TMI next Malaysian news portal shutting down
Malaysia’s news web portal The Malaysian Insight (TMI) will close down “temporarily” next week because of financial difficulties, its editor-in-chief said. The decision came after just one year of operations.
According to editor-in-chief and CEO Jahabar Sadiq, the shutdown is owing to the online portal’s missing of a “major milestone in starting a paywall” as page views traffic did not reach the targeted critical mass. The portal now needed to “review its direction, news operations and commercial viability.” He did not specify how long this period of reflection would persist and whether there was a chance to get TMI back online at some point of time.
“The decision to suspend publication in the interim is a difficult one, but was made due to the challenging financial environment faced by The Malaysian Insight and other media outlets,” he said in the statement published on TMI on March 23.
Including Jahabar, 58 team members of TMI are affected by the suspension.
Jahabar never disclosed the source of TMI’s funding which now obviously dried up. He only said the portal had been backed by some private equity funding and businessmen having provided him with a loan.
TMI, which published news also in Bahasa Malay and Mandarin, is seen as the successor of The Malaysia Insider, a web news page also run by Jahabar which closed down in March 2016 after eight years, also because of a shortage of funds.
However, the commercial difficulties for The Malaysian Insider were mainly due to the blocking of the website by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in February 2016 on the grounds of “national security” following “continuous publication of defamatory content.” The move has been widely perceived by pro-opposition groups as blocking free speech in the country.
Whether TMI also faced such political pressures as it in a similar way focused on politics, civil society movements, issues of race and religion and the domestic economy, is currently topic of heated debates in Malaysia’s media scene.
Malaysia's news web portal The Malaysian Insight (TMI) will close down "temporarily" next week because of financial difficulties, its editor-in-chief said. The decision came after just one year of operations. According to editor-in-chief and CEO Jahabar Sadiq, the shutdown is owing to the online portal's missing of a “major milestone in starting a paywall” as page views traffic did not reach the targeted critical mass. The portal now needed to "review its direction, news operations and commercial viability." He did not specify how long this period of reflection would persist and whether there was a chance to get TMI back...
Malaysia’s news web portal The Malaysian Insight (TMI) will close down “temporarily” next week because of financial difficulties, its editor-in-chief said. The decision came after just one year of operations.
According to editor-in-chief and CEO Jahabar Sadiq, the shutdown is owing to the online portal’s missing of a “major milestone in starting a paywall” as page views traffic did not reach the targeted critical mass. The portal now needed to “review its direction, news operations and commercial viability.” He did not specify how long this period of reflection would persist and whether there was a chance to get TMI back online at some point of time.
“The decision to suspend publication in the interim is a difficult one, but was made due to the challenging financial environment faced by The Malaysian Insight and other media outlets,” he said in the statement published on TMI on March 23.
Including Jahabar, 58 team members of TMI are affected by the suspension.
Jahabar never disclosed the source of TMI’s funding which now obviously dried up. He only said the portal had been backed by some private equity funding and businessmen having provided him with a loan.
TMI, which published news also in Bahasa Malay and Mandarin, is seen as the successor of The Malaysia Insider, a web news page also run by Jahabar which closed down in March 2016 after eight years, also because of a shortage of funds.
However, the commercial difficulties for The Malaysian Insider were mainly due to the blocking of the website by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in February 2016 on the grounds of “national security” following “continuous publication of defamatory content.” The move has been widely perceived by pro-opposition groups as blocking free speech in the country.
Whether TMI also faced such political pressures as it in a similar way focused on politics, civil society movements, issues of race and religion and the domestic economy, is currently topic of heated debates in Malaysia’s media scene.
