Monday, May 18, 2009

So far so good..


The dust has settled and another day is done.Since my working day actually started on Sunday, what's ahead is a long and winding trip before I embark on a
six-day break beginning May 25.Thankfully, Michelle, my wife had returned from the US without any issues with the H1N1 outbreak which was
reported in Malaysia. "Hey, I am on my way home.." Now, those were comforting words from my wife as she has been away for more
than 11 days.I wish her all the best in the outcome of her professional exams. Meanwhile at work, things kinda eased a bit with
the regional pages that I am tasked to do.So far so good. We have shrunk the pagination down to eight pages with 37% advertisement ratio. This is good
compared to other English dailies in the Klang Valley that is deprived from their main source of revenue.I am glad that we are on track and hope that our advertisers would continue to support us. Been nearly half a year
and things are still looking up.Well, not so for the oldest afternoon paper in the country. I see that they have large holes to fill as there are no
advertisement to make up for it.Sadly, this is the situation and with the share of the pie taken away (internet, cable TV and people not paying for
news anymore) it would be an uphill climb.When the rebranded and relaunced their product last year, I saw plenty of old names brought forth. Way I see it,
there is little point trying to ressucitate something that is dying from the inside.You can recycle and reuse writers and for each one that took off to get along with their lives, there were no
replacement. The result? Mediocrity. Some of the folks who run the paper are out of touch and mostly jaded. They rehashed
news articles from Chinese papers and repackaged it to create a sensation.But really, how long can you fool the paying reader? So keep on plaigarising.All it takes, is a couple of law suits
to bring the house down.This, I can also say for the oldest daily in the country. Its also dead and buried. I am tired of hearing how they
were, what they did and bla, bla, bla. That said, I put this issue of beating the dead horse to rest and hope for the best.

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