Thai Rath downsizes newspaper workforce citing crippling decline in revenues

Thai Rath, the country’s biggest newspaper, is buckling under the weight of digital change and downsizing its staff.

In yet another sign of the woes in the Thai media industry, the mass-circulation Thai Rath newspaper is downsizing through a voluntary early retirement scheme.

Thai Rath, which at its peak claimed a daily circulation of one million, said in a statement yesterday that the drastic change in media consumption behavior has hit the paper badly.

Thai Rath was founded on 5 January 1950 by Kampol Wacharapol as Khaopap which was published between 1950 and 1958. The newspaper was shut down in 1958, along with other leading contemporary newspapers, by the military government of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat. Kampol then “rented” the Siang Ang Thong newspaper’s name from Laor Ketkaew, and continued publishing under that name between 1 May 1959 and 24 December 1962. On 25 December 1962, Thai Rath published its first issue.

The statement, signed by its CEO Ms Yingluck Watcharaphol, admitted that the paper was not able to meet its revenue target although it had tried all possible means to keep the newspaper business afloat.

It said it is necessary for the company to downsize and to reduce its staff so it will be able to carry on with the business, adding that all staff members at every level of the Watcharaphol Company which owns the newspaper and a digital TV channel, are eligible to join the voluntary early retirement program.

The paper offers a severance pay starting at 30 days of wages up to 300 days worth of wages, depending on their employment period.

Thai media industry has been going through a particularly rough time since the explosion of digital media a few years back, coupled with over-supply in the digital TV market. Several other media outlets have also downsized, ceased publishing or reduced pages because of declining circulations and advertising revenue.