The Sun stretches its rays to win eyeballs

Malaysia - The Sun has launched a Crush Advertising-created marketing campaign to dismantle the perception that journalists in Malaysia are merely mouthpieces, by highlighting the newspaper's award-winning journalists.

Crush creative director Kenneth Lim said the main objective was to make The Sun personal to its loyal readers and win more mindshare in the competitive newspaper industry.

"We believe a newspaper especially in the 21st century has to identify with its audience when news is fast becoming decentralised, as internet journalism and blogs fast gain popularity," Crush managing director Karthi Palanisamy said.

The prominent names featured in the creative blitz are veteran journalists Zainon Ahmad, R. Nadeswaran, Jacqueline Ann Surin, Terence Fernandez and Bob Holmes. Nadeswaran, Surin and Fernandez were winners at the annual Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) 2007 awards held in May 2007.

In December, Marketing reported The Sun had recorded the highest increase in daily circulation, from 174,179 to 256,486 from July 2006 to June 2007, while the leading English daily, The Star, recorded a marginal decline of 0.3% in circulation to 309,181, according to the results released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC).