Malaysia’s Edge Media Group to downsize amid financial woes

The Edge Media Group in Malaysia will be downsizing its operations and selling its Malaysian Insider new site as it faces financial challenges, Singapore’s Straits Times reported on Friday.

The Group’s financial stability was seriously affected by last July’s twomonth governmentordered suspension of its Edge Weekly and Edge Financial Daily newspapers.

On July 24, 2015, the Malaysian government suspended those two publications after they had reported on the 1MDB financial scandal which was tied to Prime Minister Najib Razak, according to The Wall Street Journal.

That scandal erupted after investigators believed the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a state investment fund, had been used to channel millions of dollars into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

An official from Malaysia’s Home Ministry at the time explained the suspension saying that some of the papers’ reports have “implications on the public.”

Ho Kay Tat, CEO of The Edge Media Group, summed up the publication halt more bluntly, “This is nothing more than a move to shut us down in order to shut us up,” he said.

As part of the downsizing, some staff from companies owned by The Edge will be reassigned new roles, and others will be let go.

The Edge’s plans to start up its own TV news program have been shelved, and its own spot news video coverage will be modified because it has struggled to compete, according to the Straits Times.

Its Kinibiz business publications will also face the chop, with both its print and online editions shutting down on Feb. 1.