Posted in Gunting Dalam Lipatan

CEO The Star letak jawatan, keluar suratkhabar baru

Padan muka MCA!

Dah lah media milik mereka di-Jom Ubah untuk menjiwai evangelis DAP, sekarang orang itu yang diambil MCA untuk menjanakan transformasi pula sudah meletak jawatan.

Ketua pegawai eksekutif (CEO) The Star diberitakan akan mengepalai sebuah suratkhabar harian baru yang memperolehi lesen cetak dan bakal memberi saingan sengit kepada The Star.

(Lesen penerbitan baru itu diperolehi syarikat tuanpunya The Edge, khabarnya.) — dikemaskini 1.26pm

Baca ‘spin’ yang diletakkan oleh Jahabar Sadiq, bos The Malaysian Insider:

“KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — The Star daily’s managing director Ho Kay Tat quit today and is expected to rejoin The Edge business weekly in a senior capacity, leaving the MCA-owned newspaper pondering its inability to keep a respected newsman in its fold.”

Hari ini ialah hari terakhir Ho Kay Tat di syarikat Star Publications yang disertainya pada Julai 2010 sebagai ketua pegawai operasi (COO). Dia dinaik pangkat menjadi CEO merangkap pengarah urusan kumpulan setahun kemudian.

Ho Kay Tat berjaya menaikkan semula populariti The Star selepas edaran akhbar tersebut jatuh merudum dalam tahun-tahun sekitar tsunami 2008.

Peningkatan jualan (“high growth”) suratkhabar Inggeris itu boleh berlaku kerana halatujunya ketara di-Jom Ubah.

Untuk menarik pembaca yang taksub pembangkang, saban hari The Star menyiarkan antaranya cerita-cerita berkiblatkan Subang Jaya seperti contoh di bawah.

Rencana berikut (petikan) terpapar di The Star hari ini:

“The proposed plans were put on display from Oct 21 to 24 at Sunway Pyramid but Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh felt that the four-day period was too short for a public display.
.
‘Many people were not even aware of the public display.
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‘I have requested that Prasarana carry out a briefing for affected residents in my constituency, from PJS9 Sunway and USJ1,’ she said.
.
Yeoh said she welcomed the BRT line because it improved connectivity in the area.
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‘There are a lot of students studying in Sunway who live in Subang Jaya and USJ and they could benefit from it.
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‘The LRT extension lines do not link up to Sunway so hopefully this will reduce traffic congestion there,’ she said.
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Her concern was that the line would run along major roads and have minimum impact on residential areas.”
.

The Star dari dulu-dulu pun DNA pembangkang

Serentak perhimpunan agung tahunan MCA dijalankan bulan lepas, The Star sebaliknya sarat dengan cerita-cerita “sex bloggers” — berpuluh jumlahnya termasuk rencana dan gambar di muka depan.

Persidangan MCA terus terbenam begitu sahaja kerana tumpuan pembaca sudah kepada kisah gambar-gambar lucah Alvin dan Vivian yang dijadikan tajuk utama oleh The Star.

R.I.P.

Najib ditenggelamkan, Hannah dilambung

Ucapan pengerusi BN Najib Razak di perhimpunan MCA diberikan liputan sekadar 200 patah perkataan sahaja oleh The Star manakala liputan terhadap Hannah Yeoh pada hari yang sama boleh sampai 300 patah perkataan.

Yang pasti MCA akan kehilangan banyak kerusi dalam PRU akan datang. Pakatan Rakyat memang terhutang budi kepada The Star yang banyak mempromosikan politikus-politikus 2.0 mereka.

Apabila suratkhabar baru Ho Kay Tat berada di pasaran nanti, adakah anda menjangka bahawa The Star tidak akan kehilangan pembaca?

Tapi sementara menunggu saat itu, biarlah The Star syok sekejap.

Hannah Yeoh mentweet kepada 53,178 orang pengikut-pengikut Twitternya mengajak agar mereka membaca The Rocket The Star hari ini.

Di bawah pentadbiran Ho Tay Tat, akhbar milik MCA itu berjaya diberikan makeover demi menarik minat pembaca Kristian dalam zaman pasca-tsunami serta generasi 2.0 Cina yang lebih 80 peratus bersifat pro-DAP.

Meskipun demikian, sebuah suratkhabar baru bakal dilancar yang mampu menghidangkan juadah lebih menepati selera kelompok pembaca Firster.

Ironinya para pembaca inilah yang dididik The Star untuk taksub kepada ideologi buta warna kulit dan pluralisme agama. Takkan pembaca Star akan keberatan untuk bertukar angin kelak? Apalagi suratkhabar baru itu bukan kepunyaan MCA yang sememangnya dibenci oleh Firster.

Ambillah engko MCA. Sekali lagi, padan muka!

Author:

I have no Faceook or Twitter.

