The journalists had spent the whole morning learning how to breed earthworms, lobsters and growing sunflower sprouts. By noon, Somruedee Polkhaw left the farm with two bags of sunflower seeds, two packs of soil, three bottles of worm castings tea and a black plastic tray. The starter kit cost her around 300 baht -- enough to test the waters before she considers whether if it's worth a sideline job.
"My salary is OK, but I'm not sure about the future of my career, especially when both my husband and I are journalists," said the 34 year old, who has worked at Thairath TV for more than three years after entering the media industry in 2007.
It takes only five days to fully grow sunflower sprouts, which can be sold for 100 baht for 300 grammes.
If the first few batches turn out to be a success, Somruedee might turn it into a commercial business using the land she has in her home province of Ayutthaya, where she already grows papaya, dragon fruit, mushrooms and katuri flowers which she sells to her colleagues at Thairath.
Somruedee and her husband were among the 24 journalists who attended the training session hosted by the Thai Journalists Association on Sept 17, aimed to provide alternative sources of income by teaching them how to breed earthworms and crickets. The latter was less popular, although the journalists enjoyed eating the crickets, which were fried on the spot by the farmers.
"Our job is to collect the eggs and scatter them in here," explained Nonpawit Cricket Farm owner Chonlada Rodpreecha, pointing to the 1.2x2.4m container equipped with cardboard egg crates and damp coconut fibre. A container can produce around 20kg of crickets, which translates to around 1,100-1,150 crickets per kg. The crickets can be sold within 40-45 days, at a retail price of 150 baht per kg.
While Thairath hasn't suffered the largest impact from the declining revenue of the media industry, others have been less fortunate.
LAID OFF
This Friday will be Jarannadda Charunrochana's last day working at Lok Wannee newspaper. The 38 year old was among the 13 journalists who were informed that they would have to leave the company.
The phone call she received on Aug 30, however, didn't surprise her, as the newspaper had already laid off several journalists in the past.
"I'm not sad because I'm aware of the company's situation," said Jarannadda, who writes for the entertainment and sports beats, and also reviews restaurants.
"But I'm stressed out because I have to find a new job, and I'm already in my late thirties. At least I received a fair amount of compensation."
Lok Wannee is among the several media outlets which decided to start laying off its staff this year, after it first hit the news stand in 1999.
Last week, T News director Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham announced that it would stop broadcasting after suffering a net loss of almost 70 million baht. It had already laid off 40 staff.
"I have to close down because there's no money. Is that clear?" Sontiyan said in a T News programme on Sept 19.
Within the past year, Voice TV and Spring News laid off around 50 employees each, while the Matichon and Nation groups came up with early retirement offers for their staff last month.
Lok Wannee was Jarannadda's first employer, but even though she has held the position for 13 years, she says her salary is still not enough for her expenses.
"It's very low, but at least I'm not married and therefore I don't have such a big financial burden," she said.
Jarannadda has been struggling to find a new job. She has applied for a position at a government agency, and also placed hope that she might get another job in the media industry. But she hasn't heard back yet.
In the meantime, she is learning how to sell products online, and will probably sell sunflower sprouts.
THE DYING INDUSTRY
While the TJA has held two barista courses in 2011 and 2015, the number of training courses is set to increase starting from this year, said Butsadi Pharnomphu, a director.
Grub's up: A farmer fries crickets during a workshop for journalists who are exploring alternative sources of income during a difficult time for the media industry.
Last month, the TJA hosted a course for more than 50 journalists interested in selling online products, while another barista course will be provided in November.
Ms Butsadi said the training is meant to provide an alternative source of income for journalists.
"The media landscape is currently in a critical condition, and many journalists have been affected," said Ms Butsadi. "Some might be laid off and want to have a career to support themselves. Some may want to switch careers altogether."
For some two decades, the increasingly powerful rise of new communication technologies based on smartphones has steadily forced the mainstream media, especially print media, into decline worldwide.
"Thailand is no exception," said Boonrak Boonyaketmala, a former dean of Thammasat University's Faculty of Journalism. "Even the newly introduced digital television outlets, traditionally thought of as easy money spinners, have gone bankrupt one by one, as a result of either frequency oversupply, consumer habit changes, mismanagement, inadequate advertisement revenues, or all of these factors combined. These structural trends are likely to worsen in the near future."
The emergence of social media, said Mr Boonrak, has further stolen audiences from print media and to a lesser but increasing extent audio-visual media such as radio and television.
Advertising spending in all media outlets fell by 7.8% to 65.85 billion baht in the first seven months of this year, according to Nielsen Thailand. Among the different segments, magazines faced the biggest year-on-year decrease at 29.7% to 1.71 billion baht, followed by cable/satellite TV (18.6%) and newspapers (18.4%).
Mr Boonrak said not only is it conceivable that the old media will die out altogether in the foreseeable future, but media professionals will also struggle to survive, as they face difficulties in making their transit from their old role to a new one.
"With their old media progressively running out of business, they have no choice but to unlearn and relearn a score of technical skills in order to ease professional adjustments in reaching out to their run-away audiences," he said.
SECOND JOBS
Apart from being a full-time journalist at the Japanese-language Nikkan Thai Business newspaper, Pawaret Sukpaibool sells fabric softeners and is an administrator for the Facebook page of a cosmetic clinic.
If it wasn't for these sideline jobs, Pawaret said he would struggle to pay his day-to-day expenses and be left with no savings.
The 29 year old started working for Nikkan Thai Business eight years ago right after he graduated, with a starting monthly salary of 11,000 baht. He now has a salary of 18,000 baht, excluding travelling costs, which the company subsidises in the form of skytrain passes.
Some 100 Japanese companies subscribe to Nikkan Thai Business, which has a readership of almost 1,000. Mr Pawaret covers business and marketing on a daily basis, writing in Thai and English.
After attending the TJA workshop, he is thinking of growing sunflower sprouts at his 28.5 square metre condominium in Bangkok, initially for his own consumption.
He plans to grow them commercially at his southern hometown province of Narathiwat, where his parents live.
But not all journalists can turn to second jobs to increase their income. The Bangkok Post has always banned journalists from having second jobs and recently the board of directors enforced the rule.
Pramed Lekpetch, a committee member of the National Union of Journalists, said it is standard practice for new TV channels to prohibit their news anchors from working other jobs, but they are already provided with a high salary. Most media outlets allow their staff to have sideline jobs as long as it doesn't affect their main work.
"It's usually a case-by-case basis, but it's not something that should be taken too seriously. Some offices are just too strict," said Mr Pramed. "It's hard to find a quality journalist, but the majority of those who have second jobs actually have a high performance rate."
There are no statistics indicating the number of journalists who have left the workforce, but the union is providing legal assistance for those who have been unfairly dismissed.
This could include not paying appropriate compensation or giving advanced notice, said Mr Pramed.
"So far, media outlets have been abiding by the labour law, and the union has received no complaints," he said.
Jarannadda Charunrochana.
Sprouting alternatives: Uncle Ree Organic Farm owner Charee Boonyavinij explains the financial benefits of growing sunflower sprouts and raising worms, right, to cash-strapped journalists.
