UTUSAN Malaysia will shrink to a tabloid from tomorrow as Malaysia’s oldest Malay-language newspaper struggles to cut costs and stem its burgeoning debt.

The Umno-controlled newspaper will depart from its traditional broadsheet format beginning with its Sunday edition, Mingguan Malaysia, said several sources.

“This change in size will cut costs. Distribution has now reduced, so it’s not worth it with the cost of broadsheet printing,” said the source who declined to be named.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations Malaysia report for December 2017 revealed that Mingguan Malaysia was the Malay-language newspaper with the highest circulation at 245,911 copies a day.

Utusan Malaysia which is published from Monday to Saturday recorded a distribution of 112,050 copies, far ahead of its competitor Berita Harian at almost 70,000 copies daily.

However, the source told The Malaysian Insight that in the last 10 months since the annual audit was released, Utusan Malaysia’s actual distribution numbers have dipped to some 70,000 copies a day.

The source said the changes to its size were made as a result of research and polls conducted on its readers from July last year.

“The poll showed that readers chose a compact size.”

Since Sunday, Mingguan Malaysia and Utusan Malaysia have published teasers on their impending change in size.

The move is part of the company’s efforts to revamp and return to profitability after Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir was appointed chairman of Utusan Group on June 7.

The company was reported to be struggling with losses amounting to RM8 million every month.

Aziz is also believed to be the interim group chief editor after Abdul Aziz Ishak and his deputy Othman Mohamad resigned in the middle of July.

The decision to move from broadsheet to tabloid had been raised several times in the past by the Utusan management, from as far back as 10 years ago when the cost of newsprint rose, said another source.

The change also means that all daily newspapers in Malay and English will now be in compact-size, leaving only Mandarin and Tamil-language newspapers in Malaysia in broadsheet format.

Sinar Harian, Harian Metro, The Star and The Sun, along with all their weekend editions, have all been in tabloid size prints, whereas the New Straits Times changed from broadsheet from September 2004. Berita Harian was published in compacts size from July 2008.

Apart from reducing its operational costs by cutting down on printing costs, Utusan is looking to reduce its staff by half from its current 1,400-strong team.

Recently, Utusan announced that it is seeking new investors with a targeted capital of RM2.1 million to repay its debts.

The newspaper company which was formed in 1939 is now on a PN17 status, meaning it is facing financial problems after it failed to repay debts amounting to RM1.2 million to two banks.

Last June, the management of the company said Utusan staff will be offered a voluntary separation scheme before the end of the year in a move that is believed to cost the company up to RM90 million in compensation.

Utusan, which is controlled by Umno with a 49.77% share, last recorded profitability in 2011. As of March, its losses this year amount to RM71.4 million. – September 15, 2018.