Nation takes stake in Phuket Gazette, joins board of directors

PHUKET: Pana Janviroj and Prasert Lekavanichkajorn have joined the board of directors of The Phuket Gazette Co Ltd following the acquisition of a 19.7% interest in the local newspaper by the Nation Multimedia Group Pcl (NMG). Khun Pana is editor of ‘The Nation’ and Khun Prasert is the paper’s chief operating officer. With a Master’s Degree in economics from Tuft’s University, Massachusetts, USA, Khun Pana, 43, joined ‘The Nation’ in 1984. He became the paper’s editor in 1996 and was elected to the NMG main board in 1999. Khun Prasert, 50, holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Education degrees from Portland State University, Oregon, USA. He joined ‘The Nation’ in 1996. The ‘Gazette’ shares purchased by NMG were newly issued, and NMG holds rights on additional shares in the company whether offered by existing stockholders or the product of a primary issue. Proceeds of last month’s share issue will be applied to expansion of the Gazette’s operations, particularly the move to weekly publication, which will start on May 4. ‘The Nation’ and the ‘Phuket Gazette’ signed a wide-ranging editorial cooperation agreement in December of last year, and last month entered into an agency agreement for the sale of classified advertising. Under that agreement, NMG markets ‘Gazette’ classifieds, and advertisers in the ‘Gazette’ receive discounts of up to 50% in any of NMG’s publications, including, among others, ‘The Nation’ and the new ‘Sky Train Classifieds’. Founded in 1971, ‘The Nation’, with a circulation of 58,000, is now the leading English-language daily in Thailand. It is at the core of the Nation Multimedia Group, which also publishes the Thai-language business daily ‘Krungthep Turakij’ and the mass-circulation (700,000 copies a day) general-interest newspaper ‘Kom Chad Luek’. NMG also operates radio stations; a TV firm providing content for several channels; Thailand’s first 24-hour news channel, the “Nation Channel”; and NationMultimedia.com and Thailand.com.