SELLING SUBSCRIPTIONS IN THAILAND
Very few magazines achieve anything substantial when it comes to selling subscriptions.
The leader in terms of published numbers, and in terms of reputation, is Reader's Digest Thailand with more than 40,000 subscribers. From my own experiences I would estimate that very few titles achieve more than several thousand, with most numbering fewer than several hundred.
Research I conducted a year or so ago revealed the reason for this is that the majority of Thai readers questioned did not like paying in advance for anything. Only a substantial (and in this case, substantial means more than 50 per cent) cost saving would entice them to subscribe. But margins for publishers are so low anyway that offering a 50 per cent discount would likely make no money when combined with the must-have premium or gift.
Subscriptions are valuable for publishers, not just in terms of revenue but also from knowing exactly who reads your magazine.
1 comments:
I noted yesterday that Big Chilli magazine, which sells for 100 baht and is widely available in Bangkok, sells an annual subscription of 12 issues for 1,200 baht! I wonder how many subscribers they have?
On a separate note relating to Thai reading habits, I was in a training session yesterday with ten Thai staff and I asked everyone what was the last book they had read (in Thai or English). Only one in the group had read a book, and that was Harry Potter. Two others had read an engineering manual (because they have to for work), two had read some free pamphlets on Buddhism and the rest occasionally read gossip magazines.
These are all professionally qualified staff working for the third largest engineering company in the world. No wonder subscriptions in Thailand don't sell.
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