NEWSPAPER WORLD HEADS TO BANGKOK

Publishing professionals from around the world are heading to Bangkok this week for Publish Asia 2011.

More than 400 newspaper men and women from more than 30 countries will take part in a series of conferences and summits. With the headline 'Driving future-proof media growth', the event takes place at the Shangri-La Hotel and has attracted a stellar panel of speakers.

This event, the 11th annual gathering, was due to be held in Bangkok in both 2009 and 2010 but was moved due to the political turmoil which gripped the Thai capital.

Bangkok will also be home to the 5th Asian Publishing Convention which takes place in July, based at The Landmark Hotel.

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ROYAL WEDDING FEVER HITS THAILAND

Magazines have started to appear on the shelves in Thailand featuring this week's U.K. Royal Wedding. You can certainly expect a significant amount of print coverage in the days, weeks and months ahead. 

For any collectors of royal newspapers - and there a quite a few - this is a unique opportunity to collect print coverage of the big day from around the world.

In Thailand, two dedicated  magazines have appeared already and I expect more this week. Then, of course, there will be the pre- and post-recent coverage. In terms of timing (Friday evening) I think this is a picture-perfect timing for Thailand and this part of South East Asia.

I've already had several inquiries from collectors in the United Kingdom and the United States who have asked me to supply a collection of newspapers and magazines from Thailand featuring the big occasion. 

If you would like copies of newspaper and magazine from Thailand covering the royal wedding don't hesitate to send an email to bkkandy AY myway.com with your requirements and I'll be only too happy to help.

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PRINT ADVERTISING BUCKS GLOBAL TRENDS

Advertising in Thailand's print publications is continuing to buck regional and global trends, according to information which emerged from the annual shareholders meetings of Post Publishing Public Company Limited.

Supakorn Vejjajiva, President and Chief Operating Officer, revealed that display advertising for the Bangkok Post, the country's largest English-language paper, jumped 17 per cent during the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, while advertising sales in the Thai language Post Today rose 21 per cent during the same period.

Khun Supakorn also revealed the company's plans for more magazines to add to its stable, including the appearance of a Thai licensed edition of Science Illustrated which was first revealed by The Bangkok Bugle more than three weeks ago.

The publisher's original story appears here.

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THE BATTLE FOR IMAGES

I've been writing a feature about recent property launches in Singapore for an upcoming edition of one of my magazines, and you wouldn't believe the battle I've had trying to get images of the various projects to illustrate the report.

You would imagine that developers would be keen to have their projects featured in my story, but at least two have essentially told me that they can control what appears in my editorial. Oh really?

There were nine developers of 12 projects which I highlighted and chose to include in the feature. Two have obliged with images and thanked me for the coverage, one is close to sending (I hope), I'm still waiting for confirmation from another two, two have completely ignored phone calls and repeated emails, while the last two have declined to supply any images unless they saw what was being written and retained editorial control.

I can only hope that buyers of units are treated somewhat better.

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WINNING AWARDS IS JUST GREAT

Winning awards is the icing on the cake for any journalist or publisher. It means other people recognise the good work you've been doing. 

Yesterday one of "my" magazines - Property Report South East Asia - was named 'Property Magazine of the Year' by a leading trade magazine in Singapore. The accolade - from Marketing magazine - is a reward for everyone involved in the publication. What's especially pleasing is the fact that we beat magazines produced by far larger publishers with far larger resources. 

In 2004 I was part of the team which won the U.K. Newspaper Society's 'Weekly Newspaper of the Year'. The positive coverage we got from that award - and the spin offs - were great. The challenge on the back of this latest award is to generate some positive PR coverage and turn this achievement into revenue.

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JOB AD TARGETS BKK SUB EDITORS

Today, a newspaper produced by MediaCorp in Singapore, is targeting Bangkok media professionals in its latest search for staff.

The Bangkok Post has been carrying an advertisement for qualified sub editors to work for the Singapore publication, which recently announced its plans for produced a Sunday edition and thus become a true weekly title.

For those who are interested, "If you have a way with words, an eye for design and are passionate about the news.." you can send a resume to todaycareers AT mediacorp.com.sg

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MORE MAGAZINE RETAIL DETAILS

A magazine stock level report is one of the more unusual items I've spotted on the shelves of Bangkok's bookshops during the last five years.

This one - snapped last weekend at a branch of B2S - shows the exact number of overseas magazines on the shelves during a stock check this previous evening. There was no need to count the 10 unsold copies of Time, seven copies of The Economist or the single copy of Exotic Car Buyer!

This information is useful for anyone in the magazine business but will probably have gone unnoticed by the vast majority of browsers. Quite why this report, and four others like it, were still on the shelves some eight hours after it was generated will likely remain a mystery.

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MONOCLE'S THAI COUSIN ?

At first glance Samret, which made its debut on the bookshelves in Thailand in March, could be mistaken for a local language edition of Monocle. It's not, although the design and layout are remarkably similar.

Another distinguishing factor that makes this Thai language magazine unique is the lack of a single advertisement in its debut issue, although I'm not sure whether any of the 'editorial' features were paid-for.

With a cover price of 90 baht it's relying solely on copy sales for its revenue - and that's an extremely difficult thing to do. The challenge is even greater when you understand this is a chunky, perfect-bound 164 pages that would have cost a significant amount to produce.

That said, I believe that if this magazine can survive the crucial first six-to-nine months and start to pick up some advertising then it has a chance of survival.

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THAILAND TO GET SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

EXCLUSIVE By The Bangkok Bugle

Thailand is to get a local language licensed edition of the global Science Illustrated magazine. The magazine in Thailand will be published by the magazine division of Post Publishing, the publishers of The Bangkok Post.

Advertisements for senior Thai staff have started to appeared. although a launch date for the Bonnier-published title that began life in Scandinavia in 1984 has yet to be revealed.

The Bangkok Bugle understands that other publishers with science-related publications have been looking at Thailand in recent months. Titles such as New Scientist and Popular Science are understood to have been touted to several publishers.

Concerns, however, remain as to how a niche science title will achieve the kind of mass advertising it will need to be successful. Relying on educated readers paying to read the magazine will simply not be enough.

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