As newsprint costs increase and the popularity of online outlets grows, Thailand's newspapers and magazines are augmenting their cover prices, Brand Republic Asia reported.

The Bangkok Post raised its daily price from 25 to 30 baht (US$0.90), after newsprint costs increased from US$550 last year to $900 in 2008. Media Transasia Thailand, the local publisher of magazines OK! and Seventeen, is also expected to raise prices by almost 10 percent, and other media firms are predicted to do the same in 2009.

According to Sunee Paripunna, managing director of MEC Thailand, increasing cover prices may not decrease circulation, but advertising expenditure and readership may drop due to "emerging, fast-growing and cheaper media such as online and mobile," Brand Republic Asia reported.

"The readership may drop, but it won't be directly affected by an increase in cover price but more from increasing choices of media and which sources of news and information consumers are to consume," said Paripunna.

Ad spend in the country decreased by 4 percent for magazines and did not change for newspapers, according to Brand Republic Asia.