The Edge media group to cut jobs, restructure

Singapore

THE Edge Media Group, hit by a two-month suspension of its weekly and daily publications last year and faced with drooping business conditions plus a shifting media landscape, is laying off staff and restructuring its operations in Malaysia.

But The Edge is not for sale, Malaysian tycoon Tong Kooi Ong and owner of the media group, told The Business Times when queried on market talk that The Edge was on the block.

"It could not be further from the truth. The Edge Media is not for sale. Why do a restructuring and right sizing if we are selling? It makes no sense," he added.

Mr Tong, a media magnate and major shareholder of two Singapore-listed firms who also has business interests in Vancouver, Canada, explained that the media group was not "right sizing" due to "hard times" but more so, to allow the firm's "classic" model (core business of financial news) to be "uninterrupted".

But that's not to say things are going to be easy, not least because of the rapidly changing cross-media news landscape with shifting news consumption patterns that pose huge challenges - and opportunities - for news outlets everywhere.

In fact, Malaysia's The Star reported on Friday, citing a source, that The Malaysian Insider (TMI) - a highly popular news portal acquired by The Edge less than a year and a half ago - is up for sale - again, as profits have been elusive for the eight-year old portal.

"TMI is a separate company, with its own challenges and opportunities. (It's a) different brand, serves different markets and operates on totally different platforms by totally different people. I cannot comment on TMI presently as there is no new development announced," Mr Tong replied when asked to confirm the report.

In an internal memo issued by Mr Tong and the group's chief executive Ho Kay Tat to the staff, which was sighted by BT, they had admitted that suspension of the publications had a "significant impact on our financials" and the group needed to re-organise - "let go of staff" and assign others to new roles within the group - to weather the weak business and economic conditions.

The media firm publishes The Edge in Malaysia and Singapore and also has a daily financial newspaper in Malaysia. Last year, the Malaysian tycoon launched a property portal, 20 per cent of which his pal Singapore tycoon Peter Lim later scooped up, and rolled out a new digital platform for financial news and data analytics.

READ MORE: Malaysia media industry downsizing