DAILY XPRESS DROPS WEEKEND EDITIONS
Daily Xpress has announced its ending production of its Saturday and Sunday editions with immediate effect owing to "reasons that our beyond our control". An announcement appears on the front page of today's edition.
The free English daily produced by Nation Multimedia Group is little over four months old. It's dropped to 32 pages from its initial 48 pages, and that's after an announcement in December that promised 72 pages.
I've long resisted calling Daily Xpress a newspaper. It's not, and today's front page splash about how ladies can have more attractive eyebrows is a perfect example of why it's little more than a gossip magazine.
You can be certain those "reasons beyond our control" are declining advertising revenues. Printing and distribution 100,000 free copies, as it claims, is an extremely expensive business and can only be supported from advertising. And because English is considered very much a niche in Thailand there's only a certain number of advertisers that will support it.
This may be harsh but I predict there will be no Daily Xpress in any form this time next year.
27 comments:
Staff have been told they are taking a 15 per cent pay cut, too.
That's interesting.
I appreciate your reasons for wanting to remain anonymous, but can you tell me more? How are you connected with this and is it just editorial staff facing a pay cut?
I am not surprised at all. The publishing industry is facing many problems. Revenue is down and costs are up. It doesn't make it any easier for the staff concerned though.
Well, I think a mentally retarded psychic could have predicted the demise of the Daily Xpress.
The Nation Group is not exactly the best run company in Thailand.
It should have focused on its core papers, The Nation and Kom Chad Luek, get rid of that horrible Nation Channel, put the money from Daily Xpress into their web operations, and then fire Suthichai Yoon, Tulsie, Sopon, Thanong and the rest of the crap editors who have been running the business into the ground.
Just to add some balance I have asked Nation Multimedia Group if they wish to confirm the reasons behind their decision to stop publishing Daily Xpress on weekends, and for any comment regarding the earlier posting regarding enforced pay cuts. Any reply will be posted here.
Re the 15 per cent pay cut. I am a journalist working for the other English language daily. A colleague told me that he had heard from a friend at the Nation re the 15 per cent pay cut. I don't know whether it's across the board or not. I shall ask for more detail.
Thanks for your honesty. I think soon you might be able to say ".. the only English language daily".
I've got a few contacts at Nation and have put in some emails to them.
So that's Nation Group chopping BizWeek from a standalone publication into a supplement AND cutting two days worth of publication for Daily Xpress - all in the space of two weeks.
What does this tell you?
the 15% paycut is for executives who earn 70,000 baht and above. cut, cut everywhere while suthichai still insist is his chauffeur-driven mercedes.
Thanks insider .. I wonder if the cuts also extend to other parts of Nation Group, like the printing, magazine and television units?
sorry, with regards to other units, i am not that "inside".
Thanks again. It's clear looking at NMG's annual report and accounts that costs from other sections are draining its resources. Even Nation Towers was sold, as well as property belonging to other associated companies. That's fine, but sooner or later there's going to be nothing left to sell.
I am not saying NMG is any different from other media companies in suffering financially.
It's actually good that management are the ones taking the pay cut as their the ones that have probably made some debatable decisions.
I am told by a journalist colleague at work that the 15 per cent pay cut was across the board. In any event, a sub-editor I know was affected, so it can't be just executives. Foreign staff have also been told that they will have to pay for their own work permit.
I've also now heard the cut affects all staff - not just editorial.
The work permit issue. Well that's not a huge amount of money BUT I think it's wrong to ask staff to pay. I'm not aware of any other publishers that ask their foreign staff to pay for that cost.
I am surprised that this news, along with the suspension of weekend editions of Daily Xpress, has not been announced to the Stock Exchange as this is the sort of news that has the ability to influence NMG's share price.
I agree that the paper should have told the stock exchange. It can't seriously expect such news to stay inside the company. Rumours get out, people start to worry.
Asking foreigners to pay for their own work permits tells them what they already must know: that the paper regards them as mere migrant workers. They are just there to help get the product out.
The foreigner could have been a drain-layer in a past life, but as long as he has a reasonable grasp of English, that appears to be enough.
Trained journalists? Well if one turns up, and doesn't ask for too much money, then we'll take him...and aren't we fortunate! But he can take his place along with the drain-layers...and if he doesn't want to pay for his own work permit, then we'll send him down the road as well.
The Nation group is obviously struggling to survive. It hopes it can carry on duping readers and advertisers into thinking that they are getting a quality product.
It is a sad masquerade. God knows why advertisers, reader or banks have kept them going this long.
Advertisers will only maintain their support for so long, and essentially that's what has happened with Daily Xpress - that support has dried up.
