DATA FROM THE PUBLISHING SECTOR

The Thai 101 blog has a very interesting and informative post about the Thai book publishing industry. It's full of some fascinating facts and figures, including what appears to be a 100 per cent increase in the number of bookshops between 2006 and 2007. I'd urge you to have a read.
Data shows that although small, the book publishing industry was growing up until 2007. I'm guessing that's in contrast to the magazine industry, although there are no official figures available in this sector, not even from The Magazine Association of Thailand.
Research compiled for the FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press) World Magazine Yearbook 2007/08 revealed Se-ed, Thailand's largest book chain, sold 1,043 different newspapers and magazines during the year ending 2005. This was down almost 25 per cent from the previous year. I'm guessing the decline has continued although no figures have been published for subsequent years.
That same research claimed 36.85 per cent of the Thai population were regular readers of magazines, with almost a 60/40 female to male split. It also revealed unemployed people were responsible for 28.97 per cent of readers !