The Nation goes online-only from July 1

“Over the past five years, The Nation has lost 30 million baht a year on average,” he said.

Citing a survey, he pointed out that only 36% of The Nation’s readers are based in Thailand while the remaining 64% live overseas, including 25% in the US. He said that meant most of the newspaper’s readers did not buy its paper editions, and they read its reports and articles from the website and through different digital platforms.

Typical readers of The Nation are aged between 25 and 40, and prefer to read news from smartphones rather than a printed newspaper, he said.

Somchai said that as the market for new media was growing, old media businesses like newspapers were fast declining. This could be seen in the continuing decrease in the advertising budgets for publications – down 20% a year on average, compared to an annual 20% growth for new media.

“The new management has considered this matter carefully and decided that The Nation newspaper has to change its platform from print media to online, in order to better cater to the target group,” he said.

The CEO said that The Nation’s online edition would also provide an audible version. He also unveiled |plans for a Mandarin version from October “because at present more than 10 million Chinese visit and invest in Thailand”.

He assured there would be no retrenchments due to the change in platform.

“The editorial staff and employees of The Nation will continue with their work. There will only be a shift in focus from print to online,” he said.

Somchai blamed NMG’s previous management for its cumulative debt of Bt1.57 billion, which he said “almost bankrupted the Nation Group”.