The Malaysian Insight suspends publication

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 23 Mar 2018 6:00PM · 29 Comments

The Malaysian Insight missed a major milestone in starting a paywall. – The Malaysian Insight pic, March 23, 2018.

Dear Readers 

The Malaysian Insight is stopping publication from next week because we have missed a major milestone in starting a paywall, and page views traffic has not reached the targeted critical mass. 

Hence, we need to review our direction, news operations and commercial viability. The decision to suspend publication in the interim is a difficult one, but was made due to the challenging financial environment faced by The Malaysian Insight and other media outlets.

The Malaysian Insight thanks its readers and journalists and staff working here since its inception on March 31, 2017. 

Thank you. 

Jahabar Sadiq 

Editor and Chief Executive Officer 

The Malaysian Insight

Sign up or sign in here to comment.

Comments

  • Omg, plz dont stop at this juncture especially near the GE14 and the flow of information is getting bad.

    Posted 6 years ago by Raveendran Nair · Reply

  • You are still very new and need to market yourself. So please don't stop here. We need to read real news.

    Posted 6 years ago by Awang Top · Reply

  • Happy news indeed for the Bangsats ....especially given this critical juncture....

    Posted 6 years ago by Ramamurthi ram · Reply

  • Sad news indeed. Now we must all sit in the dark.

    Posted 6 years ago by Mitch Gelber · Reply

  • Is there some complusion from higher authority ?

    Posted 6 years ago by Mohanarajan murugeson · Reply

  • Oh noooo! Where can we donate?

    Posted 6 years ago by Matt H · Reply

  • Start collecting subscription fees, I am sure most readers do not mind paying.

    Posted 6 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

    • Yes, please put up a paywall. We'll subscribe and get family and friends to subscribe.

      Posted 6 years ago by Anak Kampung · Reply

    • Do it like the Guardian. Get readers to contribute what they can. You will find readers who care enough will respond. I did to the Guardian and I certainly will to the Malaysian Insight.
      We need you to keep going to save our country.

      Posted 6 years ago by Noureddine Kassem · Reply

  • This is such sad news.

    Posted 6 years ago by Arun Paul · Reply

  • Darn...i never really thought well or seriously of TMI , but you were my favourite troll site....without you what am i going to do with my free time ?what am i going to do in between sets at the gym? how will i pass time while waiting for the student to figure out the answer ? The hours at the mamak is going to be long without your humour to keep me company TMI. This might sound surprising to you, heck it sounds bloody surprising to me, but when you are gone, i think i am going to miss you ....

    Posted 6 years ago by Nehru Sathiamoorthy · Reply

  • Oh no... not again! :( What a toxic climate to construct anything of value!

    Posted 6 years ago by Antares Maitreya · Reply

  • Oh no! First, it was Malaysian Insider, and now TMI. Please out up a paywall; we will subscribe. Or let's go for crowdfunding.

    Posted 6 years ago by Rajah Murugaiah · Reply

  • Dont't stop here. Your articles are non-bias and speaks the truth for all average Malaysians. Malaysians need Malaysian Insight, Malaysian Insight is Malaysia.

    Posted 6 years ago by Nazrul Imran · Reply

  • I'm probably not helping TMI's cause, but I made a news aggregator that aggregates news from various trusted Malaysian portals. https://themalaysianpulse.com Check it out for Malaysian news at a glance. Sad to lose TMI from our feeds.

    Posted 6 years ago by Jonathan L · Reply

  • Quite frankly, Jahabar, I cannot understand how you could expect The Malaysian Insight to make money, after the EDGE Media Group closed down The Malaysian Insider which was losing RM500,000 per month (or RM10 million over 20 months).

    OK! It appears that you hoped to make money from a paywall - i.e. paid subscriptions to access your content, much like your competitor Malaysiakini does but is subscription revenue enough to cover Malaysiakini's costs and will it be enough to cover The Malaysian Inisght's costs, had you gone ahead with it?

    As for online advertising revenue, Sarawakian blogger Kenny Sia who was earning around RM15,000 per month from advertisements on his lifestyle blog at http://www.kennysia.com/ back around 2007 or 2008, told me that he avoids overtly politically inclined content on his site since it drives away advertisers who fear it could lead to those politically inclined the other way from buying their products and services advertised.

    Well, Kenny's lifestyle blog at http://www.kennysia.com/ is still going strong today - around 10 years later.

    More recently, there was a hue and cry by creators of radical politically inclined or controversial videos against You Tube's moves to demonetise their videos - i.e. stop putting advertisements on their videos which in turn denied these content creator a share of advertising revenue.

