Academic Motivation Essay

After the excitement and anticipation of entering college have passed and the semester is well underway, have you found yourself less and less motivated to study, or even to attend class? Although you have more or less settled down and adjusted to living away from home, making new friends, and being on your own, are you finding that the academic area just doesn’t seem to hold your interest? If this is true, perhaps you need to explore your motivation in attending college. This is often a complicated matter and requires your honest assessment of yourself and of your feelings. The following suggestions are initial steps in examining your own academic motivations. 1. First and most importantly, ask yourself why are you in college. There are probably several reasons, the most important of which should be to get an education and to expand your mind by learning. In doing so, you look forward to increasing your value in the job market, but your immediate goal as a student is to learn as much as possible during your college years. Some reasons which people often place at the top of the list, but which are usually poor reasons are: a.Your parents wanted you to come. b.All your friends came to college. c.You want to postpone getting a job. d.You want to have fun. e.You want to get a start as an athlete. f.You want to look for a spouse. g.You didn’t know what else to do. See more: Sleep Deprivation Problem Solution Speech Essay 2. Begin the process of making a career decision as soon as possible. It isn’t necessary that you make a specific decision right away, but having a career direction will increase your motivation. Others (including parents) may be able to offer helpful advice, but the final choice for a career should be yours. 3. When exploring career options, be REALISTIC. You should consider your abilities, values, and interests in evaluating career options. The fact that your great uncle (or your roommate’s brother) chose medicine or law as a career doesn’t necessarily mean that should be your choice. 4. When you have decided on a career direction, you are then able more appropriately to choose a major. The course you attempt will begin to become more relevant, and you’ll be more motivated to study. 5. Examine your attitudes about college and yourself. If you positively approach your studies, your professors, your books, your fellow students, and yourself, you increase your academic motivation. A negative attitude produces negative results in performance. Beware of unexplored anger which can interfere with learning. Unresolved anger and unrealistic expectations of others only lead to frustration and disappointment. Remember, you are in charge of only one person and not of everyone you have contact with or of every situation you face. Don’t waste your energy on negative attitudes toward persons or situations you can’t control. 6. Become actively involved in the learning process. Participate in your class; be over-prepared (rather than under-prepared) for class discussions and exams. Don’t expect the professor to teach you everything. Instead make it a point to learn by additional self-directed study. As you become more involved, you tend to learn more. 7. Remember that college is not high school. If you follow the same old patterns, you may be a loser! In college you are responsible for yourself, your courses, your study hours, your social behavior, managing your time, setting limits, managing your money, and sustaining mental and physical health. Are you mature enough to handle all of this? Everyone isn’t; so, don’t feel you are a failure if you experience problems. The important thing is to recognize the problem and seek help! There are many people on campus who can help if you will look for them. 8. Make time for recreation. It is important to spend time away from studies in activities which are relaxing. Recreation and relaxation allow you to be more productive all around. 9. Set some goals. If you clearly state what you want to accomplish and how you can accomplish it, you are much more motivated and more likely to succeed. Write these goals down on paper along with concrete steps for reaching them. Then occasionally review these goals to see what success you are having. 10. Dwell on your successes and not your failures. Where is it written that you are not allowed to fail or miss the mark on occasion? Be kind to yourself and be proud of your strong points. Try to understand why you do not do other things well. Perfection is an uncomfortable companion or goal. 11. Never lose sight of the fact that you are responsible for your life and what you do with it. Problems arise when you feel like a slave. Remember, it should be your choice to be doing what you are doing. Ultimately, you are in control even when others ask or seemingly demand something of you. 12. Be flexible and adaptable. Be open to new experiences and receptive to new ways of looking at things. This allows growth and new learning. 13. Maintain a calendar or schedule. By so doing you will be aware of and better prepared for assignments and activities and can allot and schedule additional study time when needed. Keep a calendar so you’ll know when you should be more motivated. 14. Don’t expect to be motivated 100% of the time. We all have our ups and downs. Try to be aware of too many â€Å"downs,† find out why, and do something about them. The suggestions offered here are only a beginning for self-examination. Motivation is a complicated matter. These suggestions may be enough to help you become aware of what is affecting your motivation—or lack of it—but if you’d like further exploration, give us a call at 348-5175 or visit the Center for Academic Success, 124 Osband Hall.

