MediaCorp closes Malaysia business

• MediaCorporation Publishing Malaysia to close
• Licenses for Style and FHM acquired by Measat
• No takers for Mother & Baby title
• Measat to absorbed some MediaCorporation Publishing Malaysia staff
  

Malaysia - MediaCorp Publishing will shut its Malaysian publishing arm at the end of this month, a decision brought on by poor financial performances and accelerated by the current economic recession.

"It was a tough call but it wasn't making money," Sivam Kumar, general manager for MediaCorporation Publishing Malaysia, said.

"And though our titles are doing well, overall it just was a tough market to be in and especially now given the current market situation."

Titles under the MediaCorporation Publishing Malaysia umbrella include local versions of Style, FHM, and Mother & Baby. Kumar, who previously worked for Measat for two years, added that one of the company's long term strategies was to license its brands.

"I knew Measat was interested in Style and so the opportunity was there," he said.

Measat are also keen admirers of FHM, and a deal has already been done which will see media giant Measat produce and print Malaysian editions of the two tittles from April onwards. Mother & Baby will not be published in the market anymore.

"It's been declining in terms of circulation for a while and we were looking for a partner but there were no takers," Kumar said.

MediaCorp Publishing MD Zita Ong confirmed the news adding that the Malaysia market had been "difficult" for Singapore's media giant.

On paper, the two year old Style looks the more attractive of the two titles for Measat with advertisers taking to the publication - it experienced a 25% increase in ad revenue growth year-on-year.

But Ong said the take-up and pick-up rate for FHM is good despite the lad mags category suffering globally.

"There's still a place for these titles in Asia," she said.

However just five months ago, MediaCorp Publishing's fiercest local rival Singapore Press Holdings confirmed it would shut Maxim in Singapore after its December 2008 issue. Measat acquired the license to produce FHM from Bauer Media - after MediaCorp gave up their license.

"We will put a lot of marketing efforts behind the two titles," Louis Foo, GM for Measat, said.

Measat, like MediaCorp Publishing in Singapore does have the luxury of leveraging on its own multimedia assets to push marketing. But in South East Asia, Malaysia has one of the lowest magazine advertising yields.

"It's because of how fragmented the market is," Foo said.

MediaCorp says all 21 staff from its Malaysia operations are currently being interviewed by Measat although Foo said he's likely to only absorbed the editorial teams working on the Style and FHM titles.

The eight or so left non-editorial staffers are likely to be out of a job once the company finally shuts at the end of March, including its GM Kumar who said he is taking a break before deciding on his next move.

In 2007 MediaCorporation Publishing Malaysia had as many as seven titles.