BANGKOK IN THE SPOTLIGHT - AGAIN

The eyes of the world will once again be on Bangkok this weekend as up to one million anti-government protesters descend on the capital. Several countries, notably the Philippines and Taiwan, have already issued advisories to their citizens to postpone planned trips to Bangkok, while others, such as the United Kingdom, is urging its citizens to exercise "extreme caution".
So what is happening in Bangkok right now?
As of this morning (Thursday) the government has initiated the Internal Securities Act. This allows for checkpoints to be established and the movement of protesters to be restricted. It also allows for the imposition of a curfew if things turn violent.
Some media outlets are already reporting that checkpoints have appeared in Bangkok but I've not seen any myself. What will happen tomorrow is that a number of roads will be closed. These roads are located close to the six designated rally sites. Perhaps the most notable, so far as tourists and expats will be concerned, is Wireless Road at its junction with Rama 4. On a purely personal note one of the rally sites - at Wongwian Yai on the Thonburi side of the city - is just a few miles from my home.
I think the best advice that anyone can give right now is to monitor a range of media outlets during the course of tomorrow and over the weekend to keep up-to-date on events. Blogs and Twitter are useful for personal experiences, and are often way ahead of the mainstream media.
For me, perhaps this weekend might also be one of the rare occasions where having my official Thai media identification could come in useful.

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INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINES FOR RENT

EXCLUSIVE: By The Bangkok Bugle

A service offering copies of international magazines on a rental basis has launched in Thailand.
The MagPalThailand venture, believed to be the first of its kind anywhere in the world, allows customers in Thailand to rent copies of overseas magazines from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Currently the service is offering a package of ten titles 'for him' and for her' from both countries. The 'for him' package of magazines from the U.K. includes copies of FHM, T3, Gentlemen's Quarterly, Men's Health, Esquire, Performance BMW, MacWorld, FourFourTwo, Car and Loaded. Customers can rent copies of current issues of these titles for a 3-month period for 7,130 baht. The price drops to 2,840 baht for three-month old issues. Packages for 6 and 12 month periods are also on offer. Magazines are delivered to customers who then have to return the issues to the company or face a fine. A fine is also payable for damaged copies.
The concept seems to be exactly the same as the video rental business. But for magazines? Surely if people are going to be paying what is a substantial amount of money for a selection of magazines they're going to want to keep them? The only benefit I can see is the cost saving, but that's only worthwhile if you would be buying most of the ten magazines in the packages anyway. The range is so diverse that I cannot believe anyone in Thailand is buying all ten titles right now, and savvy magazine shoppers know you can get big discounts on a diverse range of overseas magazines from Chatuchak Weekend Market - albeit it's hit and miss exactly what turns up.
Does anyone this this will work? Would anyone use a service like this?

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GOSSIP MAGAZINES LEAD THE WAY

'Gossip' magazines are popular no matter what language is used.
There are a huge number of home-grown Thai language titles as well as licensed editions of both Hello! and OK!, but I was surprised to learn that imported English language gossip and celebrity titles are also one of the best-selling categories in one of the top English bookshop chains in Thailand.
This surprising news comes after a recent chat with the company that exports huge numbers of American magazines into the kingdom. They told me that Thailand, for them, was exceptionally good in terms of the amount of business done. Celebrity title People Magazine and the bi-monthly Foreign Policy were cited as being two of the top-selling American titles in Thailand.

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MAGAZINES AND THE CRAZY SALES CLAIMS

With the lack of independent circulation auditing for magazines in Thailand it's a fact that every magazine massages its sales figures. This isn't a problem that's unique to Thailand, but in other parts of the world publishers have been slowly forced into telling the truth about their sales. That's fine for those publishers with strong brands and equally strong sales but it's not good news for those magazines that are struggling.
When discussing this issue I often quote the example of one business magazine here which claims to sell 50,000 copies per month when, in reality, it prints just 5,000 copies and distributes less than 3,000 of those. In all likelihood that same magazine sells barely one thousand.
When you look at some basic industry facts some of the claims just look plain silly.
According to 2008 figures from the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand there were 2,438 bookshops in the Kingdom. Taking the example of one leading Thai language men's magazine which claims to sell 150,000 copies per month in its media kit, that means an average sale in every bookshop in Thailand of slightly more than 60 copies. And when you understand that achieving a sell-through rate of 50 per cent of copies supplied to a single location is pretty hard to achieve, that means they're claiming to be supplying more than 100 copies to each of those stores up and down the country.
How many times have you seen more than a dozen copies of any magazine on sale in Thailand?
Independent circulation auditing will happen in Thailand. I've been saying that for a number of years and I'm even more convinced it must happen, not least to boost the appeal of magazines as a serious and credible advertising medium.

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NATION QUICK TO PRINT THAKSIN SPECIAL

The Nation Group was quick off the blocks, printing and distributing a chunky 'Thaksin Verdict' special publication within just 48-hours of the judge's verdict. The Thai language title includes the entire text of the verdict alongside some background and photographs of red-shirts and Thaksin.
A fair proportion would have been done prior to the verdict but a lot of decisions would have been made whilst the verdict was being delivered, unless that had prior access to the text of what was going to be said.
The 75-baht magazine proves that is it possible for the Thai printing and publishing industry to turn around big stories in a very short amount of time.

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A NEW DAWN FOR PRINT JOURNALISTS

The Nation had a front page comment piece on Friday headlined 'Is a new dawn possible for print journalism?' It's worth a read. It asks many questions but leaves more unanswered.
"The only pending question is the financial viability of such a business model," the article says, discussing how mainstream media journalists are now able to create content easier themselves online. "This is the age of the independent publisher," declared a media watch blog, quoted in the story.
The story makes mention of 600+ fans of a new NationPhoto Facebook page. That's great - but where is the revenue coming from? Unless Nation, and not just them but any other publisher, get direct revenues as a result of allowing people to access their content for free online or on mobile devices then that content will eventually disappear. It has to. It's not financially sustainable.
It's good to see The Nation devoting space on its front page to issues like this, but how many people really understand or, more importantly, care?

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ADFEST POSTPONED, CITES TROUBLE RISKS

The "difficult political situation" has forced organisers of The Asia Pacific Advertising Festival 2010 (ADFEST) to postpone the event for a couple of months.
The event, which was set to be held in Pattaya from March 18-20, was set to bring many of the regions top advertising executives to Thailand. Organisers hope to rearrange the event for mid-May.
Speaking to Media Asia Vinit Suraphongchai, chairman of the festival's working committee, said he was extremely disappointed that the festival has had to be postponed. "The political situation is fluid in Thailand. If we go ahead and there is unrest, we will be hard pressed to explain the situation. In light of the current situation, we would rather be safe than sorry."
Expressing surprise at the decision to postpone the event David Guerrero, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO Guerrero/Proximity Philippines, said: "I didnt think the situation in Thailand was so bad. It's a shame. We had actually planned a regional meeting in Thailand around the same time."
Personally I don't think the situation in Thailand is bad enough to warrant a decision like this. Last year's Publish Asia event fell vicitm to the political instability but the event has been rescheduled for Bangkok in May this year. I am not aware of any other events that have been postponed or cancelled this time.

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