Thailand's Prominent Newspapers Raise Prices as Digital Media Dominates

Don't you just hate it when they increase the price of toilet paper?

I remember, prior to the internet when Pattaya had news stands everywhere selling local reprints of Europe's most popular dailies. A young, Dutch entrepreneur had recognized the market for up to date home country news among Pattaya's many expats and secured rights from most of Europe's major newspapers to receive digital copies and reprint and sell them here. He became Pattaya's most successful expat businessman, successfully investing in many other ventures.

He married his Thai "sweetheart". They built the most ornate mansion in Pattaya and drove matching Mercedes. They had it all.

It just wasn't enough for her. She took a scumbag, ex-con Thai boyfriend and plotted with him and one of her Isan uncles to kill him. She lured him to a remote area to look at land and the Uncle and BF bashed him with pieces of re-bar, then set the body on fire. It was a huge case but the cops somehow weren't able to find the killers and she collected millions from his life insurance policies.

The case went cold in Thailand but not with his family in Holland. They were unrelenting in pressuring the Dutch Government to pressure Thailand to re-open the case. Almost ten years later, the Dutch Royal Family paid a visit to the Thai Royal Family. The issue was raised directly to the Monarch and a promise was made that the case would be re-opened. Huge pressure from on top made the police move quickly. Evidence that had been suppressed and cops who had been bribed quickly emerged. The Uncle flipped to save his own skin and the wife and BF were finally cuffed. She and he both got the Death Penalty but later commuted to life because they finally confessed.

This was all more than 10 years ago. I wonder if she's still eating fish soup in jail or if she somehow bought her way out and was quietly released.

She was a poor Isan farm girl who hit the jackpot, but still, not enough for her.

I grew up with newsstands in New York. They presented a bouquet of bright magazines for every conceivable interest, and quite a few covered in plastic so they wouldn't get sticky. These were open in all weathers. Not an easy business,

I spent a lot of time doing research at the New York Public Library so I got pretty friendly with the news guy at Bryant Park. I bought a daily Times but couldn't afford anything fancier.

Most of those have gone, too, overtaken by squeaky-clean Hudson News, indoors, warm in winter, aircon in summer.

Yeah, guess I'm a dinosaur. Sunday Times is eight bucks now.