14 thoughts on “CEO The Star letak jawatan, keluar suratkhabar baru

  1. on the contrary, I think The Star will become even more pro Malaysian First with competition from that new publication.

    1. MCA should divest this liability then.

      Either that or MCA post-GE13 will be evicted from the political arena altogether. In which case, MCA might decide that since they have no more political role to play, might as well stick to business and run The Star strictly on the profit motive.

      1. the thing is, for M C A, The Star is not a liability. it is a making making machine for them.

        they still have a role to play post election, the role of punching bags and ridicule.
        ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

        You made a typo methinks: “money-making machine” (correct)? Punching bag as in heaping ridicule on CSL? — Helen

        1. yeah, thanks for the correction. money making machine.

          yeah as in heaping ridicule on C S L, but maybe he will have more of his comrades as company i.e the fat boy Wee Ka Siong and Liow Tiong Lai etc.

          1. The Merchant of Venice (Act 2, Scene 8)

            Quote Shakespeare:

            I never heard a passion so confused,
            So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
            As the dog Jew did utter in the streets:
            ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
            Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
            Justice! the law! my ducats, and my daughter!

            Heh-heh-heh. MCA chasing profits at the cost of their leaders being ridiculed so as to sell the paper.

  2. Kak Helen,

    Pendirian Murdoch (tuan punya beberapa buah akhbar di serata dunia) harus dijadikan contoh.

    Bagi Murdoch keuntungan dalam bisnes tidak otomatik mengubah haluan politik.

    Maksudnya, Murdoch boleh buat untung lebih kalau surat khabar miliknya menyatakan sokongan terbuka terhadap demokrat, namun itu tidak berlaku.

    Ia tidak berlaku kerana keuntungan bukan segala-galanya. Atas sebab itu akhbar Mudoch tidak mengubah agenda politik, sebaliknya terus mempromosikan republikan hingga saat-saat akhir pilihanraya presiden AS.

  3. It is not unusual for news corp to be bias towards their political stance. CNN is glaringly pro-Obama while CNBC is more inclined towards the Republicans like our TV1,2 and 3 is pro-establishment.

    Newspaper, like any media is a business, albeit it does carry a heavier social responsibility tag. Every news corp can align themselves to whomever they think right, they can choose their path but being a business, they would ultimately have to contend with the most important consideration, profit.

    First of all, in a free democratic country, media license should not be guarded sp jealously. The government should open up the licensing to level the playing field. Let the market and people determine which paper is news and which is trash.

    1. Yes lah, the papers take sides.

      Consistent record of New York Times presidential endorsement:

      Since the candidacy of John Kennedy, the paper’s election editorials have been without fail for the Democrats — Obama (2008), John Kerry (2004), Al Gore (2000), Bill Clinton (1996), Clinton (1992), Michael Dukakis (1988), Walter Mondale (1984), Jimmy Carter (1980), Carter (1976), George McGovern (1972), Hubert Humphrey (1968), Lyndon B. Johnson (1964), JFK (1960).

      However, we’re talking about an MCA-owned paper endorsing DAP candidates. Hahaha…

      (I liked the cartoon at SAA’s blog so much I’m sharing it here).

      null

      Hee-haw, hee-haw at the MCA dinos

  4. perkembangan menarik ni. pasni kita tengok the star nak jadi lagu mana pulak. nak jadi rojak ka nak jadi pasembor…

  5. I trusted my lover at the expense of my husband and now my lover had deserted me and returned to his old wife. Lucky me that my eunuch of a husband is still willing to accept me back as if nothing had happened. On second thought, he may have not realised anything amiss while I had a heck of a time with my now-absconding lover.

  6. The new paper is a business daily, expanding on the Edge Daily. It won’t be an earth-shaking publication because readers can get better and fresher news, if the plans by a few bloggers to publish news, as they are and as they happen, on their blogs, come to hand. Who wants to pay for stale news, anyway, if they can get them free from the numerous websites? This is especially so if you want foreign, international business or sports news. As for the features, the websites too have better written and more credible articles. The death of the mass circulation, paid, daily newspapers, is at hand.

    1. Since The Edge’s Financial Daily is already a daily, an expanded product wouldn’t require a new publishing permit, right?

      It makes more sense if the new permit is for a product in a separate mould.

      Anyway, do put your ear to the ground and share with us what else you hear :)

      The second issue is that The Star simply has no nous.

      Whatever one may say about Malaysiakini, TMI and Utusan, they’re able to set the agenda, i.e. publish stories that get the country talking or the international wires to pick up.

      An easy example is Dr M. He says something and everyone is either up in arms or parroting him. Even a turn of phrase along the lines of “better the devil you know” caused such a ruckus. Like him Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is similarly an ex-premier. However AAB is incapable of setting the talking points unlike ‘the’ Tun. (AAB is a Tun as well but somehow his title hasn’t sunk in the way Dr M’s has.)

      In the same vein, The Star is quite incapable of setting the political direction. Its stories are lightweight, sex or scandalous. It has little impact on the political play despite its wide circulation.

