Thai Day newspaper presses stop rolling

Thank you, we hope to return

By ThaiDay

31 August 2006

Dear readers,

Under normal circumstances, ThaiDay would have continued to thrive and grow into the newspaper of choice for the English-language readership in Thailand.

In a market traditionally dominated by newspapers that either toe the establishment line or opt for the other extreme of sensationalism, we were confident that our mature and insightful coverage of the major stories of the day would enable us to carve a niche from which we could continue to grow.

Indeed, the fact that total sales of the International Herald Tribune plus ThaiDay package has roughly doubled since ThaiDay’s launch last June proves that our conviction was right – there will always be room for quality journalism in this growing market.

But unfortunately, these are abnormal times and we have had to operate under abnormal circumstances.

The well-known fact that Khun Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the Manager Media Group which owns ThaiDay and chairman of this newspaper’s editorial board, has been spearheading a crusade to oust the caretaker prime minister, Pol Lt-Col Thaksin Shinawatra, has resulted in credit lines for the Group being cut, bank overdraft facilities being withdrawn and advertisements for Group publications being pulled.

The financial well-being of this newspaper and its staff have inevitably suffered.

So instead of continuing to struggle through such cloudy circumstances, we have decided to call it a day.

We hope this will be just a temporary break. Given the mounting problems gripping the ruling regime of late and the seemingly endless blunders committed by the caretaker premier himself, it seems just a matter of time before he steps down.

Once the prevailing crisis is resolved and the various negative factors contributing to ThaiDay’s closure disappear, we intend to return, hopefully bigger and better.

Thank you for your support and we hope we will continue to receive the same support if and when we resume publication.

Paisal Sricharatchanya

Editor-in-Chief

Thai Day