Mustapha Kamil named as Group Editor, Yushaimi is Deputy Group Editor of the New Straits Times
16 MARCH 2015 @ 8:08 PMKUALA LUMPUR: Media Prima Bhd (MPB) has announced the appointment of Mustapha Kamil Mohd Janor as Group Editor of the New Straits Times (NST) and Yushaimi Maulud Yahaya as the deputy group editor of the newspaper.
MPB Group managing director Datuk Seri Amrin Awaluddin said the new appointments will help further raise standards of NST’s print and digital products and strengthen its position as a paper of record with a more compelling content in the face of the challenging media environment. - Read MORE h e r e
I am happy to hear that Mus (pix) and Yush have been appointed to the two top posts in NST but I certainly don't envy these two former colleagues of mine. The NST, the flagship of the New Straits Times Press, is not what it used to be: circulation has dropped to well below 100k copies a day and ad revenues could be better. The best writers and reporters have left for greener pastures. Also, this is probably the hardest time for any media perceived as supportive of the government: readers tend to be more interested to read the "anti" stuff more, even if they do not believe in any of them.
Still, I am confident that the two can do take the paper to another level. For that, they will have to convince their rather conservative directors to agree to whatever radical editorial changes they have in mind.
Interestingly, the top 3 journalists heading NST today did not owe their genesis to NST: Jalil Hamid, whom Mus and Yus report to, made his name at Bernama and then Reuters; Mus was a long time Business Times reporter; and Yus had some solid grounding in the Malay Mail.