BANGKOK – Having evacuated its entire office to avoid potential arson, executives of the Bangkok Post have come to realize that its entire paper can be produced by a staff of just two people.
The newspaper, which employs over 200 reporters, editors, sub-editors, and layout artists as well as 150 people with no apparent function, was put to bed by only one farang sub-editor and one layout artist last Wednesday.
“It is quite an unexpected revelation for us, although I guess it makes sense since most people only worked about two to three full days per year and 90% of our content comes from either TV reports or wire services,” said COO Supakorn Vejjajiva, who was not present at the evacuation.
Asked if the new understanding would lead to layoffs, Supakorn said, “Absolutely not. Rather we plan to increase the number of original, insightful stories from about 2 to 4 per month, and add another section of meaningless filler based on a demographic that doesn’t exist in order to attract more advertising.”
On Friday, business was back to normal at the Post, with staff surfing the web, eating som tam and wandering about aimlessly.
