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(Gold Printing)
For the struggling magazine industry, the weak economy and political turmoil are less of a concern than the growing belief that the print industry is losing its attraction to new media.
What worries me is overexcitement about new media. Many people say the publishing business is dying,says Rarin Utakapan Panjarungroj, managing director of Amarin Printing and Publishing Plc.
Among traditional media, only TV has been making modest gains this year while radio, newspapers and magazines have all seen their advertising revenue drop.
According to The Nielsen Company, in the first 11 months of this year, ad spending on newspapers fell 9% to 12.6 billion baht and magazines were off 12.6% to 4.7 billion baht. But internet advertising, while making up 0.2% of the market, grew 43% to 226 million baht.
Total ad spending was 81.9 billion baht, down by 0.5% in the January-November period.
Amarin Group would likely face a 13% drop in ad revenues by the end of the year, said Ms Rarin.
She remains optimistic about the future of magazines, but cautions that the survivors must be top-five players who can attract readers and ad spenders. However, magazine content must be reliable, which is the strength of print media by nature.
In Amarin is experience, readers find some kinds of information more credible when they see it in magazines rather than the internet, for example content related to home and health.
However, the group is not ignoring new media. It aims for online revenues to make up 10% of its total in five years. It will strengthen its popular website, linked to its Ban Lae Suan (Home and Garden) magazine. Websites with women is and lifestyle content would be the next target.
Once young generation in the future need not read books in school, then printing will die. But I donot think that would happen, she said.
Thanachai Theerapatanawong, the president of Magazine Association of Thailand, said he strongly believed that new media would not replace traditional media at least in the next five years.
In 2009, 39 new magazine titles were launched, a slow pace when compared with previous years. |