Look at Friday's edition and you can make an educated guess about the paid-for ads and those that are part of barters or promotions.
But as those involved know NMG is a big company with many fingers in different pies. Perhaps it's time to reduce the number of pies even further?
The Nation has long since stopped being newspaper and has become a mouthpiece for for a bunch of editors with highly partisan political views.
I regard the 15% cut as a small but hugely positive step towards ridding Thailand of this embarrassment. Here's looking forward to the next 85.
I hope a better publisher can buy their equipment cheap, run a legitimate paper and rehire those employees that have some journalistic integrity.
Observer, I think English language daily newspapers of any kind in Thailand are proving increasingly uneconomical to produce. The same could be said for other English media too.
That said The Bangkok Post works because its audited; advertisers (and anyone) know exactly how many copies get into the hands of readers. Daily Xpress has a certified print-run of 100,000 which means absolutely nothing.Sorry to focus on advertising rather than editorial but that's where the vast majority of income is generated.
i stand by my info that the 15% cut is for those earning 70,000 baht and above. bangkok bugle, please check with your sources whether the info that they received is in black & white or are they just hearing rumour (that the pay cut is across the board. as the farang sub-editors in the nation are the last to know what their thai bosses are up to. perhaps the nation has not reported to the stock exchange because the decision is not in black & white yet.
Thanks Insider. I asked for a comment on Friday morning but have not received anything. I'm not expecting anything because my previous emails about advertising where unanswered.
I WILL give NMG the opportunity to answer these comments,but if they decline or choose not to then there's not much I can do.
I have had a chance to speak to someone else with close ties to the Nation and agree the 15 per cent cut for those earning over 70,000 is correct. Sorry about the earlier misinformation. Someone else I know with ties to the Nation gave me the across-the-board figure, but he was incorrect.
The package of changes is actually rather complicated, and has yet to be implemented. One other change they are introducing is to go back to being an 'ordinary' newspaper again. I don't want to say any more about it here as I am not involved. It should come from someone who was there, or knows all the facts.
By 'ordinary' I am assuming you mean not purely business? That was a bad idea from the start as purely business English language newspapers have a bad track record. I know of two that ceased publishing in the last two years alone.
I'd welcome a return to being a 'normal' newspaper although I worry about the damage that might have been caused to the brand in the interim.
all the confusion with regards to the nation's pay cut is because it is still in the discussion stage. right now the big bosses have decided to reduce the pay cut from 15 % to 10 % as they were complains. still there is no black & white with regard the pay cut.
Not paying for the work permits is really sad. Even the poorest schools in Thailand pay for their foreign teacher's work permits!
things were pretty bad but I'd say the ad revenue issue is one thing and editorial issue is another. You see ad people place ads in accordance with circulation only. That's all I know. This seems to be management issue rather than editorial issues. You can have the worst editor for decades and the company would survive but one bad management team will make any paper nosedrive.
Editorial and advertising are linked, because yes - advertising is sold based on circulation but the circulation depends on the quality of what is written. If you have bad editorial no one will buy it which, in turn, means no one will advertisie.
As I see it many of the problems stem from having an unaudited circulation. Bangkok Post is the only sold publication in Thailand that has an independent audit of its circulation. ALL other sales figure are claimed by publishers, and I know of one case where the actual sales of one magazine are in the 2,000 - 3,000 range but the sales kit claims sales of 50,000 per month. That is just cheating, and it WILL come back to haunt them eventually.
No publication in Thailand will survive without advertising revenue. That is fact.
BKK Bugle, I agree with you mate on no publication (or any media operator) would survive without ad revenue. Yet I don't quite agree on on the issues of quality of editorial and ad revenue. Take Thai Rath as an example. They are No 1 in term of circulation and ad revenue in Thailand but they are not considered quality newspaper and not even a good tabloid.
Anon - thanks for your message. I do understand what you're saying, but Thai Rath has not got to be number one without providing its readers with what they want. In the eyes of its readers Thai Rath provides good content. The quality, yes, is debatable.
What I'm saying is that editorial does drive revenue. It has to. What you and I and readers of Thai Rath consider quality is probably different.
I have been saying right from the start that Daily Xpress should be in Thai and not English. Make it Thai and it would be a winner. There's just not a big enough market for readers and advertisers by producing it in English.
Thanks Bkk bugle. I do understand what you're saying too. Right, Thai Rath fans love their content. I do agree with you on this point.
Interesting remark that you make on the Thai version of Daily Xpress. I doubt if it'll be a success. There are many Thai publications on the market. I'm not so keen in business. All I say here only comes from my instinct.
thanks again for your answer.
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