3 TRENDS IN THAI PUBLISHING

The Thai magazine and publishing industry in general is constantly evolving, and here are three trends that I have noticed the last few months. Whether they're the start of something permanent or just a trial, who knows?

1. MONTHLY TO BI-MONTHLY
There's been a significant trend towards publishing every two months as opposed to every month. Whether it's purely to saving costs or because readers are being overwhelmed by too much content, your guess it as good as mine. I'd estimate there are 20 percent more bi-monthly magazines now than there were this time six months ago.

2. EMERGING POCKET EDITIONS
They've almost replaced the traditionally-sized titles in some parts of the world, but here in Thailand they're only just catching on. Cosmopolitan (pictured) is one of probably seven or eight but I predicted that more of the 'bigger' titles will be adopting pocked-sized editions in the coming months. Those of you who know me well know I'm a magaholic but for THB 60 this is amazing value.

3. FEWER LICENSED TITLES
Just five years ago I was writing almost weekly about the debut of a new Thai language edition of a global magazine, but these days some have disappeared totally and few, if any, have launched in the past year. Perhaps the global publishers are demanding too much in royalties given the costs in Thailand for both the magazines themselves and advertising pages are significantly lower than many would think.