Publisher of 'Vogue Thailand' expects to bring in 2 more titles
ALTHOUGH advertising spending through print media, particularly in the magazine segment, is continuing to fall, the publisher of Vogue Thailand sees bright prospects - indeed the firm plans to bring two more international magazine titles to Thailand in th
The publisher will also strengthen its digital platform to lure new subscribers and increase revenue.
“Lifestyle products related to male consumers play a key role in the fashion industry. Like women, nowadays men invest in their appearance, including clothes, cosmetics, tech gadgets and other boy toys,” Siri Udomritthiruj, chief executive officer of Serendipity Media, publisher of Vogue Thailand, told The Nation.
This presents a huge opportunity, and reason enough for the company to bring in a leading men’s magazine to spoil male Thai readers next year, and in later years it will also bring in another title.
Siri preferred not to mention the names of these new magazines but predicted that acquiring licences to publish Thai versions might approach Bt200 million.
As Serendipity Media has a strong relationship with Conde Nast International, the new titles might be under that leading US publishing house.
Siri, who has been in the fashion-magazine business for more than 15 years, said Thai magazine publishers had learned how to survive in intense competition when media became more fragmented while international titles became more acceptable to local readers.
“To win in this game, the quality of content and production cannot be compromised,” she said.
Therefore, 80 per cent of the content in Vogue Thailand is produced by Thai editorial teams, while the quality of images, colours, taste and inspiration must reflect genuine Vogue DNA.
However, the CEO added that Thai Vogue must offer a very different experience than other international editions.
The key challenge for Thai Vogue is the establishment of a strong digital platform.
Consumers are spending more time on digital media, a trend that will continue to rise.
“But advertisers still take a cautious wait-and-see approach and spend their budgets via these new media slowly,” Siri said.
She believes the company needs to develop a special team to work on digital media, not just creating mobile applications and digital formatting but making it friendly for users and also for advertisers.
Currently, Vogue Thailand has a monthly circulation is 100,000.
According to Nielsen (Thailand), in the first half of this year, advertising expenditure via magazines witnessed slight growth of 0.66 per cent to Bt3.06 billion from Bt3.04 billion, while spending via the Internet saw a 48-per-cent surge to Bt497 million from Bt334 million.
