This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 11, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that some employees of newspaper publisher Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd, which ceased operations on Wednesday, will be rehired by a new media group.

Dr Mahathir dubbed the media group as the “new Utusan”, and will rehire Utusan Melayu employees who will be retrenched by the end of this month.

“Some of them (Utusan Melayu staff) will be taken over by the new Utusan,” Dr Mahathir told reporters on the sidelines of the 10th International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia 2019, but did not elaborate.

The premier was responding to reporters’ queries about Utusan Melayu employees’ fate ahead of their retrenchment, following the operational cessation of Utusan Melayu, which publishes the Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo! newspapers.

It was reported that Utusan Melayu had issued a circular to staff on Wednesday, signed off by executive chairman Datuk Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, which informed them that the company was ceasing operations that day. Staff were told to vacate their workstations and return their office access cards by 1pm, and that a staff briefing would be held on Oct 30.

In the circular, Abd Aziz said the company had undergone its most critical period in its 80-year history and business conditions had deteriorated after May 2018, with circulation of its flagship newspaper Utusan Malaysia, as well as Kosmo!, continuing to decline.

When contacted by theedgemarkets.com on the same day, Abd Aziz said Utusan Malaysia “will live on”.

“We are liquidating the holding company (Utusan Melayu) but the ownership of the printing licences [has] been acquired by Aurora Mulia [Sdn Bhd}and they will relaunch publications in the near future,” Abd Aziz said.

It was reported that Aurora Mulia, linked to businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, has recently surfaced in Media Prima Bhd, with its shareholding in the latter amounting to 31.22%.