AsiaLIFE Mark
Thursday, 03 December 2009 07:58
This month AsiaLIFE celebrates its third birthday, hot from her date with Jackie Chan, Nora Lindstrom has the enviable task of interviewing the boss - Mark Bibby Jackson.
How long have you been in Southeast Asia and why did you originally come?
I first came to Vietnam as a VSO volunteer in 2003 to lecture at the Institute of International Relations in Hanoi. I thought I was going to be discussing development politics with the nation’s future ambassadors, but ended up teaching general conversation to a bunch of giggly 18-year-old students. That didn’t work out for me so I soon started moonlighting for an expat magazine in between lectures.
You are the founder and publisher of AsiaLIFE Guide in Phnom Penh, how did that come about?
A good friend of mine, Jonny Edbrooke, was involved in setting up a magazine in Ho Chi Minh City called Saigon Inside Out. They were looking for someone to write a few pages about Phnom Penh. I agreed to do it. After a while we discussed replicating the magazine here in Phnom Penh. Quite separately they needed to change the name of the magazine in Saigon. Thus AsiaLIFE was born. We launched in Vietnam in November 2006 and here the following month. We rebranded the magazine once more the following year as AsiaLIFE Guide after my two business partners had a falling out.
What was the initial reception to AsiaLIFE like?
Mostly drunken fun ¬– we had a great launch party at Pontoon! But really the reception was fantastic. Most people couldn’t believe that we could produce such a quality magazine here and distribute it for free. People had no idea there was so much to do in Phnom Penh. Everywhere I went, people just said thank you, when they realised what I did ¬– most people still call me AsiaLIFE Mark. The only bad reaction was from disgruntled bar owners when they realised we refused advertising from girlie bars.
How do you see the publishing and lifestyle magazine sector in Cambodia?
For sure 2009 has been a bad year with declining advertising revenue, but it seems to be picking up for 2010. There is an absolute lack of a quality lifestyle magazine aimed at Khmers – I’d love to do AsiaLIFE in Khmer. The ones out there look cheap and are poorly designed. I was fortunate in that we had a strong design from the outset and a clear view of what we were doing and our target market. Others clearly do not.
This is the 36th time that AsiaLIFE has hit the streets, does any issue stand out?
I’d like to say that the current one is always my favourite, but this has been a strange one as it’s not been designed by Keith Kelly, who is on holiday back in the States. Keith’s been with the team from the start – anyone who can put up with working with me for three years certainly needs a break. So, I’d have to say the gay issue is the standout. I believe we are still the only magazine to run a gay-themed magazine in the country. The feedback was interesting and I hope we moved the agenda on a bit.
What is the relationship between AsiaLIFE here and in Ho Chi Minh City?
I’m still friends with both my former business partners in HCMC – I might be the only person in the world who is! However, we severed business ties in 2007. At the moment I own AsiaLIFE Phnom Penh and Jonny’s company owns AsiaLIFE HCMC. We swap stories and keep on talking about ways of expanding the brand throughout ASEAN, but we lack the capital investment to take the product to the next level.
You spend a lot of time out of the country. What other projects are you involved in?
I have a great team here in the Penh that has allowed me to take a hands-off role. I write for various publications and have had discussions with people about establishing new publications in different countries – AsiaLIFE is a great CV! I’ve got an offer to do some work in KL, but have had to put that on hold for a while for personal reasons. The region is ripe for quality magazines. There is a mass audience of people who want quality, informed publications. We just need to provide them with the right product.
AsiaLIFE recently dropped the US$1 cover charge. Why?
Simply, it didn’t work. Not enough people were happy paying the cover price, although it was less than the actual cost of printing. Magazines were left lying around town. This decreased the effectiveness of advertising, which will always be our prime income stream. Now that we have removed the US$1 stigma the magazine is flying out of bars and restaurants around town just like before.
How do you see AsiaLIFE developing in the future?
The brand will develop across the region in the next few years, I’m convinced of that. I’d like to launch one more magazine inside Cambodia too, and the website is just beginning to take off. As for the current magazine, there are many design improvements we could make. I think our readers will like what we’ll do with it in our fourth year.
