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Putrajaya instructs GLCs to advertise in Utusan Malaysia

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When it comes to principles and politics, the line has always been a bit blurred in Malaysia.The latest to fall into this grey area are government-linked corporations (GLCs) being ‘instructed’ to allocate more of their advertising budget with Malay language newspaper and, more specifically, Umno-linked Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian.According to reports, the sales for Malay language papers such as Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian and the English language New Straits Times have suffered a decline of up to 20 percent in daily circulation between 2005 and 2009. All three publications are linked to Umno and the current ruling party of the nation.Just last month, prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak rallied for companies and government agencies to advertise with Utusan Malaysia, saying that he hopes all government agencies, GLCs and private companies, especially those owned by Bumiputeras, will show their support by giving more advertisements to Utusan.The public and opposition have called this plea as another example of the federal government wasting tax ringgit in attempt to bail out the paper, which was met by a response from the minister of the prime minister’s department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim in a written reply stating that Putrajaya had never recommended that Utusan be given priority of advertisement purposes.“The government only stressed that advertisements be placed in main newspapers in Malaysia so that the message can achieve its objective.”So, why the 180 spin?According to deputy finance minister Datuk Ahman Maslan this new directive is to be fair.“We are not asking for a majority of the budget, but this is too little. Do not over spend on English and Chinese newspapers,” Ahman Maslan was quoted saying.He further adds that failure to support the Malay newspaper would hamper their “struggle” for Malaysia.In a study by RHB Research, it revealed that the advertising expenditure for Malay newspapers decreased by a whopping 26 percent as compared to the same month last year. In comparison, the Chinese and English dailies had an increase of 8.8% and 7.2%, respectively.Utusan, post-election and onwards, has been labelled as a racist publication and not a representation of Malaysian Malays. Since its impaired reputation and declined readership, agencies and brands – GLCs and non-government corporations – have retracted or stopped placing ads with the daily.As a marketer, it is important and critical to place ad spend where it will reaches their targeted audience by the masses to achieve measurable returns. Opting out of placing advertisement budget into a platform that does not contribute to the growth of its brand or ROI is counterproductive and, simply put, not smart investment.Despite GLCs’s lack of benefit in advertising with the Umno-linked publication, the federal government’s instruction to portion out a chunk of their advertising budget to spend with the dailies is going into initiatives.In the name of fair play, the line is blurred some more in Malaysia and we wait for the next ‘cry wolf’ from the daily.No specific dailies are said to benefit from the new directive.Sources: The Malay Mail, Free Malaysia Today and The Malaysian InsiderImage courtesy of The Malaysian Insider

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