Malaysiakini bags bronze at Putra Aria Brands Award

Malaysiakini bagged the bronze award at this year's Putra Aria Brand Awards for its branding popularity in 2023.

The news portal was named one of the winners of the Media Networks category, which came with a trophy and certificate.

Winners are also allowed to use the award’s official logo to advertise itself as people's brand of choice.

It shared the same spot with Sinar Harian, Majoriti 7 and Bernama, while the silver award was won by The Sun.

The New Straits Times and Berita Harian both won gold for the category.

Malaysiakini’s head of operations Tham Seen Hau represented the news portal to receive the award during a gala dinner held at a hotel in Petaling Jaya earlier today.

According to organising chairperson Johnny Mun, they believed Malaysiakini was chosen by consumers because it is considered as a people's platform.

"People like to read Malaysiakini for various reasons. I also like to read Malaysiakini for its investigative reports.

"Because of that, it is a brilliant platform for us to be a part of," he said during an interview at the sidelines of the event.

Over 12k respondents polled

Mun said there were about 150 awards (gold, silver and bronze) across 24 categories, with the winners chosen by over 12,000 unique respondents who participated in an online polling exercise carried out last year.

The survey was handled by independent global market research firm Ipsos.

"Money cannot buy this award, that is why it is called the people's choice award," he added.

Meanwhile, Tham said Malaysiakini is honoured to receive the award and congratulates its team members for their hard work in building it into a recognised brand.

She said the fact that consumers had voted for Malaysiakini was a recognition of its quality journalism.

"Malaysiakini is honoured to receive this award. As this is based on the votes of the people, it really shows that Malaysiakini is a recognised brand.

"It’s also basically a recognition of our quality journalism and good journalism we are doing.

"So we are very honoured and happy with this award," she said.

Adding further, Tham said this year is also Malaysiakini's 25th anniversary, and they plan to continue to serve as the country's trusted news portal.

"We achieved what we have today because of our founders, because of the dedication and sacrifices they made. More importantly, this is the result of our work, the Malaysiakini team.

"So moving forward, I guess it is for us to continue to grow and maintain our position as the number one, (as) we are already the number one in the market in terms of traffic.

"We will try to strive to maintain that status but more importantly, in terms of quality journalism, we want to do better and make Malaysiakini a better-recognised brand name around the world."

According to its official website, the Putra Aria Brand Awards was established in 2022 by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) to serve the marketing fraternity by highlighting branding efforts across all segments.

It is one of the two recognitions endorsed by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) as its Brand Champion Partner.

This marks the fourth occasion Malaysiakini has been recognised as one of the top media brands by 4As. Previously, Malaysiakini received the same award in 2010, 2014, and 2015.

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