Asiaweek - American Involvement

American Involvement

'Asia through Asian eyes' was the slogan that helped Asiaweek rise. George is still nostalgic about the fresh and fearless style of the magazine during its heyday and is wary of American meddling in Asian affairs. He warns that "perhaps the most deep-going, subliminal - if also pernicious - mind control weapon at America's disposal is its news media."

But Singapore based Alejandro Reyes, long-time correspondent and contributing editor of Asiaweek, insists that the magazine retained its strongly Asian voice independent of whatever the bosses in New York might have wanted. He says the magazine's demise was due to the "failure of a pan-Asian marketing strategy impeded by limited resources and intense competition" and is hopeful of the revival of a niche market for media with an Asian perspective despite globalization trends.

Reyes, who was educated in the United States, initially applauded the modern, business-oriented techniques and practices of AOL Time Warner. He was not too happy when he found out that Time deleted all Asiaweek articles from its online archives, including his. "This is all very tragic," says Reyes, "– misguided decisions by New York-centric media bureaucrats whose careers are probably soon to be deleted just as ruthlessly."

M.G.G. PIllai, one of Asiaweek's casualties, says the magazine lost focus and became increasingly Americanised after Time took over. Unlike Reyes, he is not optimistic that it will be replaced because most magazines in Asia depend on the patronage of political rulers, and most financiers have an axe to grind.

Philip Bowring, former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review which was bought by Dow Jones in the late 1980s and merged with the Asian Wall Street Journal in 2001 and quartered into a monthly in 2004 before its final burial in 2009, commenting back in 2004 when the Review died as a weekly, said "there is a parallel here between Time and Asiaweek. Time bought locally born Asiaweek even though it appeared to be in direct competition for readers and advertising. Not so long afterwards, Time closed Asiaweek rather than its ailing Time Asia. It was corporate imperialism more than commercial sense which brought Dow Jones to buy control of the Review, which was a direct competitor for niche regional advertising. Faced with the fact that both have been losing money, it naturally decided to close the regional product rather than its own Asian Wall Street Journal - a paper being daily trounced by the Financial Times. It is clear that the closure of the Review, as of Asiaweek, represents an attack on diversity and further reduction in the variety of print media. In short, Dow Jones has undermined the pluralism and anti-monopolism which the US at its best has always represented."

TJS George says, "In due course, Time Inc. killed Asiaweek and Dow Jones (now a Murdoch property) killed the Review. Murdoch-Dow's Wall Street Journal and Time Inc.'s Time magazine now fly the American flag over Asia, unchallenged by lesser flags."