Umno-linked papers take a beating in sales except for Utusan, Kosmo
KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — The circulation of several Umno-linked newspapers has dropped since 2011, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) revealed in figures released today.
The ABC statistics showed that from July to December 2011, Umno-controlled Malay-language daily Berita Harian saw a significant year-on-year slide of 15 per cent to 126,777 copies compared to 150,020 in the corresponding period in 2010.
During the same period, circulation for Berita Harian’s sister publication and the country’s oldest paper New Straits Times (NST) declined by seven per cent, or 6,747 copies to 94,661 copies.
The English-language publication’s Sunday edition dropped by eight per cent or 9,971 copies to 110,660 copies in the second half of last year.
However, sales of Umno-owned tabloid Kosmo grew by 11 per cent in the second half of last year, from 188,982 copies to 208,331 copies.
Its sister paper, broadsheet Utusan Malaysia also rose slightly at one per cent to 172,859 copies last year from a year earlier.
The ABC’s findings showed that The Star, an MCA-owned publication, was the only English-language newspaper in the country to register a growth in sales with an increase of three per cent, or a total of 287,204 copies from 278,961 copies.
The report also showed that weekend editions of all English-language papers recorded a fall in the second half of 2011, with Sunday Star seeing the smallest drop at one per cent.
Overall, the total circulation of English-language papers grew by 0.4 per cent in the second half of 2011.
In contrast, circulation for Malay-language papers and vernacular Chinese papers slipped two per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.
Among those that recorded a tumble were Malay-language Harian Metro, which like Berita Harian and NST, is published by the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd, and Sin Chew Daily, China Press, Guang Ming Daily and Oriental Daily for the Chinese-language papers.