Bis 220 Week 1 Paper

An act of legislature that declares, proscribes, or commands something; a specific law, expressed in writing. (thefreedicitionary. com) The Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003 and The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 1970 both fall under this definition. The Do Not Call Implementation Act , 2003, authorized the Federal Trade Commission to collect fees for the implementation and enforcement of a â€Å"do-not-call† registry and for other purposes. The Fair Reporting Act of 1970 controls the collection, use, and redistribution of your consumer information (Stroup, About. om). These rules or acts come into existence for a number of reasons, some are even ethical in nature. But it is said when you create a lot of rules you create a lot of rule breakers. So lets take a look at what brought The Do Not Call Implementation Act, 2003 was promulgated. This Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003 was to help get a fee for telemarketers or businesses who wanted to make calls to people who didn ’t have their name on the do not call list and to enforce provisions to the â€Å"do not call† registry.As stated earlier rules create rule breakers and people were not following the Telemarketing Sale Rule. So the rules have to constantly be updated because people are trying to figure out how to get around the rule. This rule came about because consumers just wanted to be left alone when at home and not be bothered with annoying phone calls from telemarketers while in the middle of eating dinner. They don’t want a credit card company calling trying to extend credit in the middle of the afternoon while their home school child is taking a nap.Which leads us to The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 1970. The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 1970 was brought into play to help the banks and the consumer. As stated above it controls the collection, use, and redistribution of consumer information (Stroup, about. com). In order to keep the banking system running strong and not putt ing out bad information on consumer. The act has rules and guidelines for companies that report consumer credit. If the banks have bad information on a consumer and gives the consumer a loan then that can be a problem for the bank or the consumer.But if all reporting stays with in the guidelines of the act then the chances are the information will be good and the right decision will be made in lending. The problem is the bank will have good information in some cases, but the consumer has another consumers information and uses it for themselves. These are the types of unethical things that people do, which has a snowball effect. Because it hurts the banks, making it harder for them to get money from the Federal Reserve, which in turn tightens up the lending criteria of the banks, thus making it difficult for consumers to get the things they need.But when you create rules, you create rule breakers. So although the two acts help the FTC govern the different areas that the acts cover. T hey still have their pros and cons, some which we discussed above, and others that we did not. But my belief is â€Å"get rid of some of the rules, get rid of the rule breakers. Resources Govtrack. us, H. R 395 (108th): Do Not Call Implementation Act Jack Stroup, About. com Guide: The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970

Treetop Forest Products Ltd

Marketing: In business, firm marketing generates the revenues that the financial people manage and the production people use in creating goods and services. The challenge that faces marketing is to generate those revenues by satisfying customers’ wants at a profit and in a socially responsible manner. However, marketing is not limited to business organizations.Whenever we try to persuade somebody to do something: donate to RED CROSS, not to litter the highways, save energy, vote for candidate, we are engaging in marketing; thus marketing has a broad societal meaning and it is applicable not only for profit making but also for not profit organizations. Many scholars define marketing as follows: 1. According to American Marketing Association, marketing is defined as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers or users. . According to William J. Stanton, Marketing is a system of business activities designed to plan , price, promote and distribute want satisfying goods and services to present and potential customers. 3. According to Evans and Berman, Marketing is the anticipation, stimulation, facilitation, regulation and satisfaction of consumer and public’s demand for products, services, organizations, people, places, and ideas through the exchange process. 