Penangan rokok

Dipetik dari Malaysiakini:

Cigarettes or newspapers? Now, that’s a real difficult choice to make. At least, according to former Utusan Malaysia editor-in-chief Johan Jaffar.

He said whenever cigarette prices go up by at least 20 sen, the sales of Malay dailies are adversely affected.

He added that circulation can plummet up to 10,000 copies as Malays consider smoking more important than reading.

“In view of cigarette prices passing the RM7 mark (following the 2006 Budget), there will be a reduction in Malays buying newspapers,” he told Bernama today.

Based on his observation, Johan said the situation has become even worse because the Malays themselves look down upon these dailies.

“Do you know that 20 percent of Chinese newspaper buyers are not fluent in Mandarin but they still buy the dailies to support the Chinese newspaper industry,” he noted.

He said Malay newspapers have a bleak future because the Malays have no concrete reasons to read them.

With the policy of prioritising the English language, Johan said readers would be more inclined to buy newspapers such as the Star and News Straits Times.

He also lamented that the advertising industry appears to be sidelining Malay newspapers.

“Imagine, the total advertisement revenue for six Malay mainstream newspapers was RM421 million in 2003 compared to the RM572 million earned by the Star alone,” he said.

Johan also called on Malay newspapers to be more critical, balance and objective in its content.

Zikri: Bulan Ramadhan ni semua orang nak cepat. Teman ke ofis fakulti semalam 10 minit sebelum jam 4 petang, semua staf dah bersiap-siap nak pulang cepat. Ketika nak ke kelas tutorial 10 minit sebelum jam 5 petang, berbondong-bondong siswi berjalan ligat menghala ke bazar Ramadhan. Malah, ada orang nak solat terawih pun pilih mana surau atau masjid yang habis cepat.