MAGAZINE SALES IN THE SHOPS
According to MediaWeek Conde Nast's business magazine Portfolio has a sold rate in shops of just 15.5 per cent. That's amazingly bad.
The report says the magazine distributes around 150,000 copies each month (some of which make their way to Thailand) and sold an average of 23,185 copies per month during the first six months of this year. Men's Vogue, another magazine from the Conde Nast stable, achieved a more respectable 32.9 per cent sold rate.
In Thailand the average magazine will sell anything between 15% and 35% of the copies it supplies to a shop. One look at the shelves in the likes of Thai bookshop chains Se-Ed or Nai-In will leave you with a clear understanding that many magazines are left unsold at the end of each month. That's bad for the shops and even worse for the publishers who pay anything between 35% and 50% commission to the shops for the sold copies.
Many publishers here sell their unsold copies by weight to recycling outlets but the revenue is a mere fraction of the production cost. Some of those copies will end up at places like Chatuchak Market even though the publisher assumes they're being pulped, and that's not good for the brand image of the magazine.
9 comments:
I get the impression that Thai people are not really interested in (business) magazines unless they contain lots of pictures of fashion models and hi-so's. The price of imported magazines in Thailand is also rather high.
Mark, thanks for your post.
Speaking from my own experiences with BusinessWeek Thailand, our target reader (Thai business professionals) are happy reading the kind of balanced and global insight we provide. (The ad is over now.)
You are correct about the high price of imported business magazines. BusinessWeek's global English magazine is 190 baht per week, whereas our Thai edition is 175 baht per month.
There seem to be a lot of what I would call vanity business titles. By that I mean the publishers just like to be publishers. There are too many titles for what is a pretty niche sector, in my opinion.
I think that the reason for that is because reading is sort of becoming a luxury, in terms of both time and money. People are on the go more, so they tend to spend less time reading in-depth stories usually found in magazines, and prefer the more fast-paced information they can find in news paper. Nevertheless, that fewer people are reading nowadays is still bad news, whatever the reason.
Andrew,
You provide excellent insight into the Thai media markets! You do us Wokingham Times crew proud :)
Janis.
Yes I think Business week and Time are both around 150 baht each otherwise I would buy them more often....
David. BusinessWeek is 190 baht per week (having recently risen from 175 baht) and Time is 135 baht per week.
The obvious solution is subscriptions, if you like a magazine enough and want every edition. You can normally get at least 20% off the price. BusinessWeek, for example, is US$175 for 50-issues with a mailing address in Thailand. That works out much cheaper than the 9,500 baht you would pay buying those same 50 editions through the shop.
Janis. Thanks my friend .. you've done pretty well in your career since those days too.
If shops stopped Thai people from setting up camp and reading the magazines whilst in the shop, maybe more would get sold. Most stand up and read, usually for 20 mins or more whilst others sit down in a corner and make camp.
Hi Aussieboy, and thanks for your comment. As a publisher it's very frustrating to see people treating bookshops as libraries. Some shops will seal magazines in plastic to prevent browsing, or keep one open as a 'reading' copy and keep the others in pristine condition.
Personally I would like to see shops adopt a no-browsing policy but that's not going to happen.
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