FALSE FIGURES FROM MAGAZINE ASSOC.
The Magazine Association of Thailand, and its chairman Khun Thanachai Theerapattanavong, is quoted in a story in The Nation today saying ad spending in magazines is set to a return to 2007 levels next year.
The story says that, despite the slowdown, 39 magazines have launched in Thailand during 2009 - two of which were international licensed titles.
Excuse my language but those figures are crap!
I don't know how many new titles have appeared during this past year but I am damn sure it's more than 39. And I can think of at least four international titles off the top of my head.
The Magazine Association of Thailand does a pretty poor job in promoting the magazine industry in the Kingdom. It's a members organisation and, naturally, only represents and promotes the magazines belonging to its members. I would estimate that less than 20 per cent of all the magazines in Thailand are published by members of TMAT.
But if they cannot keep track of new titles, and provide accurate information about the industry, the frankly who can?
2 comments:
Sounds like the perfect opportunity for a properly representative association of companies.
An anonymous reader left a post earlier which I am not able to publish due to unsubstantiated accusations about specific magazines and specific editors.
However the poster did make some good points. He or she mentioned that some magazines are "cheating" by printing less copies. He or she suggested that media buyers ask tough questions of the publisher, the printer and the bookshops in order to establish true details about how many copies a magazine is selling.
I still think it will only be a matter of time before independent circulation auditing is demanded by media agencies. Now could be the time - because with magazines losing out to other forms of advertising it could be that new levels of transparency will tip the balance back towards print.
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