4.According to Philip Kotler, Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. Generally, the definition of marketing can be grouped in to two: classical (narrow) definition and modern (broad) definition. Classical Definition: In classical terms marketing can be defined as the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. This definition is too narrow to describe marketing.It emphasizes the distribution aspect of marketing. Modern Definition: In broade r terms marketing is defined as a system of business activities designed to plan, price, distribute and promote want satisfying products (goods and services) to present and potential customers. In marketing, there are combinations of activities, which start before the creation of a product and don’t end until customers are satisfied. Therefore, product planning, pricing, distribution and promotion are the main activities performed in marketing.Marketing includes anticipating demand, which requires a firm to do customer research on a regular bases so that it develops and introduces products that are desired by consumers, Management of demand which consists of stimulation, facilitation, and regulation of tasks; and satisfaction of demand which involves actual performance, safety, availability of options, after sale service and other factors. From the above discussions, we can conclude the following about marketing: a. Marketing is the business activity concerned with the flow o f goods and services from producers to consumers. . Marketing generates and facilitates exchange c. The concept of marketing lies on needs, wants, and demands of customers. d. Marketing is greater than selling. e. Marketing is an integrated activity. f. Marketing is concerned with customer satisfaction. MARKETING FUNCTIONS The following are the basic marketing functions: 1. Environmental Analysis and Marketing Research: Involves monitoring and adapting to external factors that affect success or failures, such as the economy and competition; and collecting data to resolve specific marketing issues. 2. Consumer Analysis:Involves examining and evaluating customer characteristics, needs, and purchase processes and selecting the group of consumers at which to aim marketing efforts. 3. Product Planning: ( including goods, services and ideas) Involves developing and maintaining products, product assortments, product images, brands, and packaging, and optional features; and deleting falteri ng products. 4. Distribution Planning: Involves establishing relations with distribution-channel intermediaries, physical distribution, inventory management, warehousing, transportation, the allocation of goods and services, wholesaling and retailing 5.Promotion Planning: Involves communicating with customers, the general public and others through some form of advertising, publicity, personal selling, and/or sales promotion. 6. Price Planning: Involves determining price levels and ranges, price techniques, terms of purchase, price adjustments, and the use of price as an active or passive factor. 7. Broadening the organizations' /individuals' scope: Involves deciding on the emphasis to place, as well as the approach to take, on international marketing, service/ -non-profit marketing and societal issues. 8. Marketing Management:Involves planning, implementation, and controlling the marketing program (strategy) and individual marketing functions; and appraising the risks and benefits i n decision making. According to W. J. Stanton and McKarthy, there are eight economic activities in marketing that are broadly classified into three: 1. Exchange: -Buying -Selling 2. Physical Distribution – Transportation – Storage 3. Facilitating /Auxiliary/ – Financing – Marketing research and information – Risk bearing – Product standardization 1) Exchange: It is the process by which parties provide something of value to one another to satisfy the needs of each.The seller provides a needed product Goods Services Seller Buyer Money Credit The buyer offers something in return a) Buying: It is acquisition and procurement of goods for eventual resale or for production of other goods or rendering of services. b) Selling: It is not only just to make sales but also to find buyers, stimulate them, and provide advice and service to buyers. It involves advertisement, personal selling, customer service, publicity, etc. 2) Physical Distribution: Refer s to handling and movement of goods from production area to market center.It consists of a) Storage: It provides proper handling and storage of goods until they are demanded and sold. b) Transportation: It is the shipment and movement of goods from their manufacturing place to the market center /place of sale/. It enables to make goods reachable to the consumers. 3) Facilitating Function /Auxiliary Function: these are functions that facilitate and assist the proper performance of other functions of marketing. It encompasses a) Financing: To carry out business operations smoothly, it requires finance or money. Marketing as a major business activity, leads us to the need for money or finance.Without it, organizations are unable to schedule their operations. The activity of financing involves the proper handling and management of the inflow and outflow of money. Accordingly, finance is defined as the management function, which involves effectively obtaining and using money. Sources of finance include revenue from sale of company products and services, rental of business properties, from sale of stock, or from loan and credit agencies. b) Market Research and information: Managers of businesses do not make decisions on the basis of common sense or intuition. They require information.Therefore, to make marketing decisions and to design effective marketing policies, managers should get information