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Who"s davidlian?

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davidlian is an ultra-geeky chinese dude that works for a technology PR agency. He loves fiddling with techno-toys, plays Warhammer 40K, and shoots pictures wherever he goes. Here, he rants about PR, Technology and anything else. Don't expect balance and un-biased, he ain't no journalist. Anything said on this blog are solely davidlian's personal views. Don't confuse them with company mantra, client's views or views of any organisation he may be part of.

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Monday, May 5, 2008

Say hello to the new Malay Mail

Were you Malay Mail readers welcomed by this new masthead today?

The Malay Mail relaunch

Just got back from the launch (or re-launch) of the Malay Mail - that well-loved tabloid with a 112-year history.

As background, in case you haven't heard, earlier this year, The Malay Mail was sold to publisher BluInc by the Media Prima Group. Tonight's event is the the second time the paper is reinventing itself in the space of two years, but I'm glad to report that under the hood, it's the same, familiar faces (with new notable additions) pushing the paper along.

The big change: The Malay Mail is going back to becoming that afternoon paper we all know and love. The key operating word being afternoon.

Getting to the venue, I was pretty impressed with the setup - a corridor muraled by previous editions of The Malay Mail. Sort of a mini-history lesson for me.

The Malay Mail relaunch

And the hall was packed with people:

The Malay Mail relaunch

But getting to the content of the evening, the person sitting next to me could not help but mention to me: "Why is Mr. Ibrahim mentioning "bloggers" and "internet" so much in his speech?" Actually, I couldn't help but notice that too. In my humble opinion, that's a good thing.

I sorta picked up that Mr. Ibrahim also talked about how The Malay Mail's heritage as an afternoon paper meant they were delivering people more current news than the rest of the market (remember reading yesterday's World Cup results off The Malay Mail because The Star didn't have any?) According to the man, The Malay Mail's emphasis on its online site to deliver current news was going to mirror this role it used to serve.

Flipping through the actual printed paper, the changes are quite apparent. There are quite a number of new columns - one even covers the blogosphere - from fairly opinionated people (I think I spied Amir Muhammad on the list). My favourite section - the complaints section - is back with two full pages. What's The Malay Mail, after all, without customer complaints?

Overall, I'm going to have to say that I'm slightly disappointed with the lack of lifestyle pages. Still, the focus on commentary and news is certainly welcome - if the paper can deliver on Mr. Ibrahim's promise to give us the "alternative opinion / viewpoint" that Malaysian readers today crave.

On a totally un-related matter, I also realised at the event that if you stick a huge enough logo anywhere, you can get people to camwhore in front of your logo. I'm just wondering if this is an idea that could be turned to a stunt:

The Malay Mail relaunch

On another TOTALLY unrelated matter, did I mention that the SWAG bag was stuffed with goodies. I think it puts some of us PR people to shame the sort of SWAG we give out. Here, have a look -the silver box is a 1GB USB drive:

The Malay Mail relaunch

5 comments:

Simon Seow said...

Used to read Malay Mail when I was small, especially like the comic part which got Slyfox puzzle to solve.

joshuaongys said...

quite some time since i last read MalayMail... hope the NEW MalayMail can come out a success..

davidlian said...

@simon: yes, Slyfox. How can I forget! I was quite the young detective then.
@joshua: just surf over to www.mmail.com.my everyday to have your daily dose.

Randy said...

Hey!

Malay Mail did an image rebranding back in the first quarter of 2006..

I was part of the team when BBDO handled it..

So fast wanna rebrand again?
Why ah? BBDO did a screwed up job? hahahahaha
Readership falling?

hahahaha

davidlian said...

@randy: So the first re-branding was your work? haha...

Actually, the numbers speak for themselves, but I think with the new owners Blu Inc, and the emphasis on news and opinions, The Malay Mail looks set to be relevant again today.