'Nation' editorial staff ready to fight against suspected takeover bid


Nation Multimedia Group chairman Suthichai Yoon addresses an urgent meeting of NMG

BANGKOK: -- Nation Multimedia Group (NMG) employees yesterday joined forces to voice their resistance to a possible hostile takeover attempt by Solution Corner (SLC) and its nominees, which they said might damage the group's media freedom.

NMG chairman Suthichai Yoon and senior editors called an urgent meeting with staff, in which serious concerns were voiced about whether SLC's stake acquisition might lead to a hostile takeover and have an impact on NMG's credibility and professionalism.

SLC alone has bought a 12.27-per-cent stake in NMG, but if the number of shares bought by its nominees are added, then this group will have a stake of about 30 per cent in the media conglomerate.

At the meeting, members of staff also voiced doubts about this cross-media holding, and wondered if it could be considered a conflict of interest that would violate the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission regulation prohibiting investors from holding shares across different digital-TV companies. SLC, which owns the Spring News TV channel, has acquired 10 million shares in GMM Grammy in addition to its 12.27-per-cent stake in NMG.

This is not normal practice, as Spring News itself is facing big losses and needs some monetary support and improvement measures.

"This is a serious battle between capitalism and professionalism. It is another pressure we are confronting and another proof of how strong we are. We will not lose, as the whole society is watching us," said a senior NMG executive, questioning the source of the cash SLC will use to acquire the NMG stake.

"The Nation has built a strong reputation as a fair, non-biased news organisation for 45 years. It is the life of every person in the organisation. Nobody will be able to violate our professionalism and strong credibility that we have maintained for such a long period of time," he said.

According to The Nation's editorial policy, a proper distance needs to be kept between the company's management and the editorial department. Hence outside investors cannot interfere with the operation and the content of NMG news media, certainly not individual investors with questionable agendas.

A key management member said NMG was not going to benefit particularly from this acquisition of shares by SLC and there would be no significant alliance between the company and the new investor.

He added that NMG was financially strong as the management and staff had been working hard to run the organisation efficiently and strictly manage its costs versus revenue. That is why NMG is able to maintain its media freedom and professionalism, he said.

The senior staff member added that 2015 would be the year in which NMG would be at its strongest both in terms of finance and business opportunities. The company expects to become one of the top five media organisations in the next five to 10 years in terms of revenue, number of viewers and reputation, he said.

Nation Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) president Adisak Limprungpatanakij added that the group would build a defence at all angles to ensure that its media outlets would not be disrupted by any influence.

He also voiced doubts about SLC's financial sources for the acquisition, adding that NMG would be united against questionable forces.

"We would like to ask SLC to sell all its shares in NMG to ensure fair competition among all media players and create content that is beneficial to everybody," Adisak said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Nation-editorial-staff-ready-to-fight-against-susp-30250303.html

-- The Nation 2014-12-20

I'm sure their defense hinges on their spectacular ability to baffle with bulls..t

The Nation! A strong reputation! Ah! Ah!

NMG chairman Suthichai Yoon and senior editors called an urgent meeting with staff, in which serious concerns were voiced about whether SLC's stake acquisition might lead to a hostile takeover and have an impact on NMG's credibility and professionalism.

Credibility with whom?

Professionalism? Well... they can usually publish comprehensible English in the articles we see. How is their stuff in Thai? As to the overall quality which is a reflection on the professionalism of the organisation, well, let's just say the bar is not too high there.

As to the potential takeover, given the limited and somewhat biased information about the "suitor" one has to ask who is bankrolling the share purchases.

They have a couple of decent columnists, but too many embarrassing fossiles to have a "reputation" in the positive sense.

If the takeover help to get professional editors, I would go silently with the flow guys...

The nation fair and non bias as long as you wear a yellow shirt!

Well, the Nation does come up with some good articles, and I don't really have a problem with it. Hope that if new owners are going to be there, well, they will let the Nation carry on doing what it is doing.

This Thai chairman guy is preaching that a takeover might damage their "media freedom."

The nation fair and non bias as long as you wear a yellow shirt!

If only they reached the standard of editorial balance of a paper like Khaosod, eh ?

I think it's not unreasonable to expect most media here, or in any other country, to have a bias of some sort.

Just a problem of the whole media industry.

But I do wish the sub-editors at 'The Nation' were better, the standard of written English is sometimes lacking, IMO.

......any word on who controls SLC......???

...are there some political affiliations behind both groups....???

Interesting to see who makes up the board of directors/major shareholders of Solution Corner (SLC) and which nominees they are using ... takes some time do some digging, but I love connecting the dots.

......any word on who controls SLC......???

...are there some political affiliations behind both groups....???

According to Google Finance, this is the current board setup (although other sources were slightly different):

https://www.google.com/finance?cid=1681964138075

And this is from their website:

http://www.slc1998.com/about_board.html

These were interesting older articles too from 2010 and 2011, nice bit of insider dealing going on:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/SLC-s-major-shareholder-to-oversubscribe-to-share--30140326.html

http://www.sec.or.th/en/Pages/News/Detail_News.aspx?tg=NEWS&lg=en&news_no=14&news_yy=2011

And this was just the main company, not their nominees which are also interesting to look into.

Edited December 20, 201411 yr by Tatsujin

Not a newspaper anyone takes seriously. They desperately need proof readers.

The nation fair and non bias as long as you wear a yellow shirt!

