“Good media” mean good business
2014 marked a watershed year for the Thai media industry with the lifting of the 40-year monopoly on television concessions and the emergence of digital TV on 24 channels, bringing fresh opportunities and choices for both viewers and operators.
Amid the revolutionary changes sweeping the media industry, Nation Group has successfully grasped the opportunities available and overcome the challenges, winning the bidding for two digital TV channels – “Nation TV”, a news channel on slot number 22 and NOW, an SD variety channel on number 26.
After just one year of digital TV, the benefits to viewers are clear. Fierce competition is driving all the television broadcasters to develop content to unprecedentedly high standards in order to win viewers. Nation Group has passed through this first tumultuous year with flying colours, and we are justly proud of both of our digital TV channels.
At the thick of the fierce competition, “Nation TV” is among the frontrunners in the digital news category while up-and-coming NOW26 is making waves with its strikingly different style of Biz-Life-Variety programming. Even though this is only the first year, both channels have achieved satisfactory revenues in accordance with our targets and expectations.
Amidst these sweeping changes, “Nation Group” remains firmly committed to developing the highest standards of content. In 2014, we accelerated investment in human resources and the latest technologies and equipment, elevating our style of presentation to international levels and asserting our presence within the industry.
Above all, the success of Nation Group, whether through our three newspapers or two digital TV channels, is founded upon the “trust” that the Thai people have placed in us as a “quality media organization” throughout the 44 years since our inception.
The trust of the public can only be won through professionalism and a deep understanding of and adherence to professional ethics by our people, the invaluable “assets” of Nation Group that provide the impetus for our success, driving the organization forward without limit.
The “trust” that the public have placed in our media did not come about overnight. On the contrary, it has been built up over a period of several decades, through the dedication and support of people at all levels – from our employees’ firm belief in what they do, from the guidance of our management and from our shareholders. Together, they stand for our policy of independence and share the same ideology.
Nonetheless, our 44 years in the media profession have not always been easy. It is true that the media business is based on the trust of the public, but we are also required to generate satisfactory levels of profits for shareholders and maintain high levels of social responsibility and professional ethics. Indeed, the parameters of our business are much more restrictive than other industries.
Still, we are confident in the belief that “good media mean good business”.
We believe that the long-term benefits of business and of society are one and the same. If Nation Group is able to maintain its standing as a “good media organization”, with executives and shareholders who adhere to strict ethical principles in both business and editorial aspects, and who are not under the influence of business entities or political groups, then the benefits to be reaped will be shared by all - shareholders, management, employees and our audience, which is the general public.
As long as we maintain the trust that the people have placed in us, we are confident that Nation Group will continue to grow, without limits. No matter what direction global media take next, we always stand ready to grasp the opportunities and face the challenges.
That is the real benefit that is shared by both the organization and society as a whole.
As we celebrate our 45th anniversary in the coming year we will remain steadfast in our belief that “good media are the wellspring of good business.”
As an important supporter of our business, we hope you agree with us.
Suthichai Yoon
Chairman
Chairman’s Statement
The Sky Has No Limit
The year 2013, which coincided with the 43rd anniversary of Nation Group, was a breakthrough year for us, as we became a full-cycle media business and Thailand’s most comprehensive media organization. In addition to our existing newspaper, satellite TV, cable TV, online media and radio businesses, we will be operating two more free TV channels – Nation TV and NOW – through our successful bid for digital TV licenses at the end of 2013. These new channels will create future business potential and can be regarded as a turning point in the company’s business structure, with a gradual shift of focus from the core print business to the TV business.
The successful bidding for the two new free TV channels will reap dividends for Nation Group. They will serve to propel us further and higher, making our future all the more bright. Aside from generating new sources of income through TV advertising worth something to the tune of 100 billion baht, the free TV business will support the content presentation of Nation Group’s print media such as The Nation, Krungthep Turakij and Kom Chad Luek newspapers, expanding coverage to new target reader groups. We are confident in claiming that digital TV will elevate our organization to new heights.
From this day forward “The Sky Has No Limit”. With our fully integrated media and personnel, we are ready to advance and take on whatever challenges we encounter.
Nation Group has positioned itself as a quality media organization at the forefront of the industry. Over the years, we have placed great emphasis on personnel development to keep pace with the inherent change within the industry. We have created media professionals with combined capabilities in new media, video, TV, publications and radio, as well as introduced many new media innovations, enabling us to cover the news in a fast and timely manner across a variety of media channels.
Importantly, our working philosophy is firmly based on quality, professional ethics and responsibility, leading to accountable coverage and reports, which is an essential element of the media profession.
This year, we are entering a new media landscape in Thailand, with liberalization of the TV industry following 40 years of government monopolization of frequency concessions. After decades of channels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and Thai PBS, the industry will now welcome 24 new channels. We are confident of success in this new business landscape for Nation Group, since we are doing what we specialize in, with professional media personnel developed over many years and quality content, which has always been widely recognized as one of the primary strengths of Nation Group.
