DAILY XPRESS LAUNCH

The Nation's new free daily English tabloid will hit the streets next week. With a claimed distribution of 100,000 copies Daily Xpress will be the first serious attempt at a free daily newspaper in Thailand. What remains to be seen is whether Thai people - the self-confessed target of this new title - will want to read their news and gossip in English. My own experiences over the past 20 months have shown me that, given the choice, Thai people will naturally choose Thai. And that's the thing - unless Daily Xpress is radically different it's unlikely do draw a huge readership on a regular basis.
While I was in London I looked at some of the many free titles now available. Long-establised Metro is impressive - both in terms of the publication and distribution. Even in Wokingham - some 45 miles outside of London - there are dump bins where commuters can pick up their copy of the paper. And they were - in big numbers.
Long-established The Nation appears to be heading upmarket. The company has said it will focus on business and political content with no duplication of content between the two titles. Will notoriously fickle advertisers continue to support what effectively will be a niche title? It will also stop publishing its Sunday edition with the intention that people will switch to Daily Xpress on that day, yet how exactly readers will get their copies on a non-commuting day will be interesting to see.
I'm not being negative about this new launch because any developments in the Thai media are to be welcomed, but I seriously wonder why they've chosen to do this in English when the sensible choice would have been Thai.