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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

DAILY XPRESS - FIRST IMPRESSION

I hate it !
Second impression. I still hate it. But I know I will probably be in a minority because gossip and lifestyle features appeal to Thai people - the number one target for this publication.
I hesitate to use the word 'newspaper' to describe the first edition as there's not much news inside at all. When you think of free newspaper you think of Metro in the UK which is packed with the latest news and sport, yet Daily Xpress could have (and probably was) written a few weeks ago with a few pages left open for some more up-to-date content. On the plus side the advertising looks healthy.
The Nation has also undergone a bit of rebranding. It's now apparently 'Thailand's biggest business daily'. Biggest in what way? My feeling is there's no significant market for an English business daily newspaper - the demise of Thai Day two years ago is the proof of that. On the plus side I do like the redesign of the inside pages. It looks modern and light, but I seriously wonder how long The Nation will survive in its current format.

3 comments:

(c) 2016 Written by Andrew Batt 7:32 AM  

I'll just add that the fact a picture of the first copies coming off the press was appearing on That Nation's website early yesterday afternoon says a lot about how much of a newspaper this really is.

Fonzi 3:03 AM  

And just think of all the money it spent producing and marketing it.

It would have been better off upgrading its website operations or even its crappy news channel.


I predict the Nation will go bankrupt and it will have nobody to blame but itself.

(c) 2016 Written by Andrew Batt 6:42 AM  

I have it on good authority that the launch party cost more than 3 million baht. What I don't understand is why they are spending all this promotional money on a free publication?

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