regarding tests, preferences, attitudes and needs of customers; position of competitors, capacity of suppliers and creditors. For the success of business, market research is an important activity that involves gathering, analyzing, and interpretation of data collected regarding the needs of consumers. c) Risk Bearing: Business organizations when they are established, it is with the objective of getting profit, expansion, growth, etc. Nevertheless, they fail to achieve their objectives because of uncertainty of the future.Hence, the chance or the possibility of loss that bus iness face is known as RISK. d) Product standardization and Grading: These are facilitating functions that are used to identify the quantity and quality of production. When goods are standardized and graded neither the buyer nor the seller is required to check each and every part of the product. It saves the time of both buyers & sellers. Standardization enables customers to know that there is always definite or standard quality in a particular package; and grading indicates that a package labeled with grades A, B, or C are always uniform and the same everywhere and ever time.The field of marketing is a crucial one for several reasons: it stimulates demand; a large number of people are employed on marketing positions; it supports entire industries such as advertising and marketing research; all people are consumers in some situations; it is necessary to use scarce resources efficiently; it impacts on people's beliefs and life styles; and it influences the quality of our lives. The s cope of marketing is quite broad and diversified. To perform the marketing functions, marketing Performers are required and they are organizations or individuals that undertake one or more marketing functions.They include manufacturers, service providers, wholesalers, retailers, marketing specialists, and organizational and final consumers. Each performer has a different role. One party usually does not perform all the functions. This is due to costs, assortment requirements, specialized abilities, company size, established methods of distribution, and consumer interests. TASKS OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT Marketing managers in different organizations might face any of the following states of demand. The marketing task is to manage demand effectively. The various states of demand and the corresponding marketing management task according to P.Kotler are the following: 1. Negative demand: This is a state in which all or the major parts of the society, dislikes the product and may even pay a price to avoid it. Examples are vaccination, alcoholic employees, dental work, and seat belts. The corresponding marketing task is to analyze why the market dislikes the product and whether product redesign, lower price, or more positive promotion can change the consumer attitudes. This marketing task or activity is known as CONVERSIONAL marketing which tries to change people’s want rather than serve their wants. . No demand: This is a case where target customers may be uninterested in or indifferent to a particular product. For example, farmers may not know about a new farming method; college students may not be interested in taking foreign language courses. Marketing managers are concerned with finding ways to connect the product’s benefits with the user’s needs and interests. This marketing task is known as STIMULATIONAL marketing; it tries to stimulate a want for an object in people who initially have no knowledge or interest in the product 3.Latent demand : Consumers have a want that is not satisfied by any existing product or service. This state of demand where many customers share a strong need for something that does not exist in the form of actual product is called LATENT demand. Examples include the need for harmless cigarettes, more fuel-efficient cars, etc. In this case, marketing managers respond by trying and developing effective goods and services that will satisfy the demand through analysis and measurement of the potential market.The marketing task is called DEVELOPMENTAL marketing and its task is to measure the size of the potential market and trying to develop a new product or service that would satisfy the demand. 4. Falling demand: Sooner or later, every organization faces falling demand for one or more of its products. For example, churches have seen their membership decline, and private colleges have seen fewer applications. The marketer must find the causes of market decline and re-stimulate demand by finding new m arkets, changing product features, or creating more effective communication and the marketing task is REMARKETING. . Irregular demand: It is a state in which the timing pattern of demand is marked by seasonal and volatile fluctuations causing problems of idle capacity and overworked. For example museums are under-visited during weekdays and overworked during weekends. The corresponding marketing task is SYNCHROMARKETING, i. e. , to find ways to alter the time pattern of demand through flexible pricing, promotion and other incentives so that it will better match the time pattern of supply. 