Friday, August 10, 2012

The demise of The Malay Mail

Today is a sad day for the oldest newspaper in town - The Malay Mail! Sarawak's Pandelela Rinong won the Olympics bronze medal in the wee hours of the morning and no paper had news of her feat in the morning. But if Malay Mail was still an afternoon paper, as it used to be, it could have gone to town with it. The Malay Mail used to average around 60,000 to 80,000 when it was an afternoon paper and
even had a day record sales of 110,000! Today what does it average? 6,000 to 8,000? The decision makers who decided that it be a morning paper are responsible for what The Malay Mail is today! Today it is just a carbon copy of The Sun! The sports section is dead with no sports reporters on the desk! Staff is dwindling with resignations almost every other day. The best journalists have left.
The Malay Mail will go down in history of not being able to record Pandelela's feat because tomorrow they do not print. Their next edition is on Monday - three days later! Rethink The News?
The Malay Mail has been murdered!

3 comments:

Mohd Sulaiman Gerrard Abdullah said...

I really miss the old Malay Mail!!!!

Andrew Gopal said...

Rethink to afternoon, sure sell.
To many morning papers. Go back to your roots Malay Mail.

Anonymous said...

posted on malaysian sports

RETHINK THE NEWS? I THINK NOT

For a paper that professes to provoke open debate The Malay Mail clearly does not dissent when it is the subject of criticism.

Commentators and bloggers who have questioned the content, credibility and direction of the paper have apparently been blackballed by the management.

So much for being an open, fair and objective media.

I stand accused of posting a comment about the paper on a friends Facebook.

All I wrote was RIP The Malay Male, and I guess some have shallow interpretation skills.

And I am told that my stories that the paper used to lift from my blogs and websites will no longer be used.

Actually it's a blessing in disguise for I never charged the paper for the articles they lifted, as I still had a soft spot for the paper gave me a break in journalism in 2000.

But when people do not appreciate the gesture, it's time to tell the truth. Even at the Olympics I wrote them a piece for the badminton final, unappreciated is a kind way to say what type of people I had helped.

Akin to the malay proverb, " melepaskan anjing tersepit" is the best way to describe the situation.

All because of an innocuous comment on a friends Facebook wall.

Despite being ridiculed by my friends for being a loyal reader of a newspaper that has fallen in standards and credibility, I have continued to cough up RM1 per day to support the industry.

But no more. I have decided to stop contributing to your salaries.

The Malay Mail has just lost a reader, another example of the Malaysian media that fails to practice what they preach.

And the image above is proof that I have parted with my hard earned RM1 for the final time.

Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka