KUALA LUMPUR: The Edge Media Group has decided to shut down newsportal The Malaysian Insider (TMI) from midnight today.
In a notice posted on its website, TMI chief editor Jahabar Sadiq said the decision was made for commercial reasons.
“Goodbye readers from near and far, and those reading us in Malaysia despite the government block," he wrote.
“The Edge Media Group has decided to shut down The Malaysian Insider from midnight today, for commercial reasons. Perhaps it is fitting that we go offline at the start of the Ides of March," he said.
"I hope we have served you well since our first day of going live on February 25, 2008. And I hope others will continue to serve you in our absence," Jahabar added.
In his article, Jahabar thanked readers for their support, well wishes and criticisms throughout the portal's eight years and 18 days.
Meanwhile, The Edge Media Group (TEMG) group chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat said the group was forced to cease operations as it did not receive enough commercial support to keep it going.
Ho added despite the fact that TMI was one of the top three newsportals based on traffic in Malaysia, TEMG had incurred losses of around RM10 million in the 20 months since it acquired TMI in June, 2014.
“We are no longer in a position to keep it going. Over the past two months, we were approached by three external parties (all of whom have existing media businesses) who were interested to take over TMI, after we put the word out that we wished to dispose it as part of the restructuring of TEMG.
“There was also an offer for a management buy-out (MBO). Unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreement with any of the external parties as well as for the MBO to take place. We believe the recent problems TMI had with The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had made it more difficult for a sale to be concluded even though discussions had started before that.” he said in a statement.
Ho said the company will be letting go of all the 59 TMI staff and they will receive a severance package as required by law.
“The closure of TMI should serve as a reminder to those of us in the media industry as well as the public at large that good journalism cannot be sustained without commercial support,” he said.