Nanyang Siang Pau will axe its night edition starting from this Sunday due to “an adjustment of its marketing strategy”.

This was announced by the local Chinese daily through a notice in its night edition’s front page tonight.

NONE “After this newspaper repositioned as a Chinese daily focused on financial and economic news, it has gained the support of certain readers.

“Due to the adjustment of its marketing strategy, this newspaper will stop its night edition from July 15 (Sunday), but readers can still get comprehensive coverage from our morning edition.”

The newspaper also thanked its readers for their support.

When contacted by Malaysiakini , its editor-in-chief Choong Choong Nam refused to divulge more information on the reason behind the move.

“You can read it from our notice (in the newspaper’s front page).”

Focus on business news

This is the second major reform by Nanyang Siang Pau , which was once the peninsular’s biggest Chinese daily, after its holding company, Nanyang Press Holdings, was taken over by local media tycoon Tiong Hiew King and merged into Media Chinese International in 2008.

The newspaper has been under pressure to revive its circulation and profit, which had been in decline for the last few years, after the newspaper was acquired by MCA, the second largest member of the ruling BN coalition, in 2001.

According to the Audited Bureau of Circulation’s (ABC) statistics, its circulation fell from 170,000 in 2001/2001 to 114,000 in 2006/2007.

The newspaper withdrew from circulation audits in July 2007, but it is believed that its current circulation is much lower than it was at that time.

According to ABC’s statistics, its night edition contributed less than 10 percent of its overall circulation.

The first major reform was repositioning the daily’s focus to business news in 2010, as suggested by its name of ‘ Siang Pau ’, which means business daily.

It is learnt that although the reform was welcomed by the business community, it still falls short of bringing the newspaper back to profit.