Xpress Aims To Be Number 1 English-language Daily Newspaper

[sriracha john]

Free sheet 'Xpress' aims to be No. 1 Thai English daily

The new compact-sized XPRESS will immediately become the country's largest English language daily newspaper when it debuts in March as a free sheet, Thanachai Theerapatvong, chairman of publisher Nation Multimedia Group Plc, said yesterday.

"The existing two English newspapers, after several decades in the market, can't reach a circulation of 100,000 copies," Thanachai told a press conference at the Conrad Hotel.

However, 100,000 copies of XPRESS will initially be distributed to 4,000 selected spots around town, he said.

The media launch, which was followed by a dinner party, was the first step in the new paper's Bt100 million marketing plan, he said. "We'll continue our activities during pre-launch, launch and post-launch to communicate to our target readers," he said.

Leading newspaper designer Mario Garcia took aim at readers aged 25-35 with a friendly and attractive format featuring big, lavish pictures, striking headlines and concise news stories. The 48-page daily will feature content that appeals to the new generation. "We want all readers to finish reading the newspaper in around 20 minutes," said XPRESS editor Tulsathit Taptim.

Readers can spend only a few seconds glancing at the headlines and photos to get the story idea, he said. Garcia said the orange masthead reflects the color of young readers. "The color represents warm, colorful and young people," he said.

After designing over 500 newspapers in his almost 40-year career, Garcia believes that no medium is being wiped out by another. "Young people still read but you have to make the product appeal to them."

Thanachai said the market for English newspapers for the young generation was still untapped and the English-language newspaper industry - unlike others - did not have clear segmentation.

"The potential is there and we think XPRESS will be the answer for advertisers who want to reach such a market. Previously, one English newspaper was produced for readers as young as 20 and up to 70 years old. It's amazing that one product can cater to all. XPRESS will be the paper for young readers and it will be the medium for advertisers to reach their desired target group," he said.

No major investment was needed for the new venture, so it should reach payback within its first month, he added.

- The Nation

[mrtoad]

Well, it can't be any worse than the cut and paste merchants at The Bangkok Post and The Nation.

[Prakanong]

Same business model as say Metro in Europe and "Today" in Singapore.

I think the circulation of Today in Singapore is 750,000 and there are queues each morning everywhere for it (Singaporeans would queue for a hot rock if it was free and they sw a queue)

I bet it adds a lot of litter though like Metro in Europe inc the UK

[Florin]

Ooo, big pictures and 2 lines of text for "articles", what a novel and brilliant idea...but I guess less text will cover up their editor's often piss-poor grasp of the English language.

[polecat]

Well, it can't be any worse than the cut and paste merchants at The Bangkok Post and The Nation.

What does this mean? Does it refer to the wire stories from Reuters, AP etc? If so, every newspaper from the New York Times to the Guardian does that.

This will be an interesting experiment. It sounds like an awful paper, but it could capture a lucrative market.

[chownah]

I'm waiting for the all picture, no caption English language newspaper.

[Prakanong]

Well, it can't be any worse than the cut and paste merchants at The Bangkok Post and The Nation.

What does this mean? Does it refer to the wire stories from Reuters, AP etc? If so, every newspaper from the New York Times to the Guardian does that.

This will be an interesting experiment. It sounds like an awful paper, but it could capture a lucrative market.

Its exactly what Metro and tiday I mentioned above do - wire stories they already get built around an advertising model of high readership/circulation of a publication given away free.

Distributors at the Skytran, underground, railway, bus stations and other high throughput centres.

Itmight even have beneficial side effects - English language skills may improve

[Tony Clifton]

Same concept and paper name, different city?

[taxexile]

featuring big, lavish pictures, striking headlines

We want all readers to finish reading the newspaper in around 20 minutes

spend only a few seconds glancing at the headlines and photos to get the story idea,

that tells me all i need to know about this new paper.

The potential is there and we think XPRESS will be the answer for advertisers

it will be the medium for advertisers to reach their desired target group

and that just confirms it.

it will be a paper for advertisers more than for those interested in the news.

it will have to be given away because the 20-35 age group may be dumber than they used to be , but they are not dumb enough yet to pay for an ad-sheet.

without investigative journalists and some intelligent opinion and editorial content , the news is worthless.

the most interesting sections of the post or the nation are often the letters column.

as a business idea , this rag is a good plan. 100,000 copies of your ad. distributed to your target market.

as a newspaper , it represents just another victory for the dumbing down merchants who continue to drown us with irrelevant blandness and hype day in day out.

[PoorSucker]

I think they are going to have legal issues with Samui eXpress.

http://www.samuiexpress.net/

[mrtoad]

Well, it can't be any worse than the cut and paste merchants at The Bangkok Post and The Nation.

What does this mean? Does it refer to the wire stories from Reuters, AP etc? If so, every newspaper from the New York Times to the Guardian does that.

This will be an interesting experiment. It sounds like an awful paper, but it could capture a lucrative market.

It means what it says. There is little worth reading in the BP these days, and the home news is an absolute joke. A little bit more competition may actually improve the general standards.

[Florin]

It means what it says. There is little worth reading in the BP these days, and the home news is an absolute joke. A little bit more competition may actually improve the general standards.

But this wouldn't be competition, from what they themselves say, their target market is shallow people who don't want to read and have short attention spans! As for home news, all media is governed by the same strict 'tabu' subjects, so I don't see any newspaper coming up with more exciting editorials.

