A NEW MAGAZINE WITH ATTITUDE
Gay lifestyle magazine Attitude in the latest licensed magazine to hit the shelves in Thailand.
The UK's best-selling gay magazine, published by Vitality Publishing, will debut on March 9 as a licensed local Thai language edition this week, published by GMM Inter Publishing.
The Bangkok Post has a story and interview with the publisher and editor, in which it's mentioned that the deal took two years to seal. As someone involved in magazine licensing in Thailand I find that to be a very long time.
There are currently more than 50 licensed magazines in Thailand and I feel there are opportunities for many more. I've looked a several in recent weeks and months but, in some cases, the royalties and minimum financial guarantees demanded by overseas publishers are way out of proportion to what can be achieved in Thailand - both in terms of copy sales and advertising revenues. In some ways this is shown by the relatively high 120 baht cover price that Attitude is adopting. Most local magazine are priced between 60 baht and 90 baht.
2 comments:
Judging by the first edition of the magazine, I don't think it will catch people's attention. As far as I am concerned, the publisher and editor need to push the boundary further. The first isssue looks a bit tame to me.
I'll buy it - just like a buy copies of any new magazine I see on the shelves. :-)
Actually, the local publisher will not be able to "push" things too far as they're working with a brand that will likely have an existing brand image that needs to be adhered to. That's one of the benefits of working with an established magazine brand, but can sometimes also be one of the negatives.
I could be wrong about this but Thailand appears to be the first international edition for Attitude. This is especially interesting as the magazine was beset with financial problems a few years back and actually failed to produce a couple of issues in 2007.
I wonder whether Attitude has enough of a brand image in Thailand, with Thai readers, to make licensing this brand financially attractive? Only time will tell.
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