KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesian media practitioners today visited Balai Berita to study New Straits Times Press Bhd’s (NSTP) innovative digital media practices.
Around 30 representatives were present to gain understanding of how the dailies – New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro – converged its print and online publication while maintaining their relevance to the readers.
Indonesia Newspaper (SPS) executive director Asmono Wikan said NSTP newspapers’ successful endeavour in merging both news and advertising through online and print is a fine example to the Indonesian media.
“The media practise between Malaysia and Indonesia is considerably similar but for the media industry in Indonesia, the difference is the turbulence of its media environment such as the digital area, so we need to be more creative in solving the problems,” said Asmono, who is also PR Indonesia chief executive officer.
“One of the reasons I organised the trip to Malaysia is because of the two country’s friendly relations. Our practise is considerably similar but in Malaysia it is shown to us that both advertising and content need to be intermittently woven to produce valuable content while generating profit,” he said today.
Asmono added that the group has learnt a lot in terms of advertising and editorial management, stating that they also studied how the three newspapers maintained content while keeping up with the digitised audience.
“For example, NSTP has been very creative in their branding department by continuously being active in advertising for both print and online.
“The media’s common problem is how to monetise the content, so with today’s visit we’re able to understand that there are opportunities to do that and being creative and innovative plays a major role to gain audience,” he said.
NSTP special projects executive Azizi Othman presented a short briefing on how the NSTP Group has progressed to be one of Malaysia’s major media companies under Media Prima Bhd.
Also present were New Straits Times’ group editor Yushaimi Yahya, Berita Harian group editor Datuk Mahfar Ali and Metro group editor Datuk Mustapa Omar.