Thai print media feels squeeze

The Bangkok Post has already raised its daily price from 25 to 30 baht (US$0.90) as newsprint costs have escalated from $550 a tonne in 2007, to $900 currently.

Media Transasia Thailand, the local publisher of OK! and Seventeen magazines, is set to raise cover prices by as much as 10 per cent, while other print media businesses look set to follow suit next year, also due to higher costs for newsprint.

Although rising cover prices are unlikely to hurt circulation, adspend and readership are likely to fall due to advertisers and consumers shifting their budgets and attention toward “emerging, fast-growing and cheaper media such as online and mobile”, according to Sunee Paripunna, MD of MEC Thailand.

"The readership may drop, but it won’t be directly affected by an increase in cover price but more from increasing choices of media and which sources of news and information consumers are to consume," she added.

Latest ad expenditure figures in the Kingdom reveal a four per cent drop in spend for magazines while the newspaper category showed no growth.