CIRCULATION DROP AT BANGKOK POST
FIRST WITH MEDIA NEWS IN THAILAND - The Bangkok Bugle
The latest audited circulation figures for The Bangkok Post, the only newspaper in Thailand with an independently audited circulation, show a year-on-year headline figure decline of more than 29 per cent.
During the six months ending December 31, 2009 the newspaper recorded an average daily circulation of 45,296 copies, an 11.4 per cent decline on the previous six month period and a whopping 29.06 per cent drop on the same period in 2009.
Single copy sales, which are individual copies of the newspaper purchased at bookshops, stood at 13,299 copies - down 12.78 per cent year-on-year. Single copy subscription sales were down 9.4 per cent year-on-year to stand at 17,625 copies.
The most significant drop - a massive 68.58 per cent - was seen in bulk sales. These are copies of the newspaper which are sold at discounted rates to airlines and hotels, etc. During the second half of 2009 this accounted for 14,276 copies per day on average, down from 24.066 copies in the same period last year.
The argument that cutting cut-price or freely distributed copies will lead to more 'real' sales of the newspaper does not appear to be justified, although such a significant cut in the number of copies printed is likely to have some impact on production costs.
2 comments:
I hadn't heard this but, what excellent news :)
The Bangkok Post is nothing but a government mouth piece with some of the worst 'journalism' I've ever read anywhere, and I'm a professional writer.
Couldn't have heard better news, LOL.
BP has been going downhill for years, and it's circulation drop (and resulting drop in what it can charge its advertisers) has had marked effects. Note the cutting of supplements, firing of staff, and most profoundly, the increase in ad space in a typical edition. The other day I counted 4.5 pages of advertising in the first 7 pages! Full page and half page ads dominating the second third and fourth pages are now common. The number of pages sometimes is just 12 (including sports).
Also, as a freelance writer I've noted a definite decline in professionalism among the staff, they don't reply to emails any more (even to their freelancers they're familiar with), recently they ignored three emailed requests for placing a classified - no online placement) and their OpEd editorial staff have become quite lazy and discriminatory in moderating/selecting commentary from the public.
And have you ever tried to get a cheque out of them....
This newspaper deserves to die, which is a shame given its importance to the English language community in Thailand.
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