Asia's English readers miss in-depth media

Asia's English readers miss in-depth media - Business - International Herald Tribune: "For decades, English- speaking Asians and expatriates with a thirst for Asian news relied on The Far Eastern Economic Review and Asiaweek to keep abreast of what was going on behind the scenes in the region.

The Far Eastern Economic Review ended its life as a weekly newsmagazine in October 2004; Asiaweek died in December 2001. Both were full-color weeklies with highly regarded networks of correspondents across Asia.

A host of new English-language media outlets has sprung up around Asia in recent years to try to fill the void. But analysts say none of the new publications, which range from political Web sites focused on individual countries to broad-based regional magazines, has yet found the formula for success. As a result, they say, a highly literate and sophisticated market across East Asia remains ill served.

Today, international dailies like the International Herald Tribune, The Financial Times and The Asian Wall Street Journal serve the region - as do a number of local English-language publications.

One of the most prominent of the regional publications is Asia Times Online, the Internet version of a newspaper of the same name that closed after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. Asia Times is owned by Sondhi Limthongkul, the publisher of ThaiDay, an English-language supplement distributed with the International Herald Tribune in its Thailand editions.

Another recent entrant is Asia News Network, an Internet site that also has a weekly print edition."