"We will not focus on business expansion this year, but rather the management of our bottom line, to generate reasonable profit for the organisation,"  Thanachai said yesterday.

Thanachai said the group saw many positive factors this year, including Wednesday's decrease in interest rates, which would encourage business customers through lower expenditures. Individual consumers will also enjoy greater purchasing power.

He said the oil price recently hit its lowest level in 19 months, at US$58 to $59 (Bt2,034 to Bt2,069) per barrel. The lower oil price will lead to cheaper paper prices and transport costs.

"We have no worries about the political situation this year, but we'll keep monitoring the economic situation," said Thanachai.

"I myself will be happy if the group could achieve sales growth of 10 per cent this year," he said.

Thanachai said political factors had affected the group's operations over the past five to six years.

"We've done our duty of being an unbiased media outlet for almost 36 years. The previous government did not want us to maintain this responsibility," said Thanachai, adding that the group's broadcasting business, for instance, had been affected by politics, as many television programmes produced by the group had been withdrawn from iTV, UBC and free-to-air channels.

"We have potential in qualified staff, a strong information base and a reputation for making good-quality programmes, but we had no opportunity to show our potential during the period of the previous government," said Thanachai. He said the group's newspaper business had also been hurt by the previous government.

"AIS [Advanced Info Service] declined to place ads in our newspapers. Our papers were also banned by ministries and political departments as well as state enterprises for any advertising banners," said Thanachai.

However, Thanachai said "the sky changed colour" the day following the removal of the government as a result of the September 19 coup.

"With the new interim government, we have returned to producing quality programmes for free-to-air television stations, and it is a major opportunity to offer proof of our great potential," he said, adding that the future however remained uncertain and depended on the new government after the next national election.

Thanachai said on the management front, NMG had embarked on corporate restructuring to decentralise decision-making authority, enhance flexibility and responsiveness to changes and provide the foundation to develop new leaders for the company.

Under the new structure, Thanachai, who previously occupied both top executive positions of chairman and CEO, will keep only his chairman position and be in charge of vision and policymaking. The new structure consists of six business units, including English-language media, business media, mass media, edutainment, broadcasting/new media and printing services. Each business unit has its own president.

Thanachai Santichaikul, who is in charge daily operations as NMG president, said the group would this year remain focused on its core print business, including The Nation, Krungthep Turakij and Kom Chad Luek, which contribute more than 90 per cent of revenues.

"We will, however, maintain our strength as a provider of quality content and adjust ourselves to any form of new media, such as the Internet, mobile phones, broadband and IPTV, that will serve the changing lifestyles of young consumers," said Thanachai.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation