The Star in the Digital Landscape

During my college days, it was always important for us to be exposed to prominent industry leaders. My university, Infrastructure University of Kuala Lumpur (IUKL), made it a point to organize public lectures every now and then to educate us through the knowledge and expertise of industry experts. Early 2014, the Faculty of Arts, Communication and Education of IUKL invited Yang Berbahagia Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, the CEO and Group Managing Editor of The Star Media Group who presented his topic, “Challenges and Promises: The Star in the Digital Landscape.”

He started off his topic of discussion by stating “We should not be afraid of change. The world has changed, but people have not. We should always embrace change. Convergence is key.”

Characteristics of a good journalist
According to Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, an efficient journalist must be able to multitask. With the adoption of convergence, the execution of messages has evolved to a wider platform and become more widespread. Content delivery is very important. This can be carried out through social networks, television, radio, print media and so on. Video and screen are two very important elements in the world of publications. This is because nowadays, people do not indulge themselves in lengthy articles because doing so is such a turn off. People have no patience and have not much time to read these long articles considering their hectic lives these days. Thus, smartphones, tablets and other digital gadgets are alternative tools that keep us connected, entertained, and informed all the time due to their massive dominance of multimedia elements.

He continued, “People these days seek stories bearing elements of crime such as rape, assault, murder, drugs and so on. These stories seem to pique their interests and curiosity. This is one of the reasons why The Sun Newspaper is one of the top sellers in the UK.” According to News UK Commercial, “The 7-day a week multi-platform news brand is read by 6.1 million people from Monday-Saturday plus the Sunday edition of The Sun Newspaper delivers 5.42 million readers – making it the UK’s biggest selling Sunday newspaper.”

Challenges in Journalism
“In the world of journalism,” he explained, “the department that gains the most benefits and the most highly paid is the department of business reporting.” According to Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, this is the best place to work for in a media house. Individuals who are qualified to earn a position as a business reporter should possess a strong business background.

The most challenging part of journalism is self-restraint and sensitivity. Journalists must not forget to acknowledge festivals, especially in multicultural countries like Malaysia. It is essential to measure and remove inadequate and unnecessary news, so as to maintain a balance of reputable news stories. Journalists must strive to maintain rationality in order to keep the temperature down and prevent any dispute from arising. He also highlighted the significance of surveys and statistics in mass media by stating that we must get the correct measurement in order to reach our target audience.

According to statistics, The Star Online is the most visited online news portals in Malaysia with 47,216,213 monthly pageviews and 5,014,042 monthly users as of October 2015.

Digital Vs. Traditional Media

When asked if The Star Online affects the circulation of The Star newspapers, Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai explained that it has both, its advantages as well as its disadvantages. He admitted that it does in fact affect the circulation. However, the biggest money makers are online channels. The advantage of online mediums is that it conserves the environment and also reduces costs.

Based on the study of Digital vs. Traditional Media Consumption by GlobalWebIndex, digital media has surpassed traditional media due to its convenience and the current proliferation of the internet-savvy generation.

Source: GlobalWebIndex

Source: GlobalWebIndex

When asked “How do you attract youngsters to read the newspapers?”, Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai answered, “You can never run away from news, especially when you start working. News plays a very important role in our lives and it does affect our lives. You will eventually be drawn to it.”

The speaker was also well-versed with righteous quotes. One of his quotes was “The world is to be innovated, not to be evaporated”, telling us to do something in order to make the best out of this world and also to make the best of ourselves. He also quoted “The word ‘hopeless’ starts with the word ‘hope’”, reminding us to look at things with an open mind-set and obtain an optimistic way of perceiving things so that we can turn the negative to a positive by being self-assured and level-headed.

Before ending his talk, Yang Berbahagia Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai quoted “Journalism will be here forever. This is because it deals with content delivery. People these days are constantly seeking for information. Thus, journalism will never die.”

This blog post is contributed by Christine Pereira, Senior Audience Development Executive at PR Newswire. Christine is in charge of partnerships, expanding our media network, organizing our bi-annual Media Coffee events, conducting media interviews, and other company-wide projects for the Malaysian market. You can contact her at christine.pereira@prnasia.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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