Highlight Newspaper readership drops sharply on GE backlash

by **Cals** Fri 04 Oct 2013, 16:56

Highlight Newspaper readership drops sharply on GE backlash

Business & Markets 2013

Written by Janice Melissa Thean of theedgemalaysia.com

Friday, 04 October 2013 15:44

SEVERAL top national newspapers have lost substantial readership in the latest survey till June this year, and media analysts have attributed this to the backlash against their lopsided news coverage in the months leading up to the May general election.
Still, the extent of the drop, which ranges from 10% to 40% for some of the country’s most established newspaper titles, came as a shock.
“We expected the numbers will fall, but not by this much. It is more than anticipated,” says a media director at a large advertising agency. “But it is too early to tell if this is a trend. The numbers could bounce back as emotions die down and memories fade.”
Research firm Nielsen’s latest Consumer & Media View report for 2Q2013 was released to its clients about a week ago. The data, also known as the Nielsen Media Index, is widely used by advertising agencies to decide where to place their clients’ advertisement campaigns and the prices.
According to the data, which The Edge obtained from various sources, total readership of the 15 English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil dailies covered by Nielsen fell 7.1% to 9.12 million in 2Q, from 9.81 million in the same period last year.
Among the worst hit dailies were Nanyang Siang Pau (-42.6% to 89,000), Kosmo (-37% to 864,000) and The Star (-19.8% to 1.032 million).

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A big threat to mainstream media could be that where readership goes, advertising usually follows

For Sunday newspapers, Kosmo Ahad plunged 43.4% to 673,000 readers from 1.189 million. The Sunday Star’s readership fell a sharp 30.4% to 818,000 from 1.175 million while The New Sunday Times lost 23.5% to 207,000 readers from 270,000.
 “The decline is mainly due to the 13th general election,” says Andreas Vogiatzakis, Malaysia CEO of Omnicom Media Group.
 He adds that the 60% surge in online traffic of political news sites, and 20% of all news websites in March to May 2013, clearly shows that people were looking for alternative news sources during the election campaign.
Media analysts note that many people were unhappy with mainstream newspapers owned by or controlled indirectly by Barisan Nasional (BN) political parties because of their lopsided coverage and incessant demonising of the opposition. Some of these newspapers were those that suffered the biggest drop in readership.
Analysts note that the anger against mainstream newspapers has come at a time when more people, especially the young, are opting for digital news, thus inflicting a double whammy on traditional newspaper companies.
“Instead of push news, the young generation prefers pull news,” says an analyst with Hong Leong Investment Bank Research. Pull news refers to that, for example, which is recommended on social media platforms.
“Malaysians don’t have much of a reading habit. It is a trend now to get news on social media,” he adds.
Another analyst with a bank-backed research house says: “Readers are moving away from mainstream media and looking for other sources, but the Chinese language papers should not see that much impact because they tend to have a more independent voice.”
Indeed, in the survey of daily papers, two Chinese papers, China Press and Kwong Wah Yit Poh, saw readership rise by 6.8% and 14.5% respectively.
The readership of market leader Sin Chew Daily, however, fell 9% to 1.225 million.
The analyst believes that in the coming quarters, newspapers in Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia should see readership normalise.
But he says it is more uncertain for English language mainstream papers as there is an abundance of alternative media for those seeking other news sources.
A bigger threat to mainstream media could be that where readership goes, advertising usually follows.
“One of the major trends we are already seeing is classifieds adex (advertising expenditure) moving to portals like Jobstreet, thus eating into print media adex. The more readership falls, the less people will want to advertise with print media,” the analyst says.
Precision Media Sdn Bhd chief executive James Selva concurs, saying that RM600 million a year worth of classifieds adex have gone to online portals.
There are five listed companies with newspaper titles. 

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MEDIA CHINESE INTERNATIONAL LT []d (MCIL) owns Sin Chew Daily, China Press, Guang Ming Daily and Nanyang Siang Pau. HLIB Research had a “buy” call on the stock at a target price of RM1.20 as at end-August. MCIL closed at RM1.08 on Friday.
MEDIA PRIMA BHD []  has three newspapers under its belt: The New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro. HLIB Research has a “hold” call on Media Prima at a target price of RM2.44. The counter closed last Friday at RM2.73.
The other listed newspaper companies are STAR PUBLICATIONS (M) BHD [], UTUSAN MELAYU (M) BHD [], which publishes Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo, and BERJAYA MEDIA BHD [], which owns the free newspaper The Sun, which was not captured in the Nielsen survey.
Nielsen declined to comment on the survey results.

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 4, 2013.