PUBLISHER SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 9 STAR PUBLICATIONS BHD PRINT AND BEYOND After 29 years at The Star, including a stint of five years as Group Chief Edi-tor, Wong Chun Wai moved up into the corporate arena on November 2013 when he was appointed Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Of-ficer of Star Publications (M) Bhd. Emulating the example of Steven Tan, a former business reporter who successfully helmed the company for two dec-ades, Wong aims to leverage his passion for, and in-depth insider’s knowl-edge of, the media industry to take The Star to new heights. A good journalist, one may say, is first and foremost a good story teller. Wong Chun Wai spent a large part of his professional life writing stories. He enjoys telling the anecdote of his precocious commitment to journalism and at the company he now manages: Wong briefly joined The Star as a trainee after his Sixth Form, while waiting for entry into university, and immediately re-joined the newspaper one day after he sat for his final examination paper at the National University of Malay-sia! “If a person comes from a strictly business back-ground, he or she may not be aware of the colour and the intangible aspects of the industry,” says Wong. “It is more than just dollars and cents, and the CEO has to be able to make sure that the reliability and creativity of his products are such that people will want to support the company, either by buying our products or investing in our shares.” Bold ideas, brave strategy The Star’s recent Bold Ideas, Brave Views editorial cam-paign offers a good illustration of that statement. The campaign gathered personalities and contributors to The Star to declare in a series of opinion columns the news-paper’s stand for moderation and its utter disapproval of racial and religious bigots. Such a project does not have any obvious financial rationale, and in Malaysia’s shaken market conditions and sensitive political climate, it could even be consid-ered risky. “It has not been easy,” says Wong. “I received hate mails and even threats from some people, but we are prepared to take them on.” One of the campaign’s contributors, Universiti Malaya law lecturer Dr Azmi Sharom, was prosecuted under Malaysia’s Sedition Act for some remarks in his column… Considering, though, that Malaysian mainstream media are often accused of being disconnected from citi-zens’ daily preoccupations and prone to voice instead the government’s communication agenda, the Bold Ideas, Brave Views campaign doubtlessly played an important role in tightening the paper’s link to its community and strengthening its credibility. That kind of editorial strategy – together with efforts to improve the newspaper’s distribution system – has en-abled The Star to counter circulation decline in recent months. “The Star has been able to increase its circula-tion at a time when print is perceived to be a sunset in-dustry,” Wong proudly says. A unique e-paper offering The release of The Star’s e-paper edition also has helped boost the newspaper’s overall circulation and readership. “We have been at the forefront of the changing media scene by providing readers with an e-paper subscription option,” Wong says. “Its augmented reality feature, called i-Snap, brings articles and advertisements to life, allowing readers to get more out of their print edition.” The Star’s e-paper is essentially a replica of the news-paper, available on mobile devices and the desktop. It is aimed at readers aged between 30 and 50 who still pre-fer the traditional newspaper layout but enjoy reading it on their mobile devices. “We have already passed the 80,000-subscriber mark, and we will hit 100,000 in months to come! This would mean that almost a third of our subscribers have embraced the e-paper,” says Wong. A unique feature of The Star’s e-paper is that for no extra charge, subscribers also get access to the e-paper editions of The Philippine Inquirer, The Jakarta Post, The China Weekly and The Nation of Thailand. This exclusive offering – sponsored by the CIMB Bank – is a result of the first commercial partnership formed among several members of the Asian News Network (ANN), a network of 21 media groups in Asian cities that previously had fo-cused mainly on cooperation in news coverage and ex-changes of news content. “This is a novel business idea that we believe will at-tract more subscribers from outside the region, since they now have access to several strong and dependable regional voices in one package,” Wong says. “The model is simple – we share the advertising and sponsorship rev-enue,” he says. Print still strong despite ad decline If circulation appears to be on the rise for The Star, all Malaysian companies have experienced a sharp erosion of their advertising revenues in 2014 resulting from the negative impact of the two Malaysia Airlines tragedies within just months of one another. Print nonetheless still commands an impressive 34 percent of the total ad spend in Malaysia! And The Star, as the country’s leading English-language daily, has 70 per cent of the advertising revenue of the English-read-ing market. “Print is the core of The Star Media Group,” says Wong. “We will strive to maintain the print segment, since it remains the most profitable side in the group. At the same time, we will invest in high-growth areas such as video and digital,” he says. The Star Media Group has already expanded its media business in recent years with four radio channels and a stake in the lifestyle TV channel LiTV. Looking ahead, it aims to stay ahead of its competitors by creat-ing and distributing high-quality, relevant content (espe-cially video) on all the platforms on which the current generation consumes information: free-to-air TV, pay TV, desktop, and mobile platforms. In addition to TSOL (The Star Online), the number-one English news portal in Malaysia, The Star has launched a series of mobile apps for news, citizen jour-nalism (MOB), food (eflavours), real estate (Star Property), and other areas. “We want to focus on areas of digital that comple-ment and enhance The Star’s strengths. We want to build a strong digital presence that will allow us to con-tinue to attract premium audiences,” Wong says. Alternative sources of revenue In a challenging media business environment, The Star is of course looking at other revenue streams as well. “In conjunction with organic growth,” says Wong, “we are always on the lookout for great acquisitions in the media space, especially those that can add immedi-ate revenue and earnings to the group.” In mergers and acquisitions, The Star has focused on exclusive advertising concessions, events and innovative digital ventures. “Our events and exhibitions arms have remained profitable, and obviously we want to focus our resources and attention on such business units,” says Wong. “For example, our Perfect Livin’ subsidiary has been a strong source of revenue, while events such as property and education fairs have also been strong com-ponents.” E-commerce is another business area with strong growth potential. “Our StarShopping allows The Star’s online users to discover a breadth of products from the comfort of their browser, extending the range of our ser-vices to our readers,” Wong says. “Since its deployment, local brands and retailers have been keen to partner with our unique shopping experience to tap the growth of e-commerce locally.”
Asian Newspaper Focus 09/10_2014
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