AMARIN'S MAGAZINES SEEK WEBSITE BOOST

       Amarin Printing and Publishing will focus more on connecting its magazines with their readers next year, to increase advertising revenue and reader numbers.
       The plan is the company's main business strategy to boost sustainable growth amid the changing of lifestyles towards the huge popularity of social networking. Rarin Utakapan Panjarungrot, managing director of the Publishing Business Division, last week said one way to create greater connectivity was to improve the magazines' websites to give them more content than in the past and provide interactive online columns, such as questions and answers on beauty topics.
       Some content unable to be published in the magazines will be posted on the websites. This, as well as interactive articles, will differentiate the websites' content from that of the magazines. It is hoped this will attract more readers and website visitors.
       This model is quite new for the Thai magazine market but recognised abroad, Rarin siad.
       Amarin began to create online social networks with two magazines-Baan Lae Suan and Room-last year. The next is Praew, Amarin's flagship magazine for women, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
       "After we fixed more attention on online media, Baan Lae Suan's website visitors, for example, increased 50 per cent to 130,000 a month, while circulation rose 10 per cent. This was beyond our expectations in this tough year. We expect to experience the same response from Praew and other magazines," Rarin said.
       At present, advertising revenue from the websites accounts for only 2 per cent of the company's ad revenue. It expects this to increase to 5 per cent next year and 10 per cent within three years, she said.
       Advertising contributes 30 per cent of the total revenue of the Publishing Business Division. The rest comes from magazine sales, book publishing and event organising, at contribution rates of 30 per cent, 30 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
       Rarin believes the company's revenue growth this year may fall to a single-digit rate. Last year, it recorded revenue of Bt1.87 billion. The performance is expected to improve next year, due to the economic recovery and the company's new business strategy.
       As well as increasing advertising revenue through online media, she said Amarin would also focus more on its event-organising business next year by expanding to serve outside clients. It now organises only its own events, such as a Baan Lae Suan fair. It will recruit more event-business unit.
       "We have enough experience in this field and are confident we can do this. Organising events is a business that generates greater gross-profit margins than publishing, because we don't have fixed costs. This could publishing business, which relies mostly on ad revenue," she said.