Bangkok

Martin Pelzl’s first impressions from the Thai newsroom.

When in Rome … My first few days in the Khom-Chad-Lueg offices are over, as well as my first causes for amusement and head shaking. “Today, the press deadline is at three o’clock, four at the latest,” my colleague Punnee explains to me. “Why so early?” I ask. The explanation is as appealing as it is illuminating: the lottery numbers are drawn on the first and sixteenth of every month. To ensure that all of the daily Thai newspapers even in the most remote corners of the country print the highly anticipated results the next day (and sell papers, too, of course), on those two days the press deadline is set almost half a day early everywhere – neglecting even world politics and international football scores.

The editorial meetings also require getting used to. There is not really a fixed starting time, all co-workers arrive at different times and then leave just as randomly. Talks on the phone, conversations, late meals – all of this is apparently normal. The impression that we are all one big family that spends all of their time together late into the night (on non-lottery days) is also given considering the fact that at midday the foyer of the editorial high rise transforms into a sort of bazaar. Food, drugstore products, jewellery, lunch? It’s all there. Between eleven and one o’clock all of these items – not to mention apparel of (almost) all kinds – are available so to say in front of the editorial desk. The only things missing are German newspapers.