6. Full demand: The organization has just the amount of demand it wants and can handle.It is a state where the current level and timing of demand is equal to the desired level and timing of demand. The marketing task is MAINTENANCE marketing and is designed to maintain the current level of demand against changing consumer preferences. The organization maintains quality, and continually measures sat isfaction to make sure it is doing a good job. 7. Overfull demand: It is a state in which demand is higher than the company can or wants to handle. The marketing task is called DEMARKETING and its task is finding ways to reduce the demand temporarily, or permanently.De-marketing involves such actions as raising prices and reducing promotion and service. It does not aim to destroy demand, but only to reduce it. It calls for using normal marketing tools in reverse. 8. Unwhole-Some demand: Unwholesome products such as cigarettes, alcohol, and hard drugs will attract organized effort to destroy the demand or interest in particular product or service. The corresponding marketing task is known as COUNTERMARKETING it is a difficult task in that the aim is to get people who like something to give it up. Marketing manager cope with these tasks by arrying out marketing research, planning, implementation and control. The demand levels and corresponding marketing tasks are summarized as follows : State of demand| Marketing task| Formal Name| 1. | Negative demand| Disabuse demand| Conversional marketing| 2. | No demand| Create demand| Stimulation Marketing| 3. | Latent demand| Develop demand| Developmental marketing| 4. | Falling demand| Revitalized demand| Remarketing marketing| 5. | Irregular demand| Synchronize demand| Synchro-marketing| 6. | Full demand| Maintain| Maintenance marketing| 7. Overfull demand| Reduce demand| Demarketing marketing| 8. | Unwholesome demand| Destroy demand| Counter marketing| 2. 3. MARKETING MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS We have described marketing management, as the conscious effort to achieve desired exchange outcomes with target markets. Now we ask what philosophy should guide these marketing efforts? What weights should be given to the interests of the organization, the customers and society? Very often these interests conflict. Clearly, marketing activities should be carried out under a clear philosophy of efficient, effective, and responsible mark eting.There are five competing concepts under which organizations conduct their marketing activity. 1. The production concept: This concept holds that consumers will favor those products that are widely available and low in cost. Management of production oriented organization concentrates on achieving high production efficiently and wide distribution coverage. Organizations that appreciate this concept assume that consumers like products that are widely available and accessible at low cost. The production concept is one of the oldest concepts guiding sellers.The assumption that consumers are primarily interested in product availability and low price holds in at least two types of situations. The first is where the demand for a product exceeds supply as in many Third World countries. Here consumers are more interested in obtaining the product than in its fine points. The suppliers will concentrate on finding ways to increase production. The second situation is where the productâ€⠄¢s cost is high and has to be brought down through increased productivity to expand the market.Texas instruments provides a contemporary example of the production concept: Texas Instruments is the leading American exponent of the â€Å"get-out production, cut the price† philosophy. Ford put all of his talent into perfecting the mass production of automobile to be down their instruments all of its efforts in building production volume and improving technology in order to bring down costs. It uses its lower costs to cut process and expand the market size. It strives to achieve the dominant position in its markets.To Texas Instruments, marketing primarily means one thing bringing down the price to buyers; this orientation has also been a key strategy of many Japanese companies. 2. The product concept: Under this concept, marketing managers assume that consumers will prefer those products that offer (provide) the most quality, performance, with good features. Managers in this pr oduct-oriented organizations focus their energy on making quality products and improving them over time. These managers assume that buyers admire well-made products and can select, purchase and appreciate product quality.Products oriented companies often design their product with little or no customer input. These managers are caught up in a love affair with their product and fail to appreciate that the market may be less â€Å"turned on. † They trust that their engineers will know how to design or improve the product. Too often they will not even examine competitors products because â€Å"they were not invented here. † A General Motors executive said years ago† â€Å"How can the public know what kind of car they want until they see what is available? † GM’s designers would develop plant for a new car. Then manufacturing would make it.Then the finance department would price it. Finally, marketing and sales would try to sell it. GM failed to ask cust omers what they wanted and never brought in the marketing people at the beginning to help figure out what kind of car would sell. The product concept leads to â€Å"marketing myopia† a focus on the product greater than on the customer’s need. Railroad management thought that users wanted trains rather than transportation and overlooked the growing challenge of the airlines, buses, trucks, and automobiles. Churches and the post office all assume that they are offering the public the right product and wonder why their sales falter.These organizations too often are looking into a mirror when they should be looking out the window. 