Print media fading away in Thailand
Print media fading away in Thailand
BANGKOK: — Print media, including newspapers and magazines, are expected to fade away in Thailand in keeping with the global trend to be replaced by e-news and e-magazines, and news personalised tools such as Twitter, a media specialist said yesterday.
Kanokkarn Prachongsaengsri, deputy director for research and information analysis department, IPG Mediabrands, said that print ad spending in the US dropped significantly by 9 per cent in 2007 compared to the previous year. The drop was even steeper at 18 per cent last year and down to 24 per cent in the first nine months of this year.
Speaking at a seminar on ‘2009 Media Scene’, Kanokkarn said that in Thailand, print ad spending dropped by 8 per cent last year compared to 2007. The drop was 21 per cent in the first nine months of this year.
“We found paper media fading away among all segments of consumers, among teenagers aged between 12 and 24, working people aged 25 to 39, and adults aged 40 and above. The has been found in both Bangkok urban, and rural cities,” said Kanokkarn.
She said that about 105 newspapers in US have ceased publication since 2007.
Kanokkarn said that in Thailand a higher number of readers of newspapers were accessing e-news and even more if there were heated political developments, and the trend is quite the same for e-magazines.
“In Thailand , many newspapers are trimming their size and appearing less frequently, while some have moved online to survive in the business,” she said.
Kanokkarn gave the example of men’s magazine Maxim, which recently launched its e-magazine in Thailand and expected 150,000 downloads a month.
She said that mobile short message service (SMS) was also another source of news and revenue.
In Thailand , the number of news SMS subscribers increased significantly from 2 million in 2007 to 3 million last year and up to 3.5 million in the first half of this year.
Similar to print media, radio, which is one of the biggest media platforms, is also fading away as radio listeners grow old.
There were about 20.3 million local people listening radio yesterday, according to its survey. While there are about 3.5 million people listening to online music while about 11.8 million people today listen to radio and music on mobile.
Thailand’s overall ad spending dropped 3 per cent last year to Bt99 billion. The ad spending is expected to decline further by 5 per cent this year compared to 2008.
“However, with economic recovery and greater consumer confidence, we expect to foresee a growth in ad spending next year, which will be come back to Bt99 billion, the same level posted in 2008,” said Kanokkarn.
She said that TV consumption was declining gradually both among urban and rural viewers. They continued to lose viewers in the daytime as cable TV became another source for content.
There are 6.3 million households watching cable and satellite TV channels so far this year, a growth of 58 per cent over the same period last year.
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