issue 54 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

I was mad,” he says. “Nobody
had successfully published a
quality lifestyle magazine in the
country. Now, 68 issues later,
everyone seems to be trying to
copy us.”
Edbrooke, who has been going
to the Thai capital for nearly
30 years, feels there is a clear
gap in the expat market, which
AsiaLIFE naturally will fill.
“There is much more to the
city than going to bars and
drinking beer,” he says. “We
cater for a more sophisticated
Bangkok market.”
What is the secret to AsiaL-
IFE’s success when so many
other magazines have fallen by
the wayside?
“In some respects AsiaLIFE
represents a return to good
old-fashioned journalistic principles,”
writes Bibby Jackson in
the first edition of the Thailand
magazine. “We will not run
advertorials or PR pieces, even
if an advertiser threatens to pull
out of the magazine, because we
write what we believe. What we
will do is publish that which is
of ‘interest’ to our readers.”
In the past AsiaLIFE has tackled
controversial issues such as
human trafficking and domestic
violence. Both Edbrooke and
Bibby Jackson are proud to
publish the first magazine in
the mainstream media to write
about the gay community in
Vietnam and Cambodia.
For the first issue of AsiaLIFE
Thailand, Bibby Jackson spoke to
Bangkok counsellors and expats
to find out how difficult it is for
foreigners to adjust to life in this
culturally complex and at times
frustrating city.
“It is a process that we have
all gone through,” he says.
The new website will feature
articles from all three magazines,
as well as select listings.
The magazines also can be
downloaded from the website or
the new iPad app. Plans for an
iPhone app are underway, most
likely to launch in October. Add
this to the TV reviews that are
being shot by director of photography
Jake Houseago, which
now can be seen via AsiaLIFE
Media’s Facebook page, and it's
clear AsiaLIFE has been busy
over the last few months.
“It has been pretty hectic at
times, and if I still had any hair
I’d have turned grey by now,
but this is why you get into the
business in the first place,” says
Edbrooke.
For their Thai adventure,
Edbrooke and Bibby Jackson
have teamed up with Nattamon
Limthanachai (Oh).
She first came across AsiaL-
IFE while working in Phnom
Penh in 2008 where she set up
two companies, a couple of Thai
restaurants, and a gelato café.
“I noticed that all our potential
customers were picking up a
copy of AsiaLIFE so I knew I just
had to advertise in it,” she says.
Although she has no prior
experience working in publications,
when Oh became aware
Edbrooke and Bibby Jackson
were looking to expand into
Thailand she was interested
immediately.
“It is just too good a magazine
to fail in Thailand,” she
says. “From the start I knew I
had to be part of it.”
Now readers in Thailand will
be able to understand just why
Oh caught the AsiaLIFE bug.
asialife HCMC 13