news analysis
It seems that the biggest loser among Chinese language dailies circulating in Sarawak and Sabah following the controversial takeover of Nanyang Press is the media company's flagship Nanyang Siang Pau .And the biggest winner is rival newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh , owned by a company controlled by Sarawak timber tycoon Tiong Hiew King of the Rimbunan Hijau Group, probably the world's largest logging company with operations in almost all continents of the world.
According to Kuching-based news agents, there are no more than 100 copies of Nanyang in circulation in the state capital, or for that matter in the whole of Sarawak.
Just before the MCA takeover, the paper's management raised the retail price in East Malaysia to RM2.40 per copy, making it the most expensive national daily being retailed in any part of the country today.
" Nanyang Siang Pau is basically a Peninsular Malaysia-based Chinese daily that has little support or readership in East Malaysia," according to a former subscriber who since the controversy over the MCA's purchase switched, like many others, to Sin Chew .
A Sin Chew senior reporter in Kuching told malaysiakini that his paper's sales has - since Tiong took over the financially-troubled company that once owned the paper years ago and revamped its management and editorial teams and invested in new equipments - shot up to 50,000 copies in Sarawak alone, making it indisputably the largest circulation Chinese daily in Sarawak as well as Sabah.
The paper's East Malaysia edition is printed in Kuching.
Aggressive marketing
Sin Chew 's rise has been also at the expense of the long-established local Chinese dailies, especially the See Hua Daily News , which is controlled by rival timber group, KTS Group of Companies.
The KTS Group also owns Borneo Post , an English-language daily which since its takeover by the timber group has been restructured to try and take on the more established Sarawak Tribune , owned by a company linked to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu.
According to those familiar with the ownership of Chinese newspaper companies, Sin Chew is the most aggressive in terms of marketing and news presentation.
They say during the last state elections, the paper had tried to present a balanced account of what was going on in the political hustings between the Barisan Nasional and the opposition parties.
While most other newspapers - English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia - were aligned to the Barisan Nasional, Sin Chew took a bolder move by giving fairer coverage of the opposition more than any of the other newspapers, including Borneo Post and its Chinese sister paper See Hua , whose readership is mainly confined to the Sibu Division.
The other papers fighting for a share of the tiny Sarawak market include the International Times , another long-established Chinese daily closely linked to the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), the Chinese-based component of the ruling Sarawak Barisan Nasional. Its readership is however confined mainly to the Kuching and Sri Aman districts.
The Miri Daily News , another Sarawak Chinese daily, is northern Sarawak's longest-established newspaper with its readership confined mainly to Miri and Baram Divisions and also in Brunei.
Tiong may buy 'Nanyang'
Only Sin Chew enjoys a strong statewide readership both in Sarawak and Sabah - and with the backing of a strong financial group, aggressive marketing and promotion - is quickly dominating the country's Chinese-language newspaper market.
Therefore, the latest developments following a new editorial policy in Nanyang with the dropping of its "politically sensitive" ' Youth Mission ' section and ' Nanyang Saloon ' column could result in the daily becoming increasingly less attractive for Chinese readers on both sides of the South China Seas.
Observers in Sarawak feel that this could only work to the advantage of its rival, Sin Chew .
But there has been talk of Sin Chew 's owner Tiong buying Nanyang or at least holding a major stake with Nanyang 's Huaren Holdings, the MCA investment arm.
But so far none of the top company officials in Kuching involved in Sin Chew would confirm the speculation.
"But we will not be surprise if MCA offers part, or a controlling interest, of Nanyang Press for sale to a friendly party if they do not want to see the eventual disappearance or even demise of Nanyang ," according to one of the officials who asked not to be quoted.
However, if Tiong is to control Nanyang , it will give the timber tycoon an almost complete monopoly of the Chinese-language newspaper market in Malaysia.
TONY THIEN is a malaysiakini correspondent based in Kuching, Sarawak