3. The Selling concept: Under this philosophy/concept/, marketing managers assume that consumers purchase products if the organization undertakes an aggressive selling and promotion effort. Therefore, firms emphasize and direct their effort on promotion and selling of their products. Most firms practice the selling concept when they introduce new products and when they have over capacity. The selling concept holds that consumers, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the organization’s products.The organization must therefore undertake an aggressive selling effort. The concept assumes that consumers typically show buying inertia or resistance and have to be coaxed into buying, and that the company has available a whole battery of effective selling and promotion tools to stimulate more buying. The selling concept is practiced most aggressively with â€Å"unsought goods,† those goods that buyers normally do not think of buying such as insurance, encyclopedias, and funeral plots. These industries have perfected various sales techniques to locate prospects and hard sell them on product benefits.Most firms practice the selling concept when they have over capacity. Their aim is to sell what they make rather than make what the market wants. In modern industrial economies, productive capacity has been built up to a point where most markets are buyer markets (i. e. , the buyers are dominant), and sellers have to scramble hard for customers. Prospects are bombarded with television commercials, newspaper ads, direct mail, and sales calls. At every turn, someone is trying to sell something. As a result, the public identifies marketing with hard selling and advertising. 4.The Marketing Concept: The marketing concept is different from the above three concepts. Managers under this concept assumes that the key to achieving organizational goals is based on the determination of the needs and wants of consumers and delivering or providing the desired satisfaction more efficiently, and effectively, than competitors. When we compare the marketing concept with the selling concept, the selling concept focuses on the needs of the seller; the marketing concept focuses on the needs of the buyer. Selling concept focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer.Selling is preoccupi ed with the seller’s need to convert his product into cash. Marketing is preoccupied with the idea of satisfying the customers’ needs of the product and the whole cluster of things associated by creating and delivering the product. The marketing concept rests on four main pillars, namely target market, customer needs, coordinated marketing, and profitability. These are shown in figure below – The selling concept Starting pointFocusMeans Ends FactoryProductsSelling ; Profits throughpromotion sales volume The marketing concept Starting point focus meansEndsTarget market Customer CoordinatedProfits through Needs marketingCustomer Satisfaction Here we examine how each pillar of the marketing concept contributes to more marketing that is effective. i. TARGET MARKET: No company can operate in every market and satisfy every need. Nor can it even do a good job within one broad market. Companies do best when define their target market (s) carefully and prepare a tailored marketing program. An auto manufacture can think of designing passenger cars, station wagons, sports carts, and luxury. But this thinking is less precise than defining a customer target group.One Japanese carmaker is designing a car for the career woman, and it will have many features that male-dominated cars don’t have. Another Japanese carmaker is designing a car for the â€Å" town man,† the young person who needs to get about town and park easily. In each, the company has clarified a target market, and this will greatly influence the car design. Societal Marketing Concept: It holds that the organization should determine the needs, wants, and interests of the target markets and deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors in a way that maintains or improves the customer’s and the ociety’s well-being. The societal marketing concept calls upon marketers to balance three considerations in setting their marketing poli cies. Originally, companies based their marketing decisions largely on short-run company profit. Overtime, companies began to recognize the long-run importance of satisfying consumer wants, and introduced the marketing concept. Now they are beginning to think of society’s interests when making decisions. The societal marketing concept calls for balancing all three considerations-company profits, consumer wants, and society’s interests.

