Our first
favorite. A few years ago there was a short lived magazine
printed in Laos called Essential Laos. It was published
by a foreign owned photography company, Exprim, which has
been operating in Laos for many years - producing mostly postcards
and stock photography.
What most impressed
me about this magazine was that it was a kind of general interest
magazine about the cultural world of Laos. It was a no non-sense
and informative magazine coupled with beautiful in-house photography
throughout. Examples: the magazine would cover a special on a particular
province or something cultural such as becoming a monk. Additionally,
there were regular sections/columns on a profile of a foreign country,
Lao ethnic group, nature, and industry. In Laos we were only able
to find two different editions of this magazine both of which were
outdated. Although the company still exists, we have not seen any
subsequent magazines by this company. (The issues we were able to
obtained were No. 1 Apr-Jul 1999 and No. 2 Sep-Dec 1999. Both issues
printed entirely in English and were geared towards the tourist
industry.)
Although we
have only reviewed these two issues, it remains one of our favorite
magazines on Laos, of all time.
Our second
favorite. A general interest and business magazine that is
Lao owned, called Update. It is still in print and one
of the most widely read magazines in Lao cities today. It is printed
on a regular monthly basis and it is quite affordable to buy. They
even have a website up. It is printed both in Lao and English. College
students to business people read this magazine. It is one of the
few regularly printed magazine format publications in Laos that
is very informative on what's going on in the country.
For the Lao
New Year 2547 (2004) special we published on our website a very
revealing interview with the Lead Producer and Creator of Laoconnection.com.
Look for it again when we will post it on special occassions.
It is a very
revealing behind the scenes story of this website. But you'll have
to stay tuned...