CV
Mark Bibby Jackson
Years in Cambodia: Four
Position: Publisher of this rag
Nationality: Welsh (with bits of English)
Age: 44
How long have you been in Southeast Asia and why did you originally come?
I first came to Vietnam as a VSO volunteer in 2003 to lecture at the Institute of International Relations in Hanoi. I thought I was going to be discussing development politics with the nation’s future ambassadors, but ended up teaching general conversation to a bunch of giggly 18-year-old students. That didn’t work out for me so I soon started moonlighting for an expat magazine in between lectures.
You are the founder and publisher of AsiaLIFE Guide in Phnom Penh, how did that come about?
A good friend of mine, Jonny Edbrooke, was involved in setting up a magazine in Ho Chi Minh City called Saigon Inside Out. They were looking for someone to write a few pages about Phnom Penh. I agreed to do it. After a while we discussed replicating the magazine here in Phnom Penh. Quite separately they needed to change the name of the magazine in Saigon. Thus AsiaLIFE was born. We launched in Vietnam in November 2006 and here the following month. We rebranded the magazine once more the following year as AsiaLIFE Guide after my two business partners had a falling out.
What was the initial reception to AsiaLIFE like?
Mostly drunken fun ¬– we had a great launch party at Pontoon! But really the reception was fantastic. Most people couldn’t believe that we could produce such a quality magazine here and distribute it for free. People had no idea there was so much to do in Phnom Penh. Everywhere I went, people just said thank you, when they realised what I did ¬– most people still call me AsiaLIFE Mark. The only bad reaction was from disgruntled bar owners when they realised we refused advertising from girlie bars.
How do you see the publishing and lifestyle magazine sector in Cambodia?
For sure 2009 has been a bad year with declining advertising revenue, but it seems to be picking up for 2010. There is an absolute lack of a quality lifestyle magazine aimed at Khmers – I’d love to do AsiaLIFE in Khmer. The ones out there look cheap and are poorly designed. I was fortunate in that we had a strong design from the outset and a clear view of what we were doing and our target market. Others clearly do not.
This is the 36th time that AsiaLIFE has hit the streets, does any issue stand out?
I’d like to say that the current one is always my favourite, but this has been a strange one as it’s not been designed by Keith Kelly, who is on holiday back in the States. Keith’s been with the team from the start – anyone who can put up with working with me for three years certainly needs a break. So, I’d have to say the gay issue is the standout. I believe we are still the only magazine to run a gay-themed magazine in the country. The feedback was interesting and I hope we moved the agenda on a bit.
What is the relationship between AsiaLIFE here and in Ho Chi Minh City?
I’m still friends with both my former business partners in HCMC – I might be the only person in the world who is! However, we severed business ties in 2007. At the moment I own AsiaLIFE Phnom Penh and Jonny’s company owns AsiaLIFE HCMC. We swap stories and keep on talking about ways of expanding the brand throughout ASEAN, but we lack the capital investment to take the product to the next level.
You spend a lot of time out of the country. What other projects are you involved in?
I have a great team here in the Penh that has allowed me to take a hands-off role. I write for various publications and have had discussions with people about establishing new publications in different countries – AsiaLIFE is a great CV! I’ve got an offer to do some work in KL, but have had to put that on hold for a while for personal reasons. The region is ripe for quality magazines. There is a mass audience of people who want quality, informed publications. We just need to provide them with the right product.
AsiaLIFE recently dropped the US$1 cover charge. Why?
Simply, it didn’t work. Not enough people were happy paying the cover price, although it was less than the actual cost of printing. Magazines were left lying around town. This decreased the effectiveness of advertising, which will always be our prime income stream. Now that we have removed the US$1 stigma the magazine is flying out of bars and restaurants around town just like before.
How do you see AsiaLIFE developing in the future?
The brand will develop across the region in the next few years, I’m convinced of that. I’d like to launch one more magazine inside Cambodia too, and the website is just beginning to take off. As for the current magazine, there are many design improvements we could make. I think our readers will like what we’ll do with it in our fourth year.
CV
Mark Bibby Jackson
Years in Cambodia: Four
Position: Publisher of this rag
Nationality: Welsh (with bits of English)
Age: 44
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