The Malay Mail should establish a clear and sharp focus: industry players

In the case of Malaysia with population lesser than 30 million and English not being the national language, it has four main English dailies for the mass, namely The Star, New Straits Times, The Malay Mail and The Sun. To rise up among these established peers, industry players said The Malay Mail needs to establish a clear and sharp focus, and raise the game on content.

Andreas Vogiatzakis, managing director of OmnicomMediaGroup (OMG) Malaysia, said while with the market being dominated by well established newspapers, The Malay Mail must give reasons for readers to read it, especially it would come back as a paid publication, and truly make a difference.

Prashant Kumar, CEO of UM Malaysia, meanwhile said The Malay Mail has taken a brave route by going for paid model, and that paid dailies have caught up with the free paper in terms of innovation.

“The market puts a premium on the fact that if you pay to buy a newspaper, you will read it with higher attention and it's important to you. What you get for free may not earn your respect. I think being the third paid English daily is definitely better than being the second free English daily. You would rather be a small fish in a huge pond rather than be a small one in a small pond.”

He added that The Malay Mail would be a challenger and a distant one to start with, and that it needs to disrupt the expectations. “Most importantly they really need to be clear as to what psychographic segment are they focusing on and align both B2B and content strategies seamlessly aligned to it. Finding that sweet spot in the market, where content need gap overlaps with advertiser choice gap is where the magic lies.”

The Malay Mail, which began on December 14, 1896, used to be part of the New Straits Times Press group before it was sold off to Redberry Media group, a subsidiary of listed Ancom Berhad spearheaded by Datuk Siew Ka Wei.

It became a free afternoon newspaper in May 2008, but the revamp was not fully successful, which might possibly because it did not have a clear positioning from the start.

It is reported that the new issue would include content from the South China Morning Post and the Malaysiakini news portal. The new issue will be relaunched in January for RM1 a copy.

The newspaper industry in Malaysia has seen a shift in the recent years. Like other countries, online readership is increasing and the offering is getting more integrated. While the industry will increasingly focus at the online operations, it is believed that both print and online newspapers would balance out and co-exist.

The Malay dailies, meanwhile, are seeing promising growth and higher revenue per reader, as Malay affluence is rising.

“The key for the newspapers is to find out a way to harness the plethora of information they have (what goes on print is a fraction of what information actually is gathered and exists in their vaults), and on top monetise that. Of course, the form itself of the physical newspaper might change in the future, as I don’t think pulp will always be the best medium to deliver the message, but more like a flexible, paper-thin devise, foldable, and one that feels just like a newspaper,” Vogiatzakis said.