Showing posts with label Curtain call for The Mekong Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Curtain call for The Mekong Times. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Cambodian media war claims Mekong Times daily

Tuesday 19th August, 2008
IANS

Cambodia's mushrooming media outlets and a crisis of advertising revenue has claimed the English-language Mekong Times daily, the paper's editor said Tuesday.

A lack of funds had forced the closure of the hard copy edition but the paper, which also published in Khmer, was still considering options, Editor-in-chief Neth Pheaktra said by telephone.

'We are not sure (about an internet edition) yet - we are not sure what we will do,' he said.

The paper, which opened in February last year, had published groundbreaking stories, including a rare exclusive interview with Prime Minister Hun Sen, but failed to pull advertising revenue away from the more established Cambodia Daily and Phnom Penh Post.

The closure announcement came just days after the Phnom Penh Post went from a fortnightly to a daily.

A cash injection rumoured to amount to around $1 million from an Australian group has buoyed the veteran Phnom Penh Post, and the popular Cambodia Daily claims it operates primarily as a training ground, with profit a secondary consideration.

Cambodia's Khmer and English-language media market has exploded recently, giving advertisers a much broader range of choices.

Magazines on subjects from specialty computer and mobile phone glossies to interior design advice decorate news stands as the country's burgeoning middle class spreads its consumer wings.

Short-lived English-language weekly magazine The Advisor closed for 'a hiatus' earlier this month, saying advertisers were increasingly embracing the cheaper option of internet websites, and its parent Expat Advisory Services continues to operate online.

Cambodian daily newspaper closes

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

One of Cambodia's three daily English-language newspapers, The Mekong Times, will close.

Editor-in-chief, Neth Pheaktra, says the company had decided to stop publishing because of a budget crisis.

The Mekong Times, which also published in the Cambodian language, hit the stands last February.

The announcement of its demise comes ten days after The Phnom Penh Post, one of the kingdom's leading papers, launched its first daily edition.

Cambodia's burgeoning media market now has two English-language dailies, one English weekly, a number of glossy magazines and a large and lively Cambodian-language press.

Curtain call for the Mekong Times [-Thank you for a wonderful newspaper!]

18 August 2008
By L.D. and F.A.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the original article in French

Born in February 2008, The Mekong Times, a daily English language newspaper published by the Media Consulting and Development (MCD), sold its last edition in the kiosks this morning Monday 18 August.

As Sebastien Drans, the newspaper editor, explained, “we are suspending the publication of The Mekong Times starting today. One of our investors decided to stop pursuing the venture. We have no immediate solution, but we are not abandoning the idea of publishing it again in a new format.”

The Mekong Times is printed 5 times per week, and it counted 16 pages, 4 of which are in Khmer. Pierre Gilette, a former chief-editor of the daily version of Cambodge Soir, was the editor of the Mekong Times along with Jerome Jaymond. Neth Pheaktra was the chief-editor.

When asked by Cambodge Soir, Khieu Kanharith, the minister of information, declared that he “regrets” the closing of this “professional” newspaper. “The end of this publication marks the end of an opinion. I recognized that the news media market in Cambodia is difficult because the readership is low and the readers prefer renting the newspapers at the kiosks rather than buying them. Furthermore, it is difficult to earn a spot among the old newspapers such as The Cambodia Daily.”

Cambodia now counts only two daily English-language newspapers: The Phnom Penh Post and The Cambodia Daily.