids and School is no longer free as publisher Rakluke Family Group is facing higher costs from oil and newsprint.
Industry experts said that the publishing industry in general was facing rising costs and declining advertising revenues.
Starting from this month, the 72-page Kids and School magazine is available at newsstands at 60 baht per copy. It was free for about a year, but the publisher was suffering from the sluggish economy and a 20% surge in newsprint costs, according to Teerapong Khemarerkampon, the company's vice-chairman.
''We thought things would be back to normal after the new government was formed. Unfortunately, oil prices are still rising. Politics and the economy are still risky. These affect our clients and they are spending their budgets carefully,'' said Mr Teerapong.
As a result, the publisher had been forced to adjust its business plan by improving the quality of Kids and School content now that the magazine is no longer free.
Distribution through convenience stores, supermarkets and discount stores would help the company reach more readers. Subscriptions are another channel to increase readership.
''However, the other free magazine She's Smart is doing fine, thanks to its mass audience market,'' he said.
Revenue of the magazine unit in the past five months was 4-5% better than same period last year, but was still below expectations. The company plans to be more aggressive in marketing in the second half of the year, said Mr Teerapong.
Andrew Batt, executive director of Bangkokstation Network Co, the publisher of the Thai edition of BusinessWeek, said free publications were struggling because of high publishing costs. His company closed three publications about a year ago. The first two were the free Seek Weekly, a job-search paper, and the monthly English-Japanese Maplus, a lifestyle magazine. Krasaehoon (Stock Wave), a daily newspaper reporting stock market news, is now available only online.
Mr Batt says online publication offers faster news than print counterparts. He said that for the print industry as a whole, it would be difficult for publishers to depend on a single publication or paper. Papers would have to go online eventually, he said.
Several other free tabloids have been closed, for example, the English language Metro and Farang. But the free Daily Xpress from Nation Multimedia Group was just launched two months ago.
Wannee Ruttanaphon, chairwoman of the media buying agency Initiative, said the free publication medium was still new. However, t could become another option for advertisers if the content was readable and distribution was good.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Next
