UNINSPIRING MAGAZINE FAIR

I must admit to being very disappointed after attending last weekend's Magazine and Book Fair at Siam Paragon in Bangkok. The aim of the event, according to the organisers, was to raise awareness of magazines and to encourage people to read more. Personally I was very unimpressed and uninspired after my visit.
The one thing that stood out for me was a total lack of imagination and vision on the part of those publishers who had booths. The sole aim of each one appeared to make money - whether through sales of back issues or through subscriptions. At an event like this it would have been so easy to stand out by offering something totally different, and something that didn't involve asking people to part with their money.
Sure - revenue is essential for any magazine to survive but I seriously doubt whether any of the publishers at this event generated anything near the kind of revenue they need to produce just one issue of their magazines.
We did not have a booth there, and to be honest I am pleased because it was not the right event for us. I would also suggest it was not the right event for the majority of those magazines that were represented there.