NMG, which also publishes the English-language daily The Nation and business daily Krungthep Turakij, plans an initial print run of 80,000 copies for the full colour, multi-section broadsheet, priced at 20 baht a copy, the same as Manager Weekly.
Said Wanee Ratanaphol, managing director of Initiative Media: "NMG usually offers an introductory 50 per cent discount for advertising in its new publications. In future, it is likely that NMG will offer combined rates with its other titles."
NMG has chosen a magazine format for BizWeek to differentiate it from Manager Weekly's newspaper-style.
"The business reader segment is quite small and is confined to only Bangkok and major cities. Any new entrant should not try to compete with the existing newspapers but should look into the magazine segment," said an MEC spokesperson.
According to ACNielsen research in April, Manager Weekly ranked second in readership in the broadsheet category with 235,000 readers, slightly behind the 250,000 readers of Thansettakij biweekly. The third was Prachachart Turakij biweekly with 101,000 readers.