PUBLISHERS SHOULD LEARN FROM MONKEY

Print is dying, or so you would think from reading about the ever increasing number of newspapers and magazines that are ceasing operations around the world. In Thailand print is still alive although facing increasing competition from online news and entertainment sources.
Page-flipping online magazines could be the way forward. Using the traditional and much-loved magazine format they also contain a wealth of rich media that’s limited only by the imagination of the designer.
In Thailand Dom Chotivanich is taking online magazines to the next level. The former editor-in-chief of Maxim Thailand launched a licensed Thai version of the spectacularly popular Monkey in October of last year, and speaking recently to The Bangkok Bugle he explained that Monkey is just the beginning.
He said: “It started from my company, NetPublications in Denmark, when we licensed the Ceros digital magazine platform. Dennis Publishing in the UK has partnerships with them; they’re publishers of digital magazines Monkey, iGizmo and iMotor. We got the licenses to produce all three in Thailand. I started with Monkey because it was an easy way to introduce Thai people to online magazines. iGizmo and iMotor will follow this year.”
Dom launched Monkey in Thailand in October 2008, and reports are that the free magazine now has 11,000 subscribers. But he admitted the relative slow speed of the Internet is a problem.
“People were really amazed and really liked it but they found it a bit slow to load on our pathetic Thailand Internet. We started out with Monkey’s UK design and content structure which use lots of video contents. Later we found from the back-end stats that Thai readers did not get into the video content that much. With that in mind I redesigned our Monkey in December with more text, photos and flash content to make it more magazine-like and reader-friendly. Now I think we’re in a good position and ready to go further.”
With the magazine’s free business model the revenues must come largely from advertising, and initially that was a problem as Dom explained.
“Digital magazines are very new in Thailand, not only to readers but to advertisers. They want to wait and see, they want to watch us grow and it’s my duty to make that happen. One beautiful part of this business is that it doesn’t cost much to do produce one edition, especially when compared to print magazines. The costs are low, and even though we have not earned so much from advertising it’s still enough to keep us alive.”
He added that Monkey has been a showcase for his company, and he has been attracting clients that want him to produce similar magazines for their organizations.
Many print magazines would give anything for 11,000 subscribers right now, but as Dom acknowledged there are significant advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand they’re cheap to produce yet the revenues, at least for now, are small because advertisers are yet to really see the benefits. That will happen, and when it does Dom and his company will be well placed to take full advantage.

Links:
Monkey Thailand.
Monkey UK.
Guardian story about Dennis Publishing/Monkey/iGizmo.