Another Step Forward

Another Step Forward

Asia News Network takes another step forward with this poll, marking the first time that the grouping's Southeast Asia partners have come together to conduct a region-wide poll.

ANN boasts of a membership of 13 English newspapers and a vernacular daily. It was formed in 1999 to improve coverage of Asian affairs in the Asian media.

Its founding members are: The Straits Times (Singapore), The Star and Sin Chew Daily (Malaysia), The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), Vietnam News (Vietnam), The Manila Times (the Philippines), The Nation (Thailand) and The Statesman (India).

In due course the Philippine Daily Inquirer became the member paper from Philippines.

Over the years ANN has grown to include leading newspapers from East and South Asia as well.

The Korea Herald from Seoul, Tokyo's Daily Yomiuri and Yomiuri Shimbun, and the Beijing and Hongkong editions of China Daily are now members of the grouping.

From South Asia, the Daily Star of Bangladesh and the Island of Sri Lanka are now members, making ANN the world's largest grouping of newspapers, with a footprint of 50 million readers.

The network has been successful because it has been a "win- win" proposition for all its members irrespective of whether they are from developed or developing countries said Felix Soh, ST's Deputy Editor and an ANN founding member.

"All members gain from a daily exchange of same-day news as well as cooperation in story projects and other areas," he said.

The lesson from the grouping, he said, is that the same group of people should be interacting regularly with one another.

ANN representatives, for instance, often travel together on overseas trips and conferences.

"When you are cloistered together with your fellow Southeast Asians in a conference hall or on a coach from Davos to Zurich, you begin to understand the other person better.

"Also, you learn to communicate better with each other. My ANN colleagues are not strangers but old friends who are fond of each other, notwithstanding our foibles and follies," he said.

-- Shefali Rekhi