PETALING JAYA: Star Media Group Bhd’s Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai will step down from his role as managing director and chief executive officer on Jan 1.
The Star Online report today said he, however will remain with the company as group advisor on editorial and corporate relations matters, beginning Jan 1.
Expressing its appreciation to Wong for his contributions to the group, the company said an announcement will be made when a suitable successor is appointed.
"I am deeply thankful that I was given the opportunity to serve as MD/CEO for six years. That's a pretty long time in Malaysian corporate life, and more so in a most challenging business like the media.
"The role of a CEO in a Malaysian media company is certainly very different from that of my counterparts in other companies, which is much more straightforward," he was quoted as saying.
Wong, joined The Star in 1984, earning only about RM300 a month. He assumed the managing director and CEO post in 2013, and became The Star’s youngest group chief editor at 46 in 2007.
Meanwhile, Star Online also reported that the media group has registered higher pre-tax profit in the third quarter against the immediate preceding quarter due to better cost management following its transformation exercise.
It said that a 17% jump in the group's digital advertising revenue also helped offset lower revenue generated in the print business resulting from the slowing economy.
Star Media Group, currently undergoing a transformation into a digital focused media group, recorded a pre-tax profit of RM2.45mil in the third quarter, which is higher compared to RM2.25mil posted in the previous quarter.
It said that the higher profit comes despite the cost incurred from a retrenchment exercise following the shutdown of the Penang plant.
Revenue for the third quarter however decreased to RM91.12mil from RM99.49mil in the second quarter of 2018. Over the nine months to Sept 30, pre-tax profit increased 8.2% to RM22.29mil from the same period in 2017.
This excludes the RM206.86mil one-off gain on disposal of Singapore’s Cityneon Holdings Ltd in the previous year.
Looking forward, the report said the group expects the print and digital segment to perform better in 2018 versus 2017 due to better cost management.