Malaysia media industry downsizing as economy weakens
Some groups banking on Sept Rio Olympics for much needed lift
Kuala Lumpur
HAVING battled a general trend of declining circulation and advertising revenue for the past few years, Malaysia's media industry has begun taking the bull by the horns with a number of media groups downsizing or wrapping up certain segments of their operations as a weak economy and shrinking ringgit add to their misery.
The Edge Media Group has reduced headcount in an effort to "reorganise" and "right-size" to focus on its core business while Kinibiz will soon be terminating its online and print editions.
While other media groups including Star Publications had previously been said to be keen on taking over The Edge Group, non-media tycoons could also be sniffing around. They will have their work cut out in media given that some established players are struggling while others have begun cutting costs to maintain profitability.
Star Publications is reportedly looking to offload its two Chinese radio stations while HCK Media (which has a weekly business paper called Focus Malaysia that competes with The Edge) pulled down the shutters last year on its weekly newspaper The Heat and its news portal Theantdaily as they were not sustainable.
As with The Edge group's two papers, The Heat's printing permit was suspended for a period for violation of its licence. (Critics contend the authorities had taken umbrage at certain articles that appeared to put the administration in a bad light.)
The country's first alternative news portal Malaysiakini continues to thrive with the support of its subscribers, but Kinibiz - its online business version (plus a subsequent business magazine published fortnightly) - reportedly is to be discontinued by the end of this month.
Sales and advertising numbers have been poor, and media groups are banking on the Rio Olympics in September to provide a much needed lift.
Advertising budgets are usually decided by year-end for the coming year, but because of the feeble ringgit, many companies have pared their advertising and promotion (A&P) budgets.
"Clients are now more careful and ad hoc with their budgets as they are trying to get maximum bang for their buck," said a senior executive at a media group which owns a number of magazine titles.
Core ad pages remain unsold longer than usual, adding to the monthly operating uncertainties of whether an issue would be profitable, she lamented.
Industry observers are also keeping an eye on the progress of Bloomberg TV Malaysia (BTVM) - a joint venture between the American business news group and corporate tycoon Effendi Norwawi - that commenced in late 2014. BTVM runs four hours on pay-TV Astro, and as licensing, staff and other operational costs are relatively high, an industry observer said ad revenues will be crucial to its longevity.
One media group which has made losses since 2012 and continues to face a significant decline in readership numbers is Utusan Melayu (Malaysia). But as its biggest shareholder is the country's dominant political party, United Malays National Organisation (Umno), it is seen as being under less pressure to perform even though minority shareholders might feel otherwise.