Yes, they are a good counter to Khaosod who are also fair and non-biased as long as you wear a red shirt.

Not a newspaper anyone takes seriously. They desperately need proof readers.

Actually, the more modern and common usage of the word is "proofreaders", not two words, same as what happened with the word "today" which was reduced to a single word over hundreds of years.

Well you are very bright, you know an alternate usage. Good for you.

"This is a serious battle between capitalism and professionalism. " Cum on, people running newspapers want to make money and editors should keep that in mind or they will be selling papers not helping make them!

The real problem here is that the Nation has no credibility or professionalism.

No idea who SLC is, so cannot comment on whether said takeover would be good or bad. Either way, until journalists in Thailand start doing real investigative reporting, it really will not matter who controls it. Plus most of the articles I see in both english language newpapers are so poorly written that they are often very confusing, if not out and out wrong.

Takeover or not, The Nation needs to up it's game.

This might be the time for the NCPO to takeover The Nation for the sake of national security.

This might be the time for the NCPO to takeover The Nation for the sake of national security.

You might be closer to the truth than you know!!

The National Chief of Police Khun Somyot, who was handpicked by Prayuth, is a major shareholder in SLC!!

Maybe using the NMG deal as a laundromat for the cashflow from the islands??

It is all interconnected and all equally dirty!!

The nation fair and non bias as long as you wear a yellow shirt!

If only they reached the standard of editorial balance of a paper like Khaosod, eh ?

I think it's not unreasonable to expect most media here, or in any other country, to have a bias of some sort.

Just a problem of the whole media industry.

But I do wish the sub-editors at 'The Nation' were better, the standard of written English is sometimes lacking, IMO.

Several years ago, when forced to economise, they fired most of their native speaker sub-editors. The English won't improve until the paper makes enough money to pay for hiring enough subs again.

Not a newspaper anyone takes seriously. They desperately need proof readers.

Actually, the more modern and common usage of the word is "proofreaders", not two words, same as what happened with the word "today" which was reduced to a single word over hundreds of years.

Hey, The Nation has a job for you! They'll pay you peanuts, but you'll be very happy cleaning up their English and teaching the local staff arcane pieces of etymology.

Not a newspaper anyone takes seriously. They desperately need proof readers.

Actually, the more modern and common usage of the word is "proofreaders", not two words, same as what happened with the word "today" which was reduced to a single word over hundreds of years.

Hey, The Nation has a job for you! They'll pay you peanuts, but you'll be very happy cleaning up their English and teaching the local staff arcane pieces of etymology.

Just pondering on why the Nations staff would need to learn about insects ???? ;-)

He's got an 'ology...........

Edited December 20, 201411 yr by Gentmartin

Not a newspaper anyone takes seriously. They desperately need proof readers.

Actually, the more modern and common usage of the word is "proofreaders", not two words, same as what happened with the word "today" which was reduced to a single word over hundreds of years.

Hey, The Nation has a job for you! They'll pay you peanuts, but you'll be very happy cleaning up their English and teaching the local staff arcane pieces of etymology.

Just pondering on why the Nations staff would need to learn about insects ???? ;-)

He's got an 'ology...........

That's entomology. Time you invested in a dictionary, or tried some better jokes, one or the other.

Well you are very bright, you know an alternate usage. Good for you.

You are only making it worse. You just didn't know. No big deal. In the past, I proofread many documents on a daily basis. Have you ever proof read? No, but you may have read proof. Btw, a copyeditor does the same work. He also doesn't copy edits. He copyedits or blue-pencils.No comment about the use of "alternate". Mai pben rai, CapeCobra

Someone as excited about the English language, as you appear to be, should be agreeing with me. They certainly butcher it over at the Nation.

I am the kind of guy that can't see his mistakes, but I can usually catch others. I never send anything out without having another set of eyes on it. Thank you for illustrating my point.

This Yoon guy used to be reasonably level-headed, but is now a bit of a dinosaur.

If I were an owner of the Nation company, I would want the value of my shares to increase. An interested investor has emerged, so that should be good for my shares.

Yoon does not like the new investors because they are not "blue-blooded" enough for his liking.

Not a newspaper anyone takes seriously. They desperately need proof readers.

Actually, the more modern and common usage of the word is "proofreaders", not two words, same as what happened with the word "today" which was reduced to a single word over hundreds of years.

Then you'll love this: The accidental origin of nicknames.

http://www.wimp.com/nicknames/

The real problem here is that the Nation has no credibility or professionalism.

No idea who SLC is, so cannot comment on whether said takeover would be good or bad. Either way, until journalists in Thailand start doing real investigative reporting, it really will not matter who controls it. Plus most of the articles I see in both english language newpapers are so poorly written that they are often very confusing, if not out and out wrong.

Takeover or not, The Nation needs to up it's game.

Either way, until journalists in Thailand start doing real investigative reporting

You know, investigative reporting could get you killed in the Land of Smiles. I don't think any newspaper is willing to pay enough for reporters to take much risk.

both english language newpapers are so poorly written that they are often very confusing, if not out and out wrong.

It may be that the whole 'criminalizing libel and slander' thing plus, the very real possibility of being civilly sued even if you can prove you wrote the truth, is causing some of the stories to be 'fuzzy'. It's very rude to be 'direct' in Thailand and reporters are not excluded from social rules. You notice they always just accept and report government spokesperson statements and never ask probing questions. Thainess. Farang no understand! (they got that right)

Edited December 20, 201411 yr by rametindallas