Biased Reporting Bangkok Post Business Section

[ray08]

We all have different views on the Thai property market on ThaiVisa , negative , neutral and positive which is what a forum is about , but when i read newspapers sometimes a more unbiased view is what i am after , this is to me even more important in the Business Section of pappers where a lot of us would go for information,

The Bangkok Post Business section today on property insight http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/18Feb2008_biz35.php

had a very glowing report on the Pattaya market ,with quotes like "The botton line for investors in Pattaya;s high end residential property market is solid returns whether from rental yields or capital gains"

This sought of reporting seems to me like an advert more than a Property Insight report , and also the fact that Raimon land are in that segment of the market all the more ,even though at the end of article there is a highlighted sentance stating that the author is a CEO of a property company i would think such an article has no place in the business section of a papper or at best should be highlighted as Advertisment ,

Can such articles be deceiving to potential investors ?,especially overseas people with less local knowledge or is it pretty legit way of writting ?

[Gary A]

We all have different views on the Thai property market on ThaiVisa , negative , neutral and positive which is what a forum is about , but when i read newspapers sometimes a more unbiased view is what i am after , this is to me even more important in the Business Section of pappers where a lot of us would go for information,

The Bangkok Post Business section today on property insight http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/18Feb2008_biz35.php

had a very glowing report on the Pattaya market ,with quotes like "The botton line for investors in Pattaya;s high end residential property market is solid returns whether from rental yields or capital gains"

This sought of reporting seems to me like an advert more than a Property Insight report , and also the fact that Raimon land are in that segment of the market all the more ,even though at the end of article there is a highlighted sentance stating that the author is a CEO of a property company i would think such an article has no place in the business section of a papper or at best should be highlighted as Advertisment ,

Can such articles be deceiving to potential investors ?,especially overseas people with less local knowledge or is it pretty legit way of writting ?

What else would you expect? They certainly are NOT going to say that the units are overpriced and that some developments are never going to be finished.

[cclub75]

It's not a report.

It's a contribution of :

"Nigel Cornick is Chief Executive Officer of Raimon Land Public Co Ltd, Thailand's leading international property developer with projects in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya"

Therefore, we can't expect something different !

Nigel is just another lunatic guru of the boiler room.

To say "yeah ladies and gentlemen, for resales, oh la la la my budha, we made 50% and 2005" is just childhish (the exact quote : "By 2005, resales were bringing in returns of more than 30% with rates jumping to 40-50% the following year.")

Like for funds, customers do not care about past returns... Now the real question is : can Nigel make 50 % in 2008 with his condos in Pattaya ? !

I guess he won't be able to answer us at the end of the year... Busted.

[WilliamJarvis]

For more than 20 years the Bangkok Post Business Section has been nothing more than Press Release Statements. The Nation is bad, but the Bangkok Post is a walking talking advertisement section...

[PadThaiGuy]

Newspapers and magazines are made to sell ads. The actual news is just filler.

Big advertisers get a certain amount of "editorial" space.

[Jandajoy]

Amen to the above. I love the BKKP but the way blatant advertising is presented as objective comment stinks. I emailed them to that effect but the message obviously got lost in the ether.

Are any of the property companies connected with the BKKP in any way? Do they pay to get these articles printed? I make good sandwiches. Maybe I could post a few to the editors and get a bit of a write up?

pip pip

[quiksilva]

No they are not, well not directly. Of course some of the wealthy shareholders of the Bangkok Post have been known to dabble in real estate development or hold shares in some other firms, but not in the way that you are insinuating.

Real estate firms do spend a lot on advertising though, and people always like to talk / read about property, as this forum shows.

[Jandajoy]

No they are not, well not directly. Of course some of the wealthy shareholders of the Bangkok Post have been known to dabble in real estate development or hold shares in some other firms, but not in the way that you are insinuating.

Real estate firms do spend a lot on advertising though, and people always like to talk / read about property, as this forum shows.

Fair comment though I'm not too sure how you can so sure.

True, Real Estate firms do spend a lot on advertising, no worries, that's up to them

BUT

I do think that articles such as those noted above could be subtitled with something to the effect that the author is hardly likely to be objective. This should be the Editor's responsibility and adherred to religously if the paper is to have any credibility.

Happy Days

[jonniebkk]

Yea completely agree...most of the articles in Post's business section are written by PR departments or PR firms of the company being "reported" on. Most of the time, said company is a major advertiser in the paper or just splurged on some anniversary special advertising insert type of thing.

[bingobongo]

We all have different views on the Thai property market on ThaiVisa , negative , neutral and positive which is what a forum is about , but when i read newspapers sometimes a more unbiased view is what i am after , this is to me even more important in the Business Section of pappers where a lot of us would go for information,

The Bangkok Post Business section today on property insight http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/18Feb2008_biz35.php

had a very glowing report on the Pattaya market ,with quotes like "The botton line for investors in Pattaya;s high end residential property market is solid returns whether from rental yields or capital gains"

This sought of reporting seems to me like an advert more than a Property Insight report , and also the fact that Raimon land are in that segment of the market all the more ,even though at the end of article there is a highlighted sentance stating that the author is a CEO of a property company i would think such an article has no place in the business section of a papper or at best should be highlighted as Advertisment ,

Can such articles be deceiving to potential investors ?,especially overseas people with less local knowledge or is it pretty legit way of writting ?

of course their is deceit as there is money involved, according to real estate folks it is always a good time to buy

besides, how much real estate advertising revenue do you think these newspapers get from real estate developers/agents?........if you start to slam all real estate, they stop advertising and newspaper makes less money

if you actually think a real estate company has your best interests at heart, you truly are naieve

Edited February 19, 2008 by bingobongo

[ray08]

of course their is deceit as there is money involved, according to real estate folks it is always a good time to buy

besides, how much real estate advertising revenue do you think these newspapers get from real estate developers/agents?........if you start to slam all real estate, they stop advertising and newspaper makes less money

if you actually think a real estate company has your best interests at heart, you truly are naieve

In the end i don,t beleive that the newspaper have to slam Real Estate Agents , because that would them show a biase on their side ,in the same way that the newspapers should not let real estate firms get away with such behaviour in there papers , and i must say i take more offence that it is in the business section which i believe should be fairly neutral compared to say the Outlook section where anything is in there ,

Also if the Real Estate Agents do boycot a paper they only shoot themselves in the foot ,where can they go there are only 2 papers that most foreigners read so not much room to move ,

I do understand from the real estate side the policy "it is always a good time to buy" how else can they put food on the table ? in quite times ,they also need to survive and live , but a bit more Ethics by papers and real estate agents would not go astray and maybe in the long run give a better image to these people ,but i know it is only wishful thinking