We believe that when Nation TV Channel, formerly known as Nation Channel, enters the digital TV business, it will immediately become the number 1 news channel. Our “Nation TV Town” is currently under development to serve as the centre for digital TV production and the newly-created programs of Nation Group, with more intensive content than ever.
NOW Channel is expected to build upon the already-solid customer bases of Krungthep Turakij newspaper and Krungthep Turakij TV. NOW TV is a variety and lifestyle channel created for the new generation, business persons, CEO’s and SMEs, covering business, music, culture, game shows, and sports. It targets the interests of Thailand’s expanding urban group.
In terms of business performance, the year 2013 was a prosperous year for us as we achieved the “best performance” since our inception. This achievement can be attributed to our incessant improvements, staying abreast of changing technologies and consumer behavior patterns.
Nation Group has pioneered new phenomena in the Thai media industry several times in the past. We therefore feel very confident that Nation Group will continue to enjoy strong and sustainable progress as an organization that is “ideas based”, always on the search for “new opportunities” and consistently developing in “innovative ways”.
Suthichai Yoon
Chairman of Nation Multimedia Group
From the Year of 'N' Power to 'The Next Big Thing'
2012 was another year full of new challenges and opportunities. The media landscape saw dramatic changes that came with new technologies and consumer behaviour that raised questions about the old models of doing things. The Nation Multimedia Group entered the Year of the Dragon a much more agile, innovative and efficient media organization well-prepared to ride the wave of changes and new challenges.
The Nation Group has continued to be among the most recognized and most trusted media organizations amid continuing political, economic and social frictions that demand independent and responsible role played by the media. Its overall business performance reinforces confidence in its strategy to harness the new media technology to solidify its position as a leader in the media industry. In the past year, consistent efforts were put into using new technological innovations to create synergy between the new and the traditional media.
We took a revolutionary step in news management with the establishment of a "Convergent Newsroom" in August. The Convergent Newsroom, the first in Thai media industry, is designed to provide a far more effective and resource-efficient news-planning and news-gathering through synergy among editors and journalists of the group's print, television and online media who are now are working as one single editorial unit to produce content tailored for the different platforms It is also supported by a modern integrated editorial system that provides a converged platform for all news content flows and ensures maximum utilization of editorial content and coordination among different editors.
The Convergent Newsroom caps efforts by the Nation Group at multi-tasking among its journalists. Years of training and practice have produced an army of resourceful editors and reporters who not only write stories for the newspapers but also shoot pictures and do video editing. Many have gone a step further to do live reporting from the fields and commentary in TV studios.
On the marketing side, we have steadily moved toward a convergent marketing team which is now well-positioned to respond to the fast-changing media landscape. Our customer-centric marketing personnel are resourceful and well-versed in serving the diverse media platforms and engaging in all types of marketing-related activities. Their unwavering mission is to work in the best interest of our customers.
We also continue relentlessly to maintain our tradition of always striving to be ahead of the pack both editorially and technologically. While our presence and influence in the social media is indisputable, just before the end of the year the Nation Group took a great technological leap by introducing "iSnap". It revolutionizes the way people read newspapers. Using the most advanced image recognition technology, it gives an added exciting dimension to print content in the forms of video and images. By extending the breadth and depth of content in all the three daily newspapers of the group, iSnap simply "brings your newspapers to life," as its slogan goes.
Seizing on the coming ASEAN integration, we have moved aggressively beyond the Thai borders. We are the first Thai media group to enter the Myanmar market, working in partnership with a Yangon-based Myanmar media firm Eleven Media to launch a variety of media platforms that include a news website. We are now operating an English language centre in Yangon and is working with Eleven Media to launch an English-language daily soon.
While maintaining editorial standard and offering the best value to our customers is always our top priority, we are ever conscious of our responsibility toward the society. Strict adherence to journalistic ethics and being accountable has always been the guiding principle for all the news outlets of the group. We consider credibility to be the most valuable asset of the group. The founding of the Nation University is another move by the group to play a role in education. We are translating our years of experience in the field of media into knowledge to be shared among students who also have access to real life experience from our working editors and journalists, as well as management and market executives.
The past year also saw organizational changes designed to streamline and increase the efficiency of different business units within the group. The aim was to bring about more unity and synergy under the philosophy "One Nation, One Family". The result is an organization that is more efficient and more agile in meeting changes and new challenges in the digital age. It also reaffirms The Nation Group's strong adherence to the principle of transparency, accountability and journalistic code of conduct that has served as its foundation since its beginning 42 years ago.
2012 was truly a year when the Power of "N" manifested itself in all aspects of The Nation Group beyond any doubt. It was a year we met new challenges with novelty. It was a year that all business units of the group leapt ahead of competitors with nimbleness to create a niche.
But most importantly, 2012 was another beginning of our non-stop search for The Next Big Thing. And the good news is that next "Next Big Thing" that we are looking for in 2013 may be just around the corner.
Suthichai Yoon
Chairman