Advertising revenue from free publications,
a difficult business model in Thailand

It depends.

Several factors are involved in the profitability of free newspapers. People have to: 1. know that the newspaper exists (brand awareness), 2. be able to get the newspaper (distribution), want to read it because: 3. it deals with topics they are interested in (content focus), and 4. it has articles that interest them (readable content), and probably the most important: 5. the economy is strong enough and people are spending enough so that advertisers want to place ads in the free newspaper. Ads that will pay for the newspaper so it can be distributed for free.

Thailand has a graveyard of failed free publications. There are many ghosts haunting this graveyard. The English language tabloids Metro and Farang, became ghosts. The monthly English-Japanese lifestyle magazine Maplus kicked the bucket too. The job-search newspaper Seek Weekly can no longer be found on street corners anymore. The daily stock market newspaper Krasaehoon (Stock Wave) was unable to stay afloat, drowned, and was moved to the more cost-effective internet. The Nation's free Daily Xpress is still alive and kicking but it has only been going for two months, so it's really too early to say whether it will survive.

Recently, yet another publication, Kids and School a 72-page monthly magazine targeted at parents has also expired. You'd think that a publication with focusing on parents love for their children would get lots of readers and advertising, but the magazine wasn't anywhere near as successful as the free woman's magazine She's Smart which is still doing fine, despite the recession. Facing a 20% rise in newsprint costs and a slowdown in the economy with declining advertising revenues, the publisher decided to sell the magazine for 60 baht per copy after one year. The company is looking at distribution through convenience stores, supermarkets and discount stores to reach more readers. Subscriptions might be another distribution channel to increase readership.

Taking a foreign idea, as these free publications have done, and creating a Thai version of it from scratch seems to be very difficult indeed. Taking a publication that is already popular and thriving overseas (international licensing) seems to be a much more sure way to success. Bangkokstation Network, a firm specialising in business consulting, public relations, and translation and funded with venture capital from the Asia Partnership Group, started publishing a Thai language edition of Business Week, perhaps the most well-known business magazine in the United States.

Luckily, in the age of the internet, it is possible to start an online publication with headquarters in your bedroom for almost nothing. Then, one day, with proven readership, it might prove profitable to start publishing and distributing paper versions of your publication. Overall, this seems to be a more cost-effective way to develop and incubate a media business than starting with costly print runs first.

(Source: bangkok Post, business section, 12-05-08, WORANUJ MANEERUNGSEE, temp-link)

a business model - a simple description of a business, the market it targets, the value of the product to customers, the factors that will make the company to be profitable in the long-term แบบจำลองธุรกิจ

it depends... - different answers to the question for different situations ขึ้นอยู่กับ

brand awareness - whether consumers know that a brand exists, whether consumers think of the brand quickly and easily ความคุ้นชินกับสินค้าแบรนด์ต่างๆ

distribution (noun) - the process of getting a company's products to the customer การจัดจำหน่าย

distribute (verb) - getting product from factory to customer จำหน่าย 

content - the stories and articles in a newspaper or magazine  เนื้อหา

focus - the main thing it is concerned with ให้ความสำคัญ

readable content - articles that people find interesting, enjoyable, and worthwhile to read  บทความที่น่าอ่าน

tabloids - newspapers with popular articles about famous people and celebrities with a lot of photos, also shocking stories หนังสือพิมพ์แทปลอยด์ (เชิงปริมาณ คือขายเอาใจตลาดกว่าเพื่อนำเสนอคุณภาพ)

lifestyle - the living conditions and things people do everyday (fashion, home decoration, pets, cooking, music, tv, movies, garden, etc) รูปแบบการดำเนินชีวิต

a lifestyle magazine - a magazine with articles about everyday activities แมกกาซีนที่มีเนื้อหาเกี่ยวกับการดำเนินชีวิตในแง่มุมต่างๆ

kicked the bucket - (idiom) died ปิดฉากลง (ตายไป สิ้นไป)

stay afloat - remain in business, keep doing business รอดตัว

alive and kicking - still alive, not dead ยังพอไปได้

survive - still alive, not dead รอดชีวิต

expired - dead  เลิก ยุติ สิ้นสุดแล้ว

X wasn't anywhere near as successful as Y - X was a lot less successful than Y ไม่เข้าข่ายหรือไม่มีทีท่าว่าจะประสพความสำเร็จไปได้เลย

a recession - when the economy of a country is doing very badly สภาวะเศรษฐกิจถดถอย

slowdown in the economy - when the economy does badly (less severe than a recession) การชะลอตัวทางเศรษฐกิจ

newsprint - the paper used to print newspapers กระดาษหนังสือพิมพ์

revenues - the money that a company makes from selling its product รายรับ

convenience stores - small local stores like 7-11, easy to buy important things at ร้านสะดวกซื้อ

discount stores - large stores like Carrefour and Lotus that sell many different things at low prices
ร้าน / ห้างขายของราคาถูก

subscriptions - paying my the month or year to regularly receive a newspaper or magazine การบอกรับเป็นสมาชิก

a distribution channel - one way of getting your product to customers ช่องทางการจัดจำหน่าย

readership - the people who read a publication ผู้อ่าน

from scratch - starting with the most basic materials, with almost nothing เริ่มจากศูนย์

international licensing - paying money (licensing fees) to a foreign company to distribute or use their product or intellectual property (for example, paying Disney to use the image of Mickey Mouse)  การขอใบอนุญาต หรือจดลิขสิทธิ์ทางปัญญาในระดับโลก

Bangkokstation Network - a media, public relations, and business consulting firm funded with venture capita; by the Asia Partnership Group (See website)

Asia Partnership Group - a group that provides venture capital financing to many companies in Thailand and Asia (See website)

business consulting - giving expert advice on how a business should be run ที่ปรึกษาทางธุรกิจ

Public Relations (PR) - generating positive public opinion for a company and what it does  การประชาสัมพันธ์

funded - money provided for operation of a business or organisation ให้ความช่วยเหลือทางการเงิน ให้เงินลงทุน

venture capital - money provided to start and finance small and risky new businesses  เงินลงทุน

might prove profitable - might become profitable  อาจทำกำไรได้

incubate - develop slowly with care  ค่อยๆ เติบโตอย่างค่อยเป็นค่อยไป

a print run - running the printing machine (printing press) and printing out many copies of a publication  การพิมพ์จำนวนมาก

Posted by Jon Fernquest at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)