Blu Inc ends operations

Blu Inc to cease their operations effective 30 April 2020. - YAP CHEE HONG/ The Star.

PETALING JAYA: Magazine publisher Blu Inc Media Sdn Bhd, has ceased operations after almost four decades, citing digital disruption and the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic. The publisher ceased operations effective yesterday.

The news came hot on the heels after The Edge Media Group recently folded The Edge Financial Daily due to the double onslaught of the shift to digital news and outbreak of the pandemic.

In a letter to its employees, the company’s CEO Azliza Tajuddin said: “Our business has already been under tremendous challenge from digital disruption overs the past few years.

“While we have made increasing investment to build its digital capabilities, it remains unclear if Blu Inc Media has gained sufficient traction while the losses continue to increase.

“With the implementation of the current movement control order (MCO) to contain the disease, the losses continued even more for the months of March and April, and this trend is expected to continue for the next few months.

“It is uncertain that we will be able to see any light at the end of the tunnel. The decision was made by the board of directors with a heavy heart.”

Azliza had appointed Jolston Ng and Faizal Hadi as general manager, together with Shireen Goh, Bowen Tee and Connie Lee of the accounts department, as well as Habibah Muhammad of the human resource team to assist her in what she described as “the unfortunate and painful process”.

All staff, save for those mentioned above, would be contacted separately regarding their status of employment soon, “ she noted.

What started out in 1974 as the Jack Chia-MPH Group in Singapore eventually went through ownership changes to evolve into BluInc which came into the stable of SPH Magazines (a part of Singapore Press Holdings Ltd).

In Malaysia, Blu Inc Media was set up as a joint venture with SPH Magazines. Singapore Press Holdings had a 70% stake Blu Inc Media. Strategic business partnerships with Conde Nast, American Media Inc, Weider and Hearst and subsequent acquisitions of Magazine World and ACP titles, have further cemented its position as the industry leader today. Among the list of magazine titles Blu Inc Media published were CLEO, Cosmopolitan, Female, Her World, Home & Décor, Marie Claire, Shape and The Peak.