Daily Xpress - Almost.

Almost two months have past since the launch of The Daily Xpress - Thailand's first ever freesheet - and an offshoot of The Nation. And I really think we've done a good job in somehow making it work with whatever little resources we have and half of the budget of The Bangkok Post, which isn't even close to us in terms of audacity - or sheer madness - and editorial chutzpah.

The Bangkok Post too has come up with a weekly supplement, called My Life, to compete with Daily Xpress.

Still who the heck would wanna read about "pre-nuptial" "preparation"? Those were the words they used in the headline - ruining the lovely stock photos from, let me guess, Getty Images.

I bumped into the guy who edited My Life recently. His bragging about graduating from Boston (Polytechnic?), dubious parentage (He likes hanging out at the Conrad's bar) and ditching high-flying financial job to work for Bangkok Post, Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones.. blahblah convinced me that he doesn't know nuts what he is doing.

They need someone who knows how to "sex" things up tastefully - and I mean a la Delacroix (see below), not The Sun - and, definitely, not "nuptialise" stuffs. That sounds to academic. Trying too hard even. If you know what I mean.

See, xenophobia, racism and colonialism can all be done tastefully!

Daily Xpress is not flawless - mediocre reporting and awful subediting. But we're getting there. I am happy to see people - janitors and self-important "C-level" execs - people who otherwise won't pick up a real newspaper - reading them.

It was interesting to see Mario Garcia, the newspaper design guru who revamped WSJ (I'm not going to include a link here since you're going to pay for its content anyway) and Die Zeit, designed Daily Xpress up from scrap.

Anyway, this is coming from a reader who has Bangkok Post delivered to his house everyday.