THE WRONG WAY OF THINKING?
The weekend will see a Magazine and Book Fair at Siam Paragon in Bangkok organised by TMAT (The Magazine Association of Thailand). My company is not a member because after having met the President Thanachai Theerapattanavong more than one year ago, and speaking to others in the industry, I became convinced the organisation is little more than a talking shop. As far as I am aware this is only the second event arranged by TMAT to promote magazines in its two year existence.
Thanachai is also Chairman of The Nation Group, and their story about this event opens by saying "Thailand's publishing industry seems little affected by the flagging economy with one or more new magazine titles appearing on the bookshelves every few weeks. "
TMAT's vision is to promote a better understanding of the magazine industry and to raise standards. I hope Thanachai understands that quality is better than quantity and every new magazine that comes along, regardless of its quality, means a reduction in revenue for everyone else.
2 comments:
I suggest having a look at all The Nation Group properties.
I harp about the content at The Nation at my blog. But set aside content for a moment.
Watch The Nation channel(bad editing, bad sound, poor production values), take a look at the websites(just horrible), and even if they are in Thai and you may not understand, look at the layout of all the newspapers and magazines put out by Nation Group.
This is a company that doesn't care about putting out a good product.
And think it is ridiculous that the publisher is the head of a magazine trade group. Thanachai really is shameless if he thinks he is in a position of raising magazine standards in Thailand when he has done a piss poor job at his own media group.
I am grateful to you for setting a high standard and your commitment to personal and professional integrity.
If you are successful, maybe you will consider delving into the area of media criticism. Buddha knows, Thailand needs it.
Fonzi,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting 'officially'. I've met Thanachai and he's a nice guy although has been somewhat elusive to get hold of since. The problem I have is with TMAT and the fact it just appears to be a talking shop.
Using the example of media auditing (something I'm working on at the moment) we had a visit from a high-ranking exec of BPA - arguably the world's leading indepedent media auditing company. His comments after meeting them were along the lines of 'getting TMAT to support auditing would be like turkeys voting for Christmas'. As long as that attitude exists then there's no hope for the vast majority of Thai publishing companies.
I'm trying do to something about it and reinforce the message that just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean it's right, or that we have to do it too.
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