AFTER more than 12 years on the racks, Marie Claire, French magazine printed in Thai in Thailand will publish its farewell edition in April.
The main reason for Post International Media, a magazine publishing arm of Post Publishing Plc, which prints Bangkok Post, Post Today and M2F, to stop printing Marie Claire stemmed from the magazine’s operating loss.
Marie Claire joins several others that have stopped the presses on their print editions lately including Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, and IMAGE.
Although famous among fashion addicts, the title found itself in difficult situation as last year at least five fashion magazines stopped the presses due to operating loss. They said among the reasons for the closure is that they could not compete with digital media.
Sources said Post International Media operates eight titles but other titles like Forbes, Elle and Cleo are still doing quite well.
While the magazine industry is facing a difficult time disrupted by the digital media snatching advertising revenue from them, the media sector especially newspaper and TV as a whole is facing even more pressure from both online media and tough competition among themselves.
Newspapers are losing advertising revenue to online media, namely, websites, Facebook, and Line while digital TV channels are competing among themselves as the players have tripled after the launched of these channels while the size of revenue cake stayed almost the same. They also have to bear huge costs of the bidding for the license leading most of them to stay in the red or for well-known operators like BEC , which owned Channel 3 analogue in the past and now operates Channel 3 Family, Channel 3 SD and Channel 3 Hd), suffering from a sharp drop in revenue and profit.
BEC, a listed company on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), has just announced its operational result for 2016. The company reported a net profit of 1,218.29 million baht or 0.61 baht per share in 2016 which is a sharp drop from a net profit of 2,982.71 million baht or 1.49 baht per share in 2015 and 4,414 million baht or 2.21 baht per share in 2014.
Nation Multimedia Group (NMG), a listed firm, reported a net loss of 1,102.8 million baht in 2016 or 0.271 baht per share against a net profit of 35.58 million baht in 2015. That is a heavy loss in its history. Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) suffered a net loss of 275 million baht in 2016 against a net loss of 20 million baht the preceding year.
Matichon (MATI), a listed firm, reported a net loss of 63.6 million baht for 2016 against a net loss of 103 million baht the preceding year.
Amarin Printing and Publishing (AMARIN) a listed firm publishing magazines and operating a digital TV channel, suffered a net loss of 628 million baht in 2016 against a net loss of 417 million baht in 2015.
Work Point Entertainment (WORK), a listed firm operating a digital TV channel, looks to be a rare winner in the media sector as its digital TV operation has been doing well. The company reported a net profit of 198 million baht for 2016, up from 150 million baht profit earned the preceding year.
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Top: The upper half of the June 2016 edition of the Thai-language Marie Claire magazine which will be folding in April.
By Kowit Sanandang
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