CASHING IN ON FREE COPIES
Bangkok's world famous Chatuchak Weekend Market is a source of bargains, including cut price books and magazines. You can buy current editions of both Thai and imported magazines at a fraction of their cover price, although the source of such magazines isn't always clear.
This example of the current edition of Reader's Digest Thailand gives you no doubt where is comes from; it's a complimentary copy supplied by the publisher to Thai Airways. Others available, such as Time, are 'subscription only copies and not for resale'. Quite where they come from I don't know?
Someone is making money in this process and it sure isn't the publisher. And if these issues find their way back into the distribution system there's a chance they could lose money too.
2 comments:
I spoke to a vendor at Chatuchak and was told they are from Thai Airways crew(s?)
Hi Saraburian,
Thanks for your comment. The copies from Reader's Digest are certainly from Thai Airways as they have a label on the front saying so (as per the picture).
I'm not so certain about the other copies. Some have wear and tear that would indicate previous use so could equally well be airline copies too.
There's no way of knowing and no way of tracking, from a publishers perspective. You could easily argue that airlines should be keeping a tighter control on what is basically their property.
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