DARK DAYS BRING NEW DAWN

Despite facing many challenges in a highly competitive industry, the Bangkok Post has adapted and found new ways to prosper, writes Pichai Chuensuksawadi

From crisis comes opportunity. That’s the best way to describe the milestones of Post Publishing and the Bangkok Post over a 26-year period from 1990 to the present. Each crisis seemed to dovetail with an opportunity to grow.

In the 1990s, the company clearly benefited from several years of economic boom. But political turmoil loomed and erupted during the Black May protests and crackdown in 1992. Just three months later, however, Post Publishing launched its first Thai-language daily, Siam Post, on Aug 20, 1992.

But unlike Siam Post and other newspapers at that time, the Bangkok Post was lagging behind technologically. The newspaper was still being produced manually — cut and paste. Other newspapers were paginated — produced via computers.

In 1994, the decision was made to give the newspaper a complete redesign and transition to pagination, which meant searching for and selecting a new editorial system.

The redesign was the most extensive change the newspaper had undergone in decades. This involved a thorough review of editorial workflows and content changes. American design and graphics consultants were contracted to work with the reporting staff, editors and designers. In 1996, on the Bangkok Post’s 50th anniversary, the redesign was launched.

As the redesign process was under way, an inhouse editorial team was formed to study and select a new editorial pagination system. The Bangkok Post was fortunate to have a strong team. They helped select the system but were also instrumental in the training of staff and implementation.

But that process did not occur overnight. One key challenge was that the editorial staff had no experience in putting together a newspaper with computers. New staff had to be hired with pagination experience, while the process of training staff was not without challenges. Changing mindsets and work practices is always a challenge.

As the pagination project got under way, the economic bubble of the 1990s would soon burst. But before it did, Post Publishing had to admit that its Siam Post newspaper was not performing as expected. The newspaper was sold to ML Tridhosyuth Devakul in 1996.

The July 1997 tom yum kung financial crisis devastated businesses and companies, shocked executives and caused the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. The newspaper and media industry was no exception. Several Thai newspapers would eventually shut down, including Siam Post, whose final issue was on Dec 29, 1997.

As the financial crisis unfolded, Post Publishing systematically shed non-core business units andd operations. In the end the newspaper had to cut its most valuable asset — the staff.

By the end of the process, about 300 had to leave including 40 editorial staff. The objective was survival and the process was painful. But Post Publishing and the Bangkok Post survived. In 2000, the newspaper launched its new pagination system.

Surviving the crisis meant an opportunity for soulsearching. The board of directors and management met at a retreat in Hua Hin to chart the company’s future. They concluded that while the Bangkok Post remained the “heart and soul” of the company, Post Publishing had to diversify and have its content distributed on all platforms — more print but also electronic and online.

From 2000 to now, the Bangkok Post would not be the company’s sole newspaper. More newspapers and magazines would be launched, while the company would build and expand its online and digital platforms to disseminate its content as well as enter television production.

On Feb 7, 2003, the Bangkok Post’s sister newspaper, the Thai-language business daily Post Today, was launched despite internal and external scepticism. The ghost of Siam Post was still fresh in many people’s minds.

But Post Today, however, offered a different approach with crisp content and bright presentation. It was a business and economic daily with a sizeable dose of politics, international news and sports. Its thrust was the result of intense market and consumer surveys and a dedicated staff. By 2007, Post Today broke even operationally and has continued to be popular and profitable.

Crisis struck again in the second quarter of 2008. The hamburger crisis in the United States shook the world. Like many other businesses and the newspaper industry, the Post’s profitability was severely affected. But unlike 1997, the directors sought to cut costs and hunker down but not cut staff. Company performance ran into the red but a V-shaped recovery ensued in 2009 and all was back on track.

The Post continued to move forward and started a more vigorous foray into television production. Like a number of newspaper groups, the Post wanted to learn and gain more experience in this highly competitive industry. On April 11, 2010, Post News, an affiliate of Post Publishing, was awarded a contract to produce Thai-language news for eight hours a day on Channel 11. Apart from daily news reports and analysis, the Bangkok Post had it first-ever daily English-language news and analysis programme, Morning Focus. Fullscale programming started on May 11, 2010, just a week before the tumultuous events of May 19. The Post News contract with Channel 11 ended in April 2013.

From 2010, it became increasingly clear that the younger generation still wanted to be informed. They still wanted news but they wanted it at their leisure, online and digitally. Once again, following careful study, the Post launched M2F (Monday to Friday) — Bangkok’s first mass-circulation free tabloid newspapers — on Oct 11, 2011, during the height of the worst floods Bangkok had experienced in decades. M2F had an audited circulation of 400,000 copies and wass successful very quickly once the floods subsided. It was profitable within two years and continues to bee the most read Thai-language newspaper in Bangkok.

Like many newspaper groups, Post Publishing continued its efforts with television production even though it did not secure a digital licence. The challenges of digital television are formidable. In its 70th year, Post Publishing has regrouped to prepare to tackle the challenges of digital and mobile publishing as it moves ahead.