Borom Chea is National Sales Director at the Phnom Penh Post newspaper. Interviewed during the Media Professionals Programme gathering at the WAN-IFRA Digital Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur, he tells us how the programme is helping him clarify his professional goals and set out his agenda for the years to come.
WAN-IFRA: How did you get into the media industry?
Borom Chea: “By accident, I would say. I got to work on a film in 2005 in Cambodia, a feature film from LA with an international cast. I really enjoyed the experience and afterwards started a small agency. When a film production - a smaller documentary, for example - would come in, I’d work on it and learn a lot of new skills. I also got to direct a TV show. After working for ad agencies and some time spent as a broadcast producer, all within the media, I went on to do sales, and that’s where I am now.
“The media is maybe something of a calling of sorts, also because of my advantages. I have good English skills so I can be a kind of a bridge between foreigners and local media. It’s a good place for me to be.”
Have you lived abroad?
“I lived in America for many years and my parents are still there now, but I had a calling to Cambodia. I went in 2002 for a visit and came back to live in 2004. My professional career has been in Cambodia. Before, I worked for my family business in America. But when I came here things just opened up.”
So you don’t have an academic background in media, or media training?
“No, I don’t. I picked it all up through my experiences, like digital film and communications. I knew I needed this stuff. I didn’t finish my degree at the time because my daughter was born, and I had to get a job. I only have a few credits left to get, and I’m looking into doing evening classes to finish my degree.”
What do you like about working in the media?
“It’s exciting, first of all, and constantly changing. And the Internet has changed the dynamic of it all. People are more in-tune with media, always on their phones for example. I keep picking up different things in the media field. Now I can take a project from the treatment to the script, storyboard, even editing stage. I’ve also learned marketing - you kind of need these other skills, business, marketing and so-forth, in whatever you’re doing, whether it’s TV or newspapers. That’s why I was interested in the Post - I wanted to learn about print, as I didn’t know anything about newspapers. I’ve read them all my life, but I didn’t know much about the business. It all adds to my skills.”
How has MPP influenced your long-term goals?
“It has definitely made them clearer. I’m somewhat of a cluttered person and not always sure what my goals are, but having gotten onto the MPP programme I’ve kind of aligned myself for the next five to 10 years. I’m thinking about what I need to do, what I’m going to achieve. I want to continue working in the media field, I want to work in bigger organisations and add to my knowledge and experiences.”
Is that your ambition, to move up?
“Yeah, I want to get better, to improve my financial security. Not only that, I come from an ambitious family. They have high expectations for me and they’re doing really well in America, and I’m finding my way in Cambodia.”
Where would you like to be in a five years’ time?
“Well I definitely want to be in upper management, and in a media company within the South East Asia region. I want to get out of Cambodia a bit. Not for good, just to get viewpoints from other countries in the region. I want to do a couple of years abroad because I’m really sold on the SEA region. I think it’s a region that’s going to grow faster than the rest of the world in the next 20 years. We have such a young population, and there are so many inspiring things about this region, so I want to grab that knowledge from different areas and bring it to Cambodia.”
Interview conducted by Teemu Henriksson