      Hence, there is room for a new paper to out manoeuvre The Star, I should think, b’cos the MCA paper so obviously lacks political heft. It’s confused bipolarity may have something to do with its ineffectualness.

      Malaysiakini is clear-cut in whom it politically supports and this makes the portal and its message unequivocal in the way they’re headed. It’s not tearing itself into two opposite directions like the Jekyll-and-Hyde Star.

  7. some decision, some benefits, some treatments by The Star.

    Wartawan vs Bekas Majikan: Keputusan Mahkamah Buruh

    http://agendadaily.com/Email-Pembaca/wartawan-vs-bekas-majikan-keputusan-mahkamah-buruh.html

    http://www.detikdaily.net/v6/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=23557

    SUBANG JAYA: Mahkamah Buruh telah mengenepikan tuntutan oleh seorang wartawan terhadap keengganan bekas majikan beliau untuk memberinya faedah perbelanjaan perubatan dan cuti ehsan di bawah Perjanjian Bersama Kesatuan Kebangsaan Wartawan (NUJ) dengan Star Publications (M) Berhad.

    Keputusan itu dibuat oleh pengerusi Mahkamah Buruh Subang Jaya Nur Hazwani Othman selepas mendengar hujah-hujah dari bekas wartawan akhbar The Star Shahrim Tamrin dan bekas majikannya pada Julai 12.

    Dalam menyampaikan keputusan itu mengikut Perintah di bawah Seksyen 69 Akta Kerja 1955, pengerusi Mahkamah Buruh memutuskan bahawa pengadu tidak mempunyai sebab untuk menerima faedah dan membuat tuntutan kerana beliau masih lagi dalam tempoh percubaan ketika berkhidmat di Jabatan Berita akhbar The Star.

    “Selepas mengambil kira bahawa pengadu belum disahkan dalam jawatan dan amalan syarikat yang tidak memperuntukkan kemudahan dan faedah kepada kakitangan dalam percubaan, mahkamah telah memutuskan untuk menolak tuntutan oleh pengadu,” kata Nur Hazwani.

    Semasa perbicaraan mahkamah pada 12 Julai, pengadu telah berhujah bahawa kakitangan dalam percubaan sepatutnya menikmati hak-hak yang sama seperti pekerja yang disahkan dalam jawatan sebagaimana keputusan yang dibuat oleh Mahkamah Rayuan pada tahun 1997.

    Di dalam kes Khalilah Abbas melawan Pesaka Capital Corporation Sdn Bhd, Mahkamah Rayuan telah memutuskan bahawa seorang pekerja dalam percubaan berhak menikmati hak-hak yang sama seperti pekerja tetap atau yang telah disahkan.

    The Star telah memberhentikan pengadu pada Oktober 19 tahun lepas ketika pengadu sedang cuti sakit yang panjang selepas dimasukkan ke Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) dari Okt 4 hingga Okt 7, 2011.

    Shahrim Tamrin menegaskan bahawa akhbar The Star telah enggan untuk mematuhi Perjanjian Bersama yang ditandatangani dengan NUJ yang secara khusus menyatakan bahawa wartawan berhak untuk mendapatkan kemudahan perubatan di hospital dan cuti ehsan mengikut garis panduan yang disediakan.

    “The Star telah enggan untuk memberikan saya sekurang-kurangnya sembilan hari cuti ehsan di bawah Fasal 25 Perjanjian Bersama dengan NUJ apabila saya tidak dapat hadir berkerja kerana anak saya sakit dan dimasukkan ke hospital. Sebaliknya, syarikat telah memotong gaji saya sebagai cuti tanpa gaji. Ia adalah membingungkan sejak Perjanjian Bersama tidak pernah menyatakan bahawa kakitangan dalam tempoh percubaan tidak layak mendapat faedah, ” hujah bapa kepada dua orang anak yang kecil itu.

    Shahrim menyatakan bahawa akhbar The Star juga telah enggan untuk menerima tuntutan perubatan sebanyak RM107 apabila pengadu turut dimasukkan ke wad HKL kerana demam virus atau disyaki denggi.

    “Syarikat telah menolak permintaan saya untuk tuntutan perubatan walaupun saya telah dimasukkan ke hospital kerajaan dan HKL adalah juga merupakan sebahagian hospital panel syarikat,” tambah beliau.

    Akhbar The Star yang diwakili oleh eksekutif Sumber Manusia Mahendraraj Mariappan menyatakan walaupun Perjanjian Bersama menggariskan faedah-faedah yang dituntut pengadu, Shahrim tidak layak untuk menerima manfaat kerana statusnya sebagai kakitangan dalam percubaan.

    “Ia telah menjadi amalan syarikat untuk sekian lama untuk tidak memberikan faedah-faedah di bawah Perjanjian Bersama untuk kakitangan yang belum disahkan,” kata Mahendraraj.-27/11/2012

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