    This was all because many advertisers objected to their products and services advertised being associated with videos of such radical or controversial nature as it would put off some segments of their target market.

    According to The Malay Mail online, The Malaysian Insight key focus areas are "politics, followed by civil society movements, issues of race and religion, and domestic economy" - all of which are controversial issues, which I'm sure most advertisers, apart from a handful, would avoid advertising on like the plague.

    http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/news-portal-the-malaysian-insight-suspends-publication-cites-financial-reas

    If what your rival, The Malay Mail writes above, can be taken at face face value, an online publication such as TMI will require a rich sugar daddy willing to pump in money to keep the publication afloat despite continued losses, either for idealistic reasons or to serve the political ambitions of some parties, factions or individuals.

    Of course a time may come when the sugar daddy decides that a publication has served its political purpose or has failed to do so, and he pulls the plug on it.

    On the other hand, why not accept crowdfunding or go ahead with your paywall and see how it pans out.

    Posted 6 years ago by IT Scheiss · Reply

    • TMI should try to approach Robert Kwok as he's a probable source of funds to support truthful reporting.

      Posted 6 years ago by L.B. Saw · Reply

    • Not such a good idea, since parties such as The Third Force has already accuse The Malaysian Insight of having received funds from Robert Kuok through Jahabar's sister.

      "Honestly, Apandi, it sends chills down my spine knowing that your wife, Puan Sri Faridah Begum, may have been paid millions upon millions by Kuok to publish material deemed insidiously subversive against UMNO and the Government of Malaysia (GoM). Apparently, she’s getting this accomplished via The Malaysian Insight (Insight), a fake news portal currently being run by her own brother, Jahabar Sadiq. Now, it isn’t really that important to me if these allegations are true or not."

      https://www.thethirdforce.net/dear-apandi-im-really-terrified-i-dont-feel-safe-anymore-with-you-in-office/

      Posted 6 years ago by IT Scheiss · Reply

  • I find it strange that the pro Government blog site are well funded and also good funding from the party itself. TMI true to its nature in "nothing to hide" blogging are not getting enough of funding support from the other political divide. Beats me!!!!. Blog sites like OSTB , Malaysia Chronicles and Finance Twitter are going strong evetho' the readership are just average comparing to SteadyAku7 and all of these sites are in the banned zone but are still very active without heavy funding. Is there is something more than just the funding????. Seriously at this juncture it is very crucial to the rakyat wish on the outcome of the GE14 where openess in reporting and sharing is what will determine the future of professional jounalism post GE14. I believe there is always a potantial white knight galloping to support when the smell of winning is around the corner and also mutually beneficial to each other unless the other forces have something that really bites to cause the demise for good.

    Posted 6 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

    • Blogs don't cost any money or not much money to run, unlike online publications which pay journalists, staff, for the office, for the website and its hosting and maintenance costs. Blogs take up some time of the blogger who in most cases has other sources of income to sustain him or her.

      Like my blog IT Scheiss http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/ has been going strong since 2012. It costs me nothing but my time and the cost of the electricity to run my PC and a proportion of my monthly Internet access fees. For me, IT Scheiss is just a hobby from which I expect to make no money.

      I don't know how much it was costing to run The Malaysian Insight but its predecessor, The Malaysian Insider was costing the EDGE Media Group RM500,000 per month on average in its last 20 months of operation, which is like buying an RM500,000 apartment every month or a total of 20 apartments in 20 months.

      Posted 6 years ago by IT Scheiss · Reply

    • I think it is a far fetch number of 500k/ month to run a small mid size media outlet like the old Malaysin Insider. The drama that unfold infact cast suspicions on the closure. I believe TMI is much smaller in nature and the funding be it in paywall or crowd funding thru' subscription should suffice to pursue the intent of disbursing truth out to public. It should be of a public duty of initiative nature rather than a commercial basis. TMI is the spin off from MI and the blessing of the learning curve from "previous child" should allow them to manage it better

      Posted 6 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

    • Oh a blogger telling TMI how to run their website.
      As if pro-BN website don't have their fair share of Sugar Daddies funding them.
      Delete your blog!

      Posted 6 years ago by Nice Frog · Reply

    • That is what The EDGE Markets reported Ho Kay Tat, Publisher and Group CEO of The Edge Media Group (TEMG) as saying about the reason for the closure of The Malaysian Insider (TMI).

      "TEMG has incurred losses of around RM10 million in the 20 months since we acquired TMI in June, 2014 and we are no longer in a position to keep it going."

      "http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/ho-kay-tat-malaysian-insider-tmi-cease-operations"

      Ho also said, "We will be letting go of all the 59 TMI staff and they will receive a severance package as required by law."

