‘Stop issuing permits for new Tamil dailies’

The present players feel the Tamil newspaper market is already saturated with five dailies and allowing more newspapers will only affect their business.

KUALA LUMPUR: Tamil newspapers in the country are crying foul over the government’s decision to award printing permits for more Tamil dailies in the country.

They claim that the Tamil newspaper market is already saturated with five dailies and allowing more newspapers to be printed will only affect their business.

Tamil Nesan director, S Vell Paari, said the future of Tamil newspapers would be ruined if the government issued more licences as stiff competition would result in some newspapers winding up their operations.

“There is also speculation that the government is deliberately giving out licences to kill the Tamil newspaper industry,” he told FMT when contacted.

At present, there are five Tamil dailies in the market. They are Tamil Nesan, Makkal Osai, Malaysian Nanban, Thina Kural and Naam Naadu.

Tamil Nesan is owned by the family of former MIC president S Samy Vellu, while Malaysia Nanban was founded by late Sikhandar Batcha.

Makkal Osai belongs to former MIC deputy president S Subramaniam; ThinaKural was founded by K Arun, the son of charismatic Tamil writer, the late Athi Kumanan; and Nam Naadu is owned by businessman Kenneth Eswaran.

FMT learns that the government has approved two other Tamil dailies, which would hit the streets within the next three months.

“With seven Tamil dailies in the race, it is definitely a crowded market. Some would survive and some won’t.

“We [the Tamil newspaper industry] had a meeting some three days ago. And we decided to pressure the government to freeze the Tamil daily licences.”

“As you know, Tamil newspaper readers are limited. It is impossible for seven to eight dailies to survive,” Vell Paari added.

Sharing the same view, a news editor of a Tamil daily, who did not want to be named, said the Tamil newspaper industry had about 70,000 readers daily.

“Can you imagine seven dailies for 70,000 readers? Why is the government issuing more licences despite knowing the problem?

“Worse still, 20% of the total sales comes from Indian nationals working here. Nearly 15,000 of Tamil daily readers are Indian nationals,” he said.

He said the advertising revenue of Tamil newspapers was also at “a critical” condition.

“The advertisement agencies always overlook the Tamil media because of the low circulation figures,” he added.