The Edge Group chairperson Tong Kooi Oong will separately finance digital platforms considered to be “non-core” to the media group, which is anchored by its financial publications The Edge Malaysia and The Edge Financial Weekly .
In a note to readers, The Edge Media Group CEO Ho Kay Tat said this is to ensure the viability of the group.
Ho said the digital platforms the group considers “core” are www.edgemarkets.com, www.theedgeproperty.com, EdgeTV, and the two print publications.
The Edge Group also owns news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI), which was earlier speculated to be up for sale.
Ho does not address TMI’s fate in the note, but said that “new digital platforms that are not core to what The Edge does will not be fused with the operations of The Edge.”
“Hence, some of these initiatives will now be carried out and financed separately by our chairman Tong Kooi Ong outside The Edge Media Group.
“We believe that the pure, new digital initiatives require different skills and mindsets and a different financing model and will have a better chance of succeeding on their own.
“Mixing the two will only be a drag on each other,” he said.
He also announced that the pullout # edGY, launched in 2013, will be discontinued.
Ho said that the two months when The Edge could not print had hurt the group financially.
This is despite having its suspension of its licence, following its reports on 1MDB, later overturned in court.
The “weak business environment” expected this year also forced the group to “refocus”, he said.
“Even as we have to reset ourselves and restrategise, one thing will never change, and that is our commitment to good journalist, to report things as they are and to serve the public interest,” he said.
The note comes as concerns rise over whether TMI would be able to retain its critical editorial stance under new owners.
Malaysiakini yesterday reported of looming shake up in the media industry , as Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak looks to strengthen his position in the midst of the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal.
Hit also by a fall in advertising, some fledgling outfits are looking to shut down, while others are changing focus.
News portal The Rakyat Post is said to be facing imminent closure after an investor pulled out while popular Bahasa Malaysia news and current affairs channel Astro Awani is to change into an English medium channel focusing on regional affairs.
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