      I do not know ho much TMI staff were being paid on average but if anyone knows, multiply the figure by 59 to know total staff costs alone.

      Assuming they were being paid RM3,000 per month on average, 59 staff would work out at RM177,000 per month in staff costs, which leaves RM323,000 on operational and other expenses.

      Well Jahabar can confirm whether Ho was right or not about TMI losing RM10 in 20 months.

      Posted 6 years ago by IT Scheiss · Reply

    • Of course, most pro-opposition and pro-BN websites are being kept alive by sugar daddies, mostly from behind the scenes and quite often to serve their respective political agendas.

      Online and digital publications or online and digital editions of publications rarely earn enough advertising revenue to sustain themselves, which when coupled with declining print advertising revenue, points to the end of journalism as viable paying career which one can rely on for an income one can live on.

      How many online only publications have already closed shop. The Nut Graph, Fz, The Heat, The Malaysian Insider, now possibly The Malaysian Insight and the grapevine says that next could be The Malay Mail.

      This is my first IT.Scheiss blog post in March 2012
      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2012/03/online-ad-revenue-not-making-up-for.html

      And these are the subsequent ones
      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2014/06/us-newspaper-ad-revenue-continues-to.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2014/07/mobile-advertising-market-soars-but-do.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2015/03/more-on-slow-but-steady-decline-of.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2016/01/edge-downsizing-tmi-for-sale-kinibiz-to.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2016/03/so-thats-it-malaysian-insider-finally.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2016/12/another-one-bites-dust.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2017/06/new-york-times-retrenching-staff.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2017/10/free-malaysia-today-seems-to-think-that.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2017/10/media-content-everywhere-but-wheres.html

      Paywall may be the salvation of news media

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2018/01/a-paywall-may-be-slavation-of-news-media.html

      http://itsheiss.blogspot.my/2018/02/focus-malaysia-acquired-two-thirds-of.html

      Print newspapers (with online and digital editions) are also suffering.

      For example STAR Media Group made an RM155,149 loss after tax in its foruth quarter 2017, its first quarterly loss since its forth quarter 2006

      http://www.malaysiastock.biz/Corporate-Infomation.aspx?securityCode=6084

      Media Prima has been loss making since earlier

      http://www.malaysiastock.biz/Corporate-Infomation.aspx?securityCode=4502

      And Berjaya Media Group since even earlier

      http://www.malaysiastock.biz/Corporate-Infomation.aspx?securityCode=6025

      Moving from print to online and digital won't save these guys, since from the experience in the U.S., for every U.S.$ 8 to 10 drop in print advertising revenue, there has only been a gain of U.S.$1 in online or digital ad revenue.

      Also, Google and Facebook are drawing away much online and digital advertising expenditure (ADEX), not surprisingly, since most advertisers want the widest exposure for their advertising dollar.

      I have described this in greater detail in some of my blogs above.

      Posted 6 years ago by IT Scheiss · Reply

  • Please put up a paywall. You’d be surprised by the outcome. Everyone I know already wants to subscribe

    Posted 6 years ago by Christine Hendroff · Reply

  • Set up a paywall, Mr. Sadiq. I see ads running here. So, I don't what that BN shill of blogger blaming you guys in need of "Sugar Daddies".
    We all know pro-BN websites/blogs need BN Sugar Daddy funds to run it.
    How can a website like Breitbart able to run going against the likes of CNN to give amazing coverage of the US election? I'm sure you guys can do it.

    Posted 6 years ago by Nice Frog · Reply

  • Set up a paywall, Mr. Sadiq. I see ads running here. So, I don't what that BN shill of blogger blaming you guys in need of "Sugar Daddies".
    We all know pro-BN websites/blogs need BN Sugar Daddy funds to run it.
    How can a website like Breitbart able to run going against the likes of CNN to give amazing coverage of the US election? I'm sure you guys can do it.

    Posted 6 years ago by Nice Frog · Reply

  • Hi Jahabar,

    A thought crossed my mind as to whether this announcement on Friday 23 March 2018, of the suspension of TMI's operations "from next week" is and early April Fool's joke.

    This Sunday 25 March 2018 already is next week and new articles are still appearing on TMI. So either your content management system is clearing out its queued articles, your "next week" begins on Monday 26 March 2018 or this is an April Fools' joke to gauge readers' reactions.

    Posted 6 years ago by IT Scheiss · Reply

  • Mate, just separate the roles. You need a good CEO who knows how to run the business while you focus on what you are fantastic at - editorial content. That will also make TMI attractive to investors.

    Posted 6 years ago by Shaji Raj · Reply