This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 26, 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Edge Media Group publisher and chief executive officer (CEO) Ho Kay Tat was conferred the Media Person of the Year award at the Malaysian Media Conference (MMC) 2015 yesterday.

Ho, who started his career as a journalist three decades ago with The New Straits Times Press Bhd, said the award was not only an honour for himself, but one to be shared with everyone he has worked with in the journalism industry. 

“But this award is especially for all the colleagues and the staff at The Edge, as I have spent most of my career here,” said Ho, who first joined The Edge in 1996.

The Edge Media Group is the publisher of business publications The Edge Malaysia and The Edge Financial Daily. The group’s stable of publications also includes Haven and The Edge Singapore, besides online portals The Malaysian Insider (TMI), theedgemarkets.com, and theedgeproperty.com.

Veteran journalist R Nadeswaran, better known as “Citizen Nades” for the eponymous column in The Sun, read the citation of the award for Ho, which described him as the “consummate newspaper man”. 

Ho was commended for not only having the entrepreneurial flair to run a media organisation, but also for being adept at content processing.

“After The Edge and The Sun Media Corp Sdn Bhd merged in 2002, he was one of the handful of people who drew up the blueprint for the birth of Malaysia’s first free newspaper, theSun,” said Nadeswaran.

Although journalists are meant to write the news and not be the news, Ho had done both, said Nadeswaran, citing as example Ho’s arrest on March 31 this year, together with TMI CEO Jahabar Sadiq, which made headlines. 

The duo was held for investigations over a report published by TMI on March 25 on the Conference of Rulers, and the proposed amendment of a law to allow hudud to be enforced in Kelantan. They were released the day after.

Nadeswaran also shared that Ho is someone who would socialise with chief executives of large companies over fine dining and mingle easily with junior staff over teh tarik at street side stalls. 

The Media Person of the Year award has been a staple at the annual MMC, which saw its 11th edition yesterday. The award serves to commemorate an individual who has left a positive impact on the media and marketing industry.The MMC is organised by Marketing magazine, published by Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd.