Newspaper advertising in Malaysia can be very challenging. This is mainly because newspapers in Malaysia are often and very fondly associated with politics which could be a hindrance for many brands and companies who might not want to be related to politics in any way. However, you cannot deny the fact that some newspapers in Malaysia have very high readership which makes them extremely popular among Malaysians.
The most read newspaper in Malaysia is the English Language daily, The Star while Bahasa Malaysia newspapers are led by Utusan Malaysia. Other titles in the daily newspaper business include the New Straits Times, Berita Harian, Malay Mail as well as Sin Chew Jit Poh, Nan Yang Siang Pau and China Press, among many others. All the titles mentioned are either directly or indirectly owned by a particular political party but they are also read by hundreds of thousands of Malaysians daily.
Circulation
Regardless of whether a title is linked to a political party, if you are planning to advertise in any of them, you must be concerned with its circulation. If you place an ad in The Star, you can be sure that your ad will be seen by at least 100,000 people on that particular day. Therefore, it will surely be very good advertising expenditure for you.
Target readers
This is usually factor that must be considered in all media and advertising. Where this is concerned, you can target a specific group of readers based on the language of the publication as well as the frequency of the print.
Take note that advertising on newspapers can be quite costly and it is a media which is known to have a short life-span. This is because your ad will only appear for a day which is very short as compared to other print advertisements like magazines (which usually lasts for a month). The positives that can be taken out of this are that newspapers have higher readership numbers as compared to magazine and journals.