NST in 2017 and beyond: A message from the Group Managing Editor
Dear readers,
In our commitment to serve you better, we bring to you today the redesigned New Sunday Times, which along with the New Straits Times, marks the first major revamp of the two titles in more than five years.
This is not just a change in the look-and-feel of the country’s oldest daily newspaper. It is a major transformation of the newspaper and marks a further shift into our “digital first” strategy.
It also means changes in the way we work and curate content. We are also investing in growing our digital products, including video news and social media, and adding more digital editors and staff.
The new NST, which carries a new masthead and a fresh typeface, is part of the newsroom transformation to recognise the drastic changes in readership habits and market landscape.
The print version of NST will remain an important part of our business given its significant advertising and circulation revenue streams.
As a “thinking newspaper”, it will continue to provide quality journalism but the content will be delivered via a combination of words, images and graphics to improve readability and reflect modern tastes.
We aim to deliver timely, accurate and relevant content to meet the changing needs of our readers via print, mobile, desktop and tablet in a seamless fashion to improve user experience.
We are backed by our nearly 300-strong multimedia newsroom and the growing list of contributors from London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Delhi. We also draw upon the strengths of the bigger Media Prima Bhd group.
The latest revamp also aims to strengthen our in-depth investigative reporting by our award-winning teams and provide better insightful commentaries and analysis on important issues of the day.
Our team of senior editors and designers, led by deputy group editor Yushaimi Yahaya, had been working very hard since May this year to come up with the new NST. It will be followed by the refreshed nst.com.my in March.
Here are some of the major content enhancements:
• Our new mantra will be 4Es: Exclusive, Examine, Educate, Entertain
• We will churn out more exclusive stories and stories that focus on issues that impact our readers.
• Special reports and news packages will be more analytical by digging deeper into issues.
• The regular features such as “Probes”, “Monday Exclusive, and “The Big Interview” will be retained.
• The News section will be compartmentalised according to topics.
• New sections such as “Actionline” and Sport product reviews in the Sport pages will be introduced.
• New direction and improved look and feel of Life & Times daily pullouts and other pullouts i.e Cars, Bikes & Trucks (CBT) and Higher Ed (the latter replacing Learning Curve)
• High profile columnists such as the Tengku Mahkota of Johor and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin; other new columnists will come onboard too.
• The Business Times will be revamped too.
• There will be increased local sports content.
• There will be new weekly pullouts - Property, Sunday Vibes and School Times.
These are just some of the new offerings. We also value your feedback on how we can improve further.
The evolution of digital media is here to stay. We will be embarking on a more aggressive shift into the digital world under our initiative called “80/20” from this year.
One end-result from the “80/20” Initiative is that the print product will source the content from the rich web offering, and not vice-versa, and adding value in the process.
We thank you for your support. Do keep on reading NST.
Abdul Jalil Hamid
Group Managing Editor, NSTP