I guess Malaysia they are a little bit lucky where printing license is limited and is probably only opened to one side of the political divide.
However, on the business side, Star is not entirely dead. It is a very decent company, but just that I do not know where it is heading.
The young demography of Malaysia, is not going to help. Star has to reinvent as what the earlier comment says on Jobstreet, needing to continue reinvent. But the main product for Star - which is the paper - is already wrong. Then it went to buy 5% of Catcha, who did the buying decision I wonder. It is now building by going strong on RedFM etc, but yet again I listen to BFM more than RedFM. Many more would like RedFM but the point here is options and choices.
The survival for Star now is because there are no strong competitors in the shrinking segment it serves. It is lucky that I do not even want to talk about New Straits Times.
10 comments:
Why spend money to buy lies?
Hmmm....reason report on the raping of Cameron Highlands hills and also the clearing of hills in Penang in The Star must be lies too????
How about the report on DAP an approved Thanksgiving rally in PJ lies too???
I guess the first reinvention is to get a white knight to take over. Hahaha
Digital,
Mentioning 3 reports by STAR a good prove that Star didn't lie? What logic is that.
No rain in 3 days means dry season whole year???
http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=96212:confirmed-the-star-is-the-paper-that-lies-tony-pua&Itemid=2
http://www.therocket.com.my/en/star-lies-again-penang-government-clarifies/
Will people like The Star better when PKR come into power after 5 years from now? If yes, we then should consider to invest now. If after 5 years BN still stay in power, Star probably will be still getting steady and decent advertisement income due to lack of competition in printed media. Anyway, I see it should be able to fetch about 8% of annual return (dividend and capital gain in combine) quite predictably in at least another 5 years and is therefore one of the safe options for large investment especially when the interest rate is low.
Now MCA has nothing to loose. So I think they will be wise up to know how to run a better newspaper. Perhaps when they concentrate on doing business, they could do it better. That's why it could be the beginning of revival of this newspaper. Time will resolve the mystery.
The problem with Star is good management and editors are squeezed out and replaced with "yes men" whose purpose are to serve their political masters first and run the business effectively second. It does have much more breadth in its reporting of local news compared to other online local sites due to its much larger number of reporters, and I think are are still a lot of good people in Star. As long as it remains an MCA owned publisher it will not change its stripes anytime soon. They are lucky that the media scene in Malaysia is still focused on traditional media and has not moved in droves to digital yet, but that luck may just run out soon. Their efforts to diversify into digital media and radio are also half baked especially with people who are not the best running the show but are simply there due to political reasons.
The price has started to climb quietly. The Star is one of the few options just large enough for sizable fund to enter at price low enough to get high yield (above 6%). If one big fish goes into the pool, water would splash out from it to fill your little cup. Anyone has got the same opinion?
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