PR FOCUS IS ON THE PRINT MEDIA
I've been to many press conferences in Bangkok over recent years, and two in my first week with my new magazine.
One thing struck me yesterday. Public relations companies and those tasked with arranging media events almost exclusively target the print media.
Yesterday's event at a high-end furniture retailer was attended solely by reporters and representatives from magazines. No television, no radio, no websites. I've seen television crews at some events I've been to in the past, but I don't ever recall coming across radio reporters or anyone from online news providers.
Getting the message out in print still seems to be as important in the minds of public relations and marketing staff in Thailand.
2 comments:
The PR Industry in Thailand is really simply "Bollocks!" Most of the Thai Print Media and even some of the English Print Media expects either a "gift" in order for them to do a coverage. This may not be the giveaways that are given away at the actual press-conference but rather either in advance or after the post-PR coverages are out and is usually pre-negotiated.
The TV media here simply will never come to any event unless they get paid (with the exception of Royal related events or Government Events) and the amts for free TV Channels like 3,5,7,9 can be about 80,000 baht upwards , whereas channels like TPBS and NBT guys charge about Bt 25,000.
The guys on the cable TV like news segments in Truevisions, TV-A-La-Carte, Channel V, etc charge anything from Bt 15,000 to Bt 30,000 baht but the issue is who actually watches most of these Truevisions local content which is really utter rubbish in most cases.
As for the Radio Media, RJs like Moddum on 94 FM charges about Bt 25,000 for a mention and as far as online media is concerned, with the exception of Hisoparty.com who charges about Bt 10,000 for you to have your event pictures listed or barter, most of the other websites are not really accepetd by the PR Companies as being of a standard yet.
But a very important note to observe is that PR is slowly losing its ground especially as far as the print media is concerned, according to research done at B2S, Asia Books, Kinokuniya, Bookazine (part of Asia Books), SE-Ed Bookstores, Namee, etc, the return rates for a lot of the Magazines are very high these days and in some cases titles like Thailand Tatler,Look East, Tropical Living, Asean Affairs have return rates of more than 95%! ie Magazines which are sent to the stores and returned back as they cannot be sold.
In terms of Local English Magazines, the best sellers these days surprisingly enough is Prestige, TTO (Transversing The Orient)and Property Report.
For Thai Magazines,The BMagazines in terms of sales are : Hello, Cosmopolitan, Volume, and Praew. For newspapers, the only papers that are moving well are (inorder): Daily News, Thairath , Matichon.Apparently even the Bangkok Posts and Nation is doing badly these days and though the Bangkok Posts does better in terms of subcribers, in terms of retail sales, nation does better.
PS; You will also be surprised that our research and follow-ups at actual printers showed that many Magazines and newspapers actually print much much lesser these days though they lie about their circulations.
One very famous Thai Women's Magazine of an International Title was only printing 2000 copies but claiming to have printed 50,000 copies!
First of all can say I have edited this comment to remove an email address that was provided. That's the only thing I have amended.
Well .. where to start? I have to say that, as the new Managing Editor of Property Report Thailand, I am pleased my magazine gets a favourable mention. I can only assume what you're saying about sales of other titles is correct and I hope you'll be able to provide me with some of the research by email.
It's actually quite easy to find out an approximate figure for the sales of most magazines. It's even easier to find out how many copies a particular title prints. For many ad agencies and media buyers calling a printer or distribution company is the only way they can discover the truth about how many copies a magazine distributes and sells.
Regarding your mention of fees for coverage and mentions, I have to say that I have certainly come across incidents where prominent media celebrities want money for endorsing or promoting a magazine. However I can say without doubt that my former company managed to get media coverage from print and television without any kind of payment. It can be done, but only if the news you have is worthy enough. And I guess that's the problem; in most cases the news being disseminated at a press conference is boring or not especially newsworthy.
A few magazines do have Codes of Ethics that prohibit journalists from accepting gifts above a certain value or press trips, but that is rare.
And finally, your point about sales of The Bangkok Post and The Nation is interesting. A dramatic fall in sales from the former would explain why the latest audited circulation statement has not appeared for several months.
Thanks for your input and keep it coming.
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