NATION HAD IT COVERED
I have to say that Saturday's front page of The Nation newspaper was very clever, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it winning some design awards later in the year.
On the day before today's (Sunday) Thailand General Election, the newspaper opted to run a split front cover, giving equal coverage to both leading candidates in the form of 'upside down' split coverage.
There's been an increasing trend amongst some of Thailand's magazine publisher to have two covers - one on the 'front' and one on the 'back' - but this is the first time I've seen a newspaper be so creative.
Kudos to the page designers at The Nation.
1 comments:
I agree with you, the design is excellent - it is just such a shame the paper wastes so much money employing journalists and editors with so little mettle (or talent for that matter).
The reporting is always a dull re-hash of some AP wire story, the copy is an utter shambles (typos, spelling mistakes on a daily basis) and the paper's editors don't even attempt to conceal their contempt for those who hold a less "Establishment" political view than they do. If you'd only read The Nation last year you would honestly believe Bangkok was Baghdad and the red shirts were Al Qaeda suicide bombers hell-bent on destroying Thai civilization: this is reckless and shoddy reporting, and defeats the object of becoming a journalist, which is to report, not to opine.
Having spent quite a lot of time in other areas of the world and Asia in particular, I cannot help but feel that the problem is somewhat unique to this place. Given its relative size and population, it should be easy enough to hire a few workaholic, well-trained, hard-nosed hacks who will bully, cajole or wai to the floor and lick a source's shoes to get to the hard truth.
Only in Thailand would a standard of journalism this weak be allowed to flourish. Elsewhere - even in Singapore, and that's saying something! - any Managing Editor worth his salt who presided over a daily news publication this pathetic and piss-poor would either fire most of the staff and start again or just plain quit. I cannot think of an editor who I have worked with and respect who would sit there approving the garbage that goes into this thing on a daily basis. Sorry, but it needs to be said.
The Bangkok Post is not a lot better, but its sufferable. On a wider point, I think you ought to spend some time really critically dissecting the appalling standard of English-language journalism in this country. Let's face it, if most of the pubs available here were selling back home, no expat would waste precious time or money on them. The daily variety of the inappropriate space given to the same restaurant/hotel/spa/lifestyle features, crappy business reporting by business journalists who don't care or who don't understand enough about business to care about their subject, and regurgitated local news is a bland as the food here is exotic.
Disclosure: I know, I know the industry is full of bitterness and scorned hacks, but I have no personal axe to grind with anyone at The Nation or working in the industry in general here.
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