Sunday Mail Newspaper Malaysia In the Nov 15, 2011 edition of this paper, its last as a free afternoon daily, we promised our readers, advertisers and business partners that The Malay Mail would be back in early 2012 with a new look, new content and renewed energy.
The team at The Malay Mail spent the next two and a half months working ceaselessly to produce a newspaper that would enable us to keep to that promise. We produced a 48 page mock-up of the new paper daily and tweaked and re-tweaked it until we were satisfied with the outcome.
We hope you are as pleased with the final product as we are.
We hope you are as pleased with the final product as we are.
Opportunities in the current media landscape and technology trends prompted us to decide on a strategic change in our business model — from being a free afternoon daily to a paid, morning, mainstream newspaper.
Based on market feedback and an analysis of the current competitive landscape, we concluded that there is a demand in the marketplace for a newspaper that will give its readers the news that matters to them. Readers want a newspaper that will spark debate. The new The Malay Mail will be that paper.
In delivering on this promise, we will publish in-depth investigative reports on issues that impact our readers and Malaysians in general. We want our readers to rethink the news and to look at issues close to their heart from a different perspective.
We are also aware that many Malaysians today are turning to online news portals to access the news they need. We have forged content arrangement agreements with such online news portals and blog aggregators and will publish selected stories from these sources in our newspaper in an effort to address our readers’ needs.
We concluded that there is a great demand for the type of content that The Malay Mail will be providing and that Malaysians will be willing to pay for it. Hence The Malay Mail will have a cover price of RM1. This will help us defray the cost of investing in additional editorial and operational resources in order to provide our readers a quality newspaper containing the news that they need.
We also decided that the new paid model would be more viable as a morning newspaper. This is primarily due to the fact that the benefits
of an afternoon paper have been voided by technology trends and changing reading habits. Consumers today get late breaking news through alerts on their phones, other mobile devices such as tablets and computers. Hence we decided on the transition from afternoon to morning.
of an afternoon paper have been voided by technology trends and changing reading habits. Consumers today get late breaking news through alerts on their phones, other mobile devices such as tablets and computers. Hence we decided on the transition from afternoon to morning.
Another major change in the business model of The Malay Mail pertains to its geographical distribution. It will no longer be just a Klang Valley newspaper. We have entered into business partnerships with vendors associations to ensure all our readers from Perlis in the north to Johor in the south will be able to get a copy of The Malay Mail from today.
We will also have a strong online presence. We are launching our new website simultaneously with the print edition of the newspaper today. It has been revamped to make it easy to navigate and our readers will get a rich source of content via a simple click. We will continuously tweet alerts so our readers get an early indication of the important stories that will be carried in The Malay Mail the next day.
What does The Malay Mail offer its advertisers? A senior advertising agency executive told us the other day that people purchase newspapers not to read the adverts but to read the stories that appear in the pages. Advertisers hope to be able to share the eyeballs of these readers by placing their adverts on the same pages. The Malay Mail aims to do just that. Our goal is to provide our readers content that is so compelling that they will be riveted with the stories that appear in its pages and our advertisers will be able to share the eyeballs and in doing so, help address their marketing communications needs.
Established in 1896, The Malay Mail is one of the oldest newspapers in the country and is a national institution in the Malaysian media industry. Today, we commence a new chapter in our continuing story. We invite our readers, advertisers and business partners to join us as we embark on this new and exciting journey. We trust you will enjoy it. We know we certainly will!
Rethinking the news, sparking debate and challenging norms
WHEN we ceased print on Nov 15 last year, we also closed a chapter of The Malay Mail, as we knew it then.
As our last edition and the subsequent promotional campaigns indicated, “The Old Lady” has been through many changes throughout its 116-years.
In the course of over a century, it has morphed from a national daily to a community one; an investigative newspaper to one that focused on tabloid gossip.
At one time it was even a propaganda tool to the Japanese army during the occupation of Malaya.
And just as how it has survived those years and out lived many editorial boards and management teams — we are certain that it will outlive this one as well.
But far from being the victim of the whims of restless owners and fickle newsmen,
The Malay Mail, this time around took its time to evolve into the paper that you are holding in your hands now.
That we took this long to return, having toyed with several relaunch dates — as early as October — is an indication that we as newsmen and media owners want to get the product right. Nothing is perfect, but we strive to come as close as possible to it.
Perfection aside, what we aim to deal with is perception.
We believe our readers demand neutral reporting from us, i.e. to tell the news as it is, without taking sides.
We aim to live up to this expectation and let you be the judge. We will offer both sides of the story, our own two-sen worth via opinions, editorials and analysis, as well as keeping true to the investigative nature of The Malay Mail which you know and love so well.
We hope our coterie of prolific guest columnists as well as familiar in-house ones, will help provide some talking points for your kopitiam banter — in line with our new tagline of rethinking the news that aims to “spark the debate”, so to speak.
And by being a complete nationwide paper with all the offerings of the latest in local and world news, sports, business, lifestyle and entertainment; as well as community happenings and a public sounding board via the popular Hotline, we hope to be a one-stop centre for your news of the day.
With a good mix of young upstarts as well as veterans who are synonymous with the paper, the potential for The Malay Mail is endless, as we bring together decades of experience and youthful energy to deliver all the news that matters.
Our tie-ups with some content providers have raised eyebrows but we realise that we cannot be everywhere all the time and our partners will complement the paper with their own brand of investigative journalism and commentary.
And as we embrace the tech-age with a new and improved website, The Malay Mail will bring itself to a whole new audience — especially those craving for intelligent, thought provoking journalism.
With that, enjoy this inaugural edition of the new-and-improved The Malay Mail. We are here to stay.
