Big fish and small fish
We speak about convergence of mediums, and also convergence of ownership. The latter phenomena is taking place right here in Malaysia, and I sit back think about the impact to the other media players in the country.
Media Prima, a company owned by one of the major political parties forming Malaysia's ruling coalition, is on a buying spree. It recently concluded a major acquisition of an advertising company, Big Tree and has plans to also purchase another two advertising firms. Media Prima owns four television stations and english daily New Straits Times and several Malay dailies Berita Harian and Harian Metro.
Two days ago it announced plans to acquire Malay daily Utusan Melayu, currently holding one of the top readership and circulations in the country. This massive merger is being strongly opposed by shareholders of Utusan Melayu but gauging from the business logic and justifications, it would most probably be sealed by early 2007.
Critics to this merger raise concerns about a media monopoly and threat to press freedom. Malaysia's situation as we all know already faces the challenges of strict press regulations and licensing controls. The press has been allowed some leeway in the past few years, but what will happen now with fewer players in the market?
posted by Susan @ 8:31 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Susan,
interesting thoughts. I think I will be sharing the same story soon. But just to give you a hint, mergers of media companies (consolidation) are happening almost anywhere now. It is primarily driven by the decreasing readerships and the need to be a bigger player in a global pond. News is no longer just local. It has to go global to stay relevant. Does that make sense?
Anyway, nice to see this kind of thoughts from a Malaysian journalist. Hope "they" won't censor it ;-)
Hi Erwin,
Yes, censorship is a painful thing for Malaysian media, fortunately the Internet does not fall under the list of "sensitive" items that need to be filtered through. Our former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed made clear of that to encourage free flowing exchange of information.
Reporting in the traditional forms of media have also been a tad more flexible under our new regime (3 yrs old), PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. But the question that arises, at least for me, is whether audiences are mature for critical debate. We find racial issues and rights concerns dominating the media today in Malaysia and many groups have voiced their opposition and concerns, perhaps stemming from narrow thinking or lack of exposure to these very dynamic relations in an area as sensitive as race and religion.
The urban folk, with better access to media perhaps is in position to exchange in healthy debate, because they have had longer exposure with the help of the Internet. Then the question of access and infrastructure comes along. When will we see a level playing field, or perhaps there never was.. As Friedman points out, the world is becoming flat, are we ready for it?
Cheer
Susan
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