Note: The older content written as part of this blog was relevant at the time but may have since changed. Please don't hesitate to contact me for clarification.

Monday, March 03, 2008

THE BATTLE HOTS UP

In the week when The Nation launches Daily Xpress, The Bangkok Post has introduced design changes. According to the paper "Starting today The Bangkok Post offers its readers a new look, and our latest design changes are aimed at making our newspaper more reader friendly."
Coincidence? I don't think so. Remember the time when both newspapers changed their size on exactly the same day? What's interesting is The Bangkok Post goes on in its message from the editor to state the fact that it's the only audited newspaper in Thailand, and that's its circulation has risen when others are declining.
The interesting thing about audited circulation is that you can see exactly where the copies go and how much they are sold for. And if you look at the figures for The Bangkok Post you can see that only a third of their titles are actually paid for at cover price - and a lot are actually sold at less than 2 baht per copy in bulk deals.
So essentially the Post is playing its professional card in its battle against its rival. Now lets see if they extend that professional approach to getting their magazines audited too.

2 comments:

Anonymous 2:06 PM  

yesterday when i saw the new bangkok post, i was like zapped. it was really an eyesore. while reading any article, the colourful topic names would distract my attention(and i have very little of it) . I have only glanced over todays issue and am not sure if they fixed some of these usability issues. Bkk post is trying(poorly) to pull some attention towards itself to reduce the public attention to Nation's Daily Xpress.

(c) 2016 Written by Andrew Batt 2:21 PM  

You're right Sajal. Publishers will do anything to detract from the impact of anything their rival is doing. Sadly in this case I have to agree. They've known about this for three months (Daily Xpress was first announced in December) and if this is all they can come up with them I'm disappointed. Don't be surprised to see copies of The Bangkok Post being handed out close to where Daily XPress is being distributed tomorrow. That's another tried-and-tested tactic.

Ask Me Anything ..

.. about the media and publishing industry in Thailand, and I will do my best to assist you. You can email your question to bkkandy AT myway.com.

Add me on Facebook

(c) The Bangkok Bugle 2006 - 2015. Email me at bkkandy AT myway.com for information.