PROFITS DOWN AT POST PUBLISHING
Annual results from Post Publishing Public Company Limited (POST) released to the Stock Exchange in Thailand yesterday evening showed a year-on-year drop in consolidated net profits - from 37 million baht in 2007 to 13.2 million baht last year.
Post Publishing is the publisher of The Bangkok Post and Post Today, while its subsidiary Post International Media publishes Thai language licensed editions of magazines such as Elle, Marie Claire and Cleo.
The company attributes the decrease to allowances for loans and investments. With those allowances the company's operating profits showed a slight increase.
More information can be found here.
10 comments:
Given their penchance for editing and revising news stories until they dimly resemble the truth, I'd like to see the Bangkok Post go out of business.
Leosia - seriously?
You're entitled to your opinion of course, but I personally think Post Publishing is extremely unlikely to disappear. And if The Bangkok Post did disappear that wouldn't leave much in the way of English language news in Thailand. I recall reading minutes from a recent shareholders meeting that suggest the company should focus more on Thai language, but they are by far the number one English print media in Thailand (in the eyes of advertisers) so will be able to capitalise on that for a while yet.
Please give me one example of where the Post edited and revised a news story until it only dimly resembles the truth, my dear....and please don't cite the example given in Bugle's blog post earlier, which told us nothing other than the fact that a story was edited, probably for length.
BkkDreamer - with respect I don't see how 'editing for length' even comes into the picture when we're talking about an online story?
In the example I cited edits were made midway through the story as well as at the end, and one additional sentence was added.
Even so I do not think this fundamentally changed the story, and I too would really like to see some examples of some more substantial editing.
"Please give me one example of where the Post edited and revised a news story until it only dimly resembles the truth" - some examples would be many of the news stories relating to the PAD during the time of the occupation of Government House and the airports, pretty much anything about Thaksin (mostly equating to gossip and rumour) and alteration of reports from other news agencies relating to lese majeste in order to make them politically correct.
My point was sarcastic more than anything else. I don't really think the Post stands any chance of going out of business - I just think it offers up such a low standard of journalism that it shouldn't "be" in business.
Stories are edited whether or not they appear on-line...or are you trying to tell me that the space on a webpage is infinite?
Leosia: Your response is too vague to be of much use to me. Another way of asking the same thing is: Do you think the Post's political coverage is biased?
'Even so I do not think this fundamentally changed the story, and I too would really like to see some examples of some more substantial editing.'
Why?
Given that none of the edits really changed the meaning of the story, what, in the end, was the point of your post?
In any event, if you want to see Post sub-editors at work, I am sure that all you need do is contact the Post and ask if you can go in one day and watch.
Thanks again for your input BkkDreamer.
The "examples" was a reference to the earlier comment by Leosia who referred to "many" stories being edited. I was asking for examples to substantiate that claim.
The point of my original post was to highlight edits and insertions which in my opinion (a) did not need to happen, and (b) were probably a material breach of the agreement between the publisher and the content provider.
I still by that post, however your explanation suggesting 'editing for length' is the answer to the question "why did the edits happen?" that I posed in that original post.
"Another way of asking the same thing is: Do you think the Post's political coverage is biased?" Yes, absolutely.
Take the absence of any substantial news reports of Giles Ungpakorn's talks in the UK, or the consistent anti-Thaksin/pro PAD line. It even extends to technical pieces, such as "The old fake '404 Not Found' routine" (look it up in the BK Post) in which the writer finds it necessary to make a comment about Giles to ensure his 'politically correct/pro monarchy' credentials.
Of course many newspapers are biased in their reporting, but there is something seditious in the way the Post presents, misrepresents and omits information.
Thanks Leosia. The story referred to is here:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/technews/11872/the-old-fake-404-not-found-routine
To be fair these comments are now drifting away from the original subject which was editing of news agency supplied stories. The last comment is about a locally written story.
Politically-biased reporting is probably a topic for another of my Focus columns.
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