[andy1308]

featuring big, lavish pictures, striking headlines

We want all readers to finish reading the newspaper in around 20 minutes

spend only a few seconds glancing at the headlines and photos to get the story idea,

that tells me all i need to know about this new paper.

The potential is there and we think XPRESS will be the answer for advertisers

it will be the medium for advertisers to reach their desired target group

and that just confirms it.

it will be a paper for advertisers more than for those interested in the news.

it will have to be given away because the 20-35 age group may be dumber than they used to be , but they are not dumb enough yet to pay for an ad-sheet.

without investigative journalists and some intelligent opinion and editorial content , the news is worthless.

the most interesting sections of the post or the nation are often the letters column.

as a business idea , this rag is a good plan. 100,000 copies of your ad. distributed to your target market.

as a newspaper , it represents just another victory for the dumbing down merchants who continue to drown us with irrelevant blandness and hype day in day out.

Whilst I agree with most of the above, the fact is that 90% or more of the revenue of any publication here comes from advertising. That's not going to change and, sad as it might be, all titles in Thailand are driven by advertising.

It's a good business plan and can work - just look at the Metro brand in London and elsewhere around the world. In London it distributes more than 500,000 copies daily (audited figures) and it's not a bad read either - or it wasn't the last time I looked.

The question will be what damage XPress will do to both The Nation and The Bangkok Post, in terms of drawing that all-important advertising revenue away? And that's if The Nation continues to publish once XPress arrives. There's only a limited amount of advertising revenue available so the arrival of another title will surely dilute the income for the existing titles. And you can be certain The Post will already be planning something to combat this new freebie from their rivals.

[mrtoad]

It means what it says. There is little worth reading in the BP these days, and the home news is an absolute joke. A little bit more competition may actually improve the general standards.

But this wouldn't be competition, from what they themselves say, their target market is shallow people who don't want to read and have short attention spans! As for home news, all media is governed by the same strict 'tabu' subjects, so I don't see any newspaper coming up with more exciting editorials.

Whilst I understand what you are saying, my point is that if this paper is succesful, then it may force the BP to look at changing there paper for the better. It is hardly a long read IMO, and has far less then could be expected in a typical Western Tabloid.

I am sure that there are plenty of interesting things happening in Thailand that are not "Taboo", but we never get to read about the in the post, I find it somewhat farcical that on some days in a country the size of Thailand that there are only One and half pages of news, with the rest of the first three pages taken up with adverts. At 25bhat, it really isn't value for money.

[jbowman1993]

featuring big, lavish pictures, striking headlines

We want all readers to finish reading the newspaper in around 20 minutes

spend only a few seconds glancing at the headlines and photos to get the story idea,

that tells me all i need to know about this new paper.

The potential is there and we think XPRESS will be the answer for advertisers

it will be the medium for advertisers to reach their desired target group

and that just confirms it.

it will be a paper for advertisers more than for those interested in the news.

it will have to be given away because the 20-35 age group may be dumber than they used to be , but they are not dumb enough yet to pay for an ad-sheet.

without investigative journalists and some intelligent opinion and editorial content , the news is worthless.

the most interesting sections of the post or the nation are often the letters column.

as a business idea , this rag is a good plan. 100,000 copies of your ad. distributed to your target market.

as a newspaper , it represents just another victory for the dumbing down merchants who continue to drown us with irrelevant blandness and hype day in day out.

Whilst I agree with most of the above, the fact is that 90% or more of the revenue of any publication here comes from advertising. That's not going to change and, sad as it might be, all titles in Thailand are driven by advertising.

It's a good business plan and can work - just look at the Metro brand in London and elsewhere around the world. In London it distributes more than 500,000 copies daily (audited figures) and it's not a bad read either - or it wasn't the last time I looked.

The question will be what damage XPress will do to both The Nation and The Bangkok Post, in terms of drawing that all-important advertising revenue away? And that's if The Nation continues to publish once XPress arrives. There's only a limited amount of advertising revenue available so the arrival of another title will surely dilute the income for the existing titles. And you can be certain The Post will already be planning something to combat this new freebie from their rivals.

Substitute "in Thailand' for "in the WORLD" and you'll have it right, lol.

[plachon]

this would seem to be directly in-step with what Ben Barber (of "Jihad vs McWorld" fame) refers to as the "infantilization of citizens" in capitalist democracies, in his more recent book "Consumed". The Nation Group is following down a slippery path to irrelevancy for adults, but will no doubt pick-up a whole new fanclub of 20 minute attention span adolescent-minded consumers to nuture. Sad.

[astral]

Extravagant claims for a "Vapour Paper".

[Dupont]

I only buy a paper if I have more than one hour free time to sit and read it.

It never hurts to keep the dumb, well dumb! No chance of em educating or bettering themselves and fat chance of em providing valid competitioin in life to those that really want and strive to get ahead.

Be interesting to see if its as shallow and trite as it sounds. Most people spend more time on the toilet than it takes to read this... Now theres a sales angle, "The daily read and wipe"! Makes the Sunday sport and News of the Screws seem positively highbrow. Bus on the moon? Freddie Star ate my hamster andbody?

Oh and if people cannot be bothered to read papers, can they be more bothered to read the adverts that will be the backbone of it by the look of things?