Thai magazines seek cooperative links with Chinese
The Magazine Association of Thailand (TMAT) and the China Periodicals Association (CPA) expect to create a strong relationship for further cooperation in the development of the magazine industry in both countries during the 36th FIPP World Magazine Congress next year.
This is the biannual meeting of the International Federation of the Periodical Press. The ultimate goal is to exchange experience and trade magazine licences between the two countries. The CPA will host the world congress during May 13-15 in Beijing. There will be approximately 1,000 participants, of whom 500 will be international publishers. The main topics to be discussed during the congress include how traditional magazines are affected by online magazines which have gained more popularity; how to effectively sell advertisements in magazines; how to effectively run business-to-business magazines; and how magazines in Asia should develop. TMAT's president and Nation Multimedia Group chairman Thanachai Theerapattanavong is among the international participants. CPA's chairman Zhang Bohai extended an official invitation to Thanachai last Tuesday during a meeting at The Nation. At the meeting, Zhang showed his appreciation for the Thai magazine industry, saying it has developed quickly in term of formats, the variety of categories and title variations from around the world. Thailand has approximately 1,000 magazines, of which around half are actively published, according to Thanachai. Meanwhile, Zhang revealed that China had approximately 9,468 titles with an accumulated circulation of 2.76 billion copies in 2005. Advertising sales revenue of the Chinese media for the year was 2.49 billion yuan (Bt11.2 billion). Zhang said Thailand and China face similar problems in the industry due to similar cultures. One similarity in the two countries is the entry of many magazine titles from the US and Europe, while few domestic magazines have the ability to export back and build the same high reputation. China is considered as a promising country for the Thai magazine industry to learn from, as Thanachai said the industry there is enormous and has an interesting competitive atmosphere. Apart from sharing information, Thanachai and Zhang also expected to see cooperation in term of co-activities and strategies to expand the magazine market in international markets. During the meeting, Thanachai also proposed an idea to arrange private conferences among Asian magazine publishers during the congress and to see if this would further develop into an official forum for Asian magazines. The CPA was established in April 1992 and has nearly 1,000 members, consisting of magazine training, scientific research and administration. It joined the International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) in October 2000. Meanwhile, TMAT was established in November last year. The world congress is arranged by FIPP's members in different countries every two years. The last congress was organised in New York.
Nitida Asawanipont The Nation
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