Utusan posts loss on publishing and distribution

PETALING JAYA: Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd slipped into the red in its second quarter ended June 30 with a net loss of RM11.05mil, from a net profit of RM1.92mil a year ago, due to lower revenue mainly from its publishing and distribution segments.

Revenue for the media group was lower at RM74.4mil from RM96.1mil last year.

For the half year, Utusan Melayu’s net loss widened to RM30.9mil from RM6.9mil last year, while revenue fell to RM139.9mil against RM172.1mil in 2013.

According to the company, revenue for the publication, distribution and advertisement segments fell by 22.5% or RM20.6mil. This resulted in a higher pre-tax loss of RM23.6mil against a pre-tax loss of RM11.6mil last year.

The group told Bursa Malaysia that it expected the second half of this year to remain challenging in view of increasing competition for market share of advertising expenditure.

“Nevertheless, we will continue with our newspaper content improvement strategies and offer creative packages for advertisements,” it said. “Also, we will continue to adopt prudent cost-saving strategies in our business operations.”

Among others, the group will undertake measures to reduce the return rate by employing efficient allocation of newspapers and magazine supplies.

It said administration, production and staff costs would be aggressively monitored while stringent controls over raw materials, medical and overtime costs had been implemented.

Moreover, it said recruitment of new staff had been frozen to halt the increase in costs.