RESTRUCTURING AT NATION GROUP

Page 3 of the business section of today's Bangkok Post carries confirmation of changes at Nation Multimedia Group.
According to the story, Nation president Pana Janvuroj says ownership of The Nation will switch from Nation Multimedia Group to NMG Company Limited, a subsidiary company, and a separate sub-editing company will be set up by former sub-editors with NMG backing. The story also confirms 30 of the 130-strong editorial staff took early redundancy packages last week.
Janviroj admits in the story that The Nation is not successful and blames rising print costs and declining advertising revenues. Not a single mention of wrong products for the market, yet it seems The Nation will continue to focus on business in a market where business news is available in millions of places, is out of date before it's printed and where two or three other business-centric publications have failed in recent years.
One media watcher is quoted in the story as saying Daily Xpress is five or ten years ahead of its time because the English market is very small. I disagree. The free model can work here right now - but not in English. Produce Daily Xpress in Thai and you will have a successful publication, in my opinion.