FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

NMG turns its focus to online media

NMG turns its focus to online media

NATION MULTIMEDIA GROUP (NMG) has announced its vision to become the leader in online media with 100-per-cent growth in online revenue to no less than Bt80 million projected for this year.

NMG chairman Thepchai Yong said the group is going through a restructuring process to focus on online media, which has enjoyed high growth. The group is revamping its personnel to implement the new direction, aimed at becoming the leader in online media. 
In the past, NMG has had a strong base of visitors to the websites of both Kom Chad Luek and Krungthep Turakij. Together with social media, the number of viewers and followers of the group’s websites has reached more than 10 million. The focus on online media will allow NMG to grow further in the future, he said.
“This revamp is to focus our resources on online media. We need to restructure our media personnel to be in line with the new vision, which is to be a keen leader in online media. We need to make our media organisation well-fitting and flexible enough to move sustainably forward,” he said.
Thepchai said that under the revamp, NMG aims to double its online media business this year in terms of number of visitors as well as revenue, which is expected to go up from Bt40 million last year to no less than Bt80 million this year. Last year, the group’s online media revenue came mainly from Krungthep Turakij’s website and bangkokbiznews.com.
Thepchai also revealed plans to penetrate online media, which would be under the three major websites of NMG –The Nation, Krungthep Turakij, and Kom Chad Luek, as well as Nation TV – to be core content providers to make them a web portal. They will play a significant role in generating income from various sources and formats, in addition to advertising and banners on webs, such as providing online services, e-commerce, online classifieds, and agency model.
“There are currently about 500,000 viewers a day to our four websites altogether. We are targeting no less than one million viewers to the four websites by the end of this year,” he said, adding annual revenue from online media would increase at the same level as well.
Thepchai said the revamp of online media would start with the allocation of personnel to support and strengthen its major websites, as well as to adjust the market positioning of each website, especially The Nation, which would change its target viewers from Thais and foreigners who use English, to people from all over the world who want to know about Thailand and the country’s tourism destinations and do business here.
The Nation website will become a Thailand Portal, which will provide all information about Thailand. Meanwhile, the Kom Chad Luek website would be scaled up for speed, in-depth coverage and diversity of its content. The Krungthep Turakij website will become a leading business portal with increase in its content and related services.
“The revamp of our three websites will be the first step in generating traffic and attracting the core target viewers. It will be also a solid foundation to step further into other income generators to be launched in the second quarter such as new websites and applications,” said the chairman, adding that no less than five different online platforms will be launched within this year.
He said that NOW26, a leading documentary channel in digital television, would add and develop its programming with quality documentaries to broaden its viewer base. The channel aims to raise its TV rating to 0.25 level or having 200,000 viewers per minute on average.
“We have been negotiating with world-class partners, who will cooperate with us in developing new documentaries, in addition to leading global documentary providers such as BBC, National Geographic, and Discovery, and other leading producers from Austria, France, Germany and Australia. They will make NOW26 a place to see leading documentaries from around the world,” said Thepchai.

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