NILAI: The print media in the country still has a future despite facing gloomy sales and advertising revenue apart from competition from the digital platform.
Taking the example of newspapers in other countries, former NSTP Group marketing director Prof (R) Abdul Rahim Mohd Saleh who is confident the press in the country is able to maintain its competitive edge, said around 1920 to 1950, newspapers faced challenges from radio, film industry and television to retain its earning.
“Income of newspapers from sales and advertisements started to fall in the 20’s but the press survived, until the 30’s by overcoming radio. The press was later challenged by the film industry in the 30’s and it fought back and complemented the film industry by popularising movie stars to keep newspapers sales up.
“In the 50’s came television and again newspaper were affected but it continued to survive until 80’s,” he said here yesterday.
Prof (R) Abdul Rahim who was a lecturer of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) was speaking at a Crisis Dialogue and Future of Newspapers programme organised by Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) Leadership and Management Faculty with the cooperation of the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) here.
The two-hour programme was hosted by former Berita Harian Group editor Datuk Mior Kamarulbaid Mior Shahid as the moderator while Abdul Rahim, Utusan Malaysia editor Datuk Zulkefli Hamzah and Malaysia Indicator editor Sosongko Yudho appeared as panelists.
Commenting further, Abdul Rahim said for its survival, each newspaper organisation has to find its niche in the advertisement industry. — Bernama