F-words draw in readers for theSun

Malaysia - It might just be the F-words - free, fabulous and friendly - that earned theSun, the nation's only free-sheet, a pass-on readership rate of 2.9 per copy, as vetted by the Nielsen Company.

In an event called Malaysia Prime which attracted almost 350 individuals from media agencies, clients and media members, key figures in the industry explained how the newspaper model helped marketers reach their audience, which is largely made up of affluent urban Malaysians.

Acting editor-in-chief Chong Cheng Hai said theSun's no cover price for readers, no political masters and the free space in which young readers could speak their minds aptly shows the paper's concept of "free".

"Our tag line ‘Telling it as it is' also goes to show how we report facts and practice no spin-off of news; the paper helps our readers in a sense that our presentation of compact and precise news provides no headaches or wrist-aches from having them to flip over 200 pages," he told an amused crowd.

These, he said, were some of theSun's appeal as a marketer may want to opt for a newspaper with credible and truthful content. Another bonus is the paper being the first read of the day, strategically located at pick-up and distribution points with high professionals, managers, executives and businessmen traffic.

In the same event, distribution channel manager Joehari Abdul Jabbar presented the newspaper's plan of increasing the print run from its existing 275,000 copies to "perhaps more than the 300,000 mark in the very near future."

He said, "theSun is the number one urban English newspaper  and its 223,000 copies being circulated in the Klang Valley - 80,000 in the Golden Triangle - proves this," adding that the other points of delivery were at office complexes, F&B outlets and even on board 16 airline companies.

"Demand far exceeds supply in our product and we've heard advertisers needing to be comfortable with us when credibility and integrity is critical.

"We've taken a third party audit for market confidence, theSun's a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and we've a modified audit to cater to the free paper model.

"We can say theSun was given a 100% picked-up ratio and is one heck of a communication channel," Joehari added.

Patrick Chin, advertising and marketing manager, defined theSun's readers in Insights with about 87% of readers earning over RM5,000 in personal monthly income.

"These are people with purchasing power and theSun readers have been identified to be big on spending, big on investing, financial services and are very tech-savvy and connected people," he added.

Nielsen's findings found that over 92% of the 888 respondents owned one credit card, 55% shopped online and 55% had a say in business decisions of up to RM1 million.

Fieldwork for the online survey was carried out in February.