THE top bosses of Utusan Malaysia have decided to shut down the company, Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd, in order to save the historic 80-year-old newspaper, said sources.

They said the bosses decided to sacrifice the debt-ridden company rather than totally losing the newspaper which had played a critical role in Malaya’s independence movement.

For them, it is easier to manage a paper that has been restructured rather than saving a company that bleeds RM4 million every month.

“What is important is that the intentions of (its founder) Yusof Ishak can be continued so that there is a newspaper that cares about the people, and which ensures that national leaders are in tune with the peoples’ aspirations,” said a source familiar with the paper’s ongoings.

In the words of its first editor on May 29, 1939, Utusan Melayu would “firstly serve the Malay race, secondly, serve the religion and thirdly, serve the people”. 

Utusan Melayu, which was first published in the jawi script, had been responsible for starting the public discourse that led to Malay unity movement and the formation of Umno, the organisation that opposed the Malayan Union in 1946.

It is learnt that this was also the same message of Utusan’s executive director Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir who explained that “Utusan will not shut down”, a day after its staff picketed its offices over unpaid wages in August.  

In an interview with Mingguan Malaysia, the weekend edition, Aziz had said that Utusan will continue to be a newspaper that fought for the Malay language, Malay rights and for Malaysians based on the federal constitution.

Yesterday, Aziz was quoted as saying that Utusan Malaysia will continue under its new owners Aurora Mulia sdn bhd.

“They (Aurora Mulia) will relaunch it again soon,” Aziz was quoted as saying to the Edge Markets.

The new company will also decide on whether to rehire 800 staff members of the paper who lost their jobs today.

The company is also expected to appoint a new chief editor, who is a senior journalist who had served at a number of other Malay papers and who has worked in government-linked companies, sources said.

Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd announced its immediate shut down yesterday, with no more publications for the indefinite future.

More than 800 employees have been laid off, effective October 31.

UHY Advisory (KL) Sdn Bhd has been appointed as an interim liquidator to manage its assets and liabilities.

The decision to shut down the company had been made by its board of directors on October 7.

On the same day, they had also announced that Dilof Sdn Bhd, an Utusan subsidiary which holds the printing permits for Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo, has been taken over by Aurora Mulia.

Following the takeover Dilof’s name was changed to Media Mulia Sdn Bhd.

A source in Putrajaya told The Malaysian Insight that Dilof had been in possession of Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo’s printing permits since September.

Dilof has taken possession of the permits after Utusan had returned them to the Home Ministry in early August.

A source at the paper also said that attempts to increase revenue by increasing the cover prices of both Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo had failed due to falling advertisement revenue.

The management decided to increase cover prices by 50 sen last month.

At the same time, Aziz had also appealed to the public to help the company by buying ads either in the paper’s print or digital editions.

“Unfortunately, ads continued to decline. The profits went up a bit but the paper was still operating at a loss as the income from ads did not increase,” said the source. – October 10, 2019.