Come April Fools' Day, Agenda Malaysia (AM), the e-magazine which folded up due to financial difficulties last year, will make its much rumoured return as a daily news portal.

Chief Editor Rozaid Abdul Rahman, said this is definitely not an April Fool's joke and that the new AM (www.agendamalaysia.com) will be promoted as a "one-stop political news centre" in the next 12 months.

"Of the old faces, only the chief executive officer Mohd Jaafar Ismail and I, remain. The rest are all new. We have six full-time reporters and also stringers in Johor, Penang, Perak and Selangor, who will cover their local happenings and issues. We are also trying to get our former contributors to write for us," said Rozaid.

About 80 percent of the daily uploaded content will be in Bahasa Melayu and the rest in English, he added.

The defunct AM, which was run by managing editor Rehman Rashid, made its debut last year, also on April 1, and ceased operations on December 31.

In its final editorial entitled 'Game over', Rehman informed readers that AM had run out of funds.

Soft launching

According to him, AM had misjudged the development of Internet advertising in the country, and "not only on pace but also direction, on which we were a neat 180 degrees off".

"With the advertising industry in general, traditionally two steps behind the curve of ideas, we thought Internet advertising would work itself into gear this year. Instead, it seems to have nosedived into self-servitude and lost its head up its ass," he had said.

Rehman had also highlighted AM's misjudgement of promises made by good and reliable web services and infrastructure that came with high price tags.

Rozaid said that the new AM will be divided into three parts - news and news analyses; commentary and special interviews and feedback from readers.

Not willing to reveal who the shareholders are, Rozaid said that he could only state that, "Our shareholders and investors are non-political, non-partisan and not foreign. It is purely business here."

"Our principle is to uphold press freedom," said Rozaid, who was a former political correspondent and news editor with Utusan Malaysia .

Rozaid said that there will be a soft launching on April 1 to announce the website.