BSC Implementation & the Internal Business Process Perspective Essay

BSC Implementation & the Internal Business Process Perspective - Essay Example Our focus will be on BAE systems will be our basis which was implemented and supported the organizational cultural change and was inline with the goals and objectives of the organization. ANALYSIS There where efforts done to implement the balance scoreboard cultural approach with less compromise to the whole organizational setup. Its council focused on a number of factors to enhance activities. The unit growth was based on customer support and defense systems the other unit was commercial aircraft. The transformation was based on the historic perspective it engaged in a number of factors. BAE was to improve on their reputation, this was to be accompanied by up to date technology to enhance its image. This enhanced performance and the same time made it competitive to the industry (Murby & Gould, 2005). They also included positive cash flows, in their operations and a good working relationship with its client base. There was also included employment of skilled laborer who where engaged on service training and support to its internal employees. There was also lack of cost of control at designing new product in the market. Poor strategic management and the organization reaction to changes in the market demands were poor. There was need in ensuring this problem was dealt with, the management decided in implementing a change in the program to ensure that they remain attractive to the market. They included reducing overreliance on managerial authorities; they included a narrow division of work so as to improve on the output of each employee among other factors (Murby & Gould, 2005). These adjustments where made possible by major factor which was that the scoreboard was central to the organization control system. Some stapes had to follow to achieve the specific target a far as the balance scoreboard system is concerned, they included the following; First there was need to revise its competitiveness capability, this was made possible by the change in technology (Braam, 2012). The change in technology was to be based on the demands on the market; the adjustments will be more focused on how it will be advantageous to the entire organization. This was made possible by a term of coordinated professional. The second stage was to involve the senior most employs of the organization. The senior employees where the directors who where five in number they where undertake the valuation of the company and state what the company needed. The board reviewed on the companies operations and performance and it was taken to task and evaluated upon. They suggested on a group of some employees to ensure that the proposals are made appropriately. There where a group of 130 members to be involved in the process (Murby & Gould, 2005). The following step it was about strategy based, they where efforts on how to transform and carry out the changes. The way forward about the company’s’ future was also strategized by the team of 130 members. The fourth was all about communication of f the vision this was to create a agreement along the 130 members (Murby & Gould, 2005). They created five major areas to lay their focus on, value creation was the major point of discussion and the other areas included strategic making and human behavior. This

Identify and explain the potential claims which arise from these Essay

Identify and explain the potential claims which arise from these facts. In your view does the law strike fair balance between the rights of Colin, Toby and Sue - Essay Example It may be an act of omission or commission. Tort may arise out of commission as when the defendant makes a noise by running of his mill. It may arise out of omission where the defendant does not secure his cow which then runs on the neighbour’s garden and damages his precious plantation. Occupier of premises: Usually the occupier of the premises is the owner thereof but sometimes the tenant may be the occupier, and sometimes the person who is given the charge of carrying out repairs when the landlord is living elsewhere. Trespass: Trespass is the violation of property of the claimant by the defendant. It may be caused by entering into a property which is fenced with a warning to keep out. In cases where the defendant strays on to the property because there is no other way to reach his destination the trespass id not actionable. Nuisance: Nuisance is the violation of the right to enjoyment of property, for the purposes of this paper, nuisance should be taken to mean that the act or omission is causing disturbance in the claimant’s enjoyment of the property which includes rights that arise of the land. Trespasser’s rights and liabilities: The trespasser is guilty of trespass and liable in torts for that intrusion in another’s property when he has not entered in to the property either by invitation or authority or otherwise when he has no duty to enter the premises. The circumstances give rise to multiple claims for all three parties against each other. The trespass and subsequent damage to the chicken run and loss of business caused due to the chicken straying gives rise to cause of action for Colin against Toby. Colin also has a remedy in criminal law against Toby. Under the Occupier Liability Act 1984, Toby has a claim against Colin for the physical damage suffered by him. Sue has a right of action against Colin for the nuisance caused to her due to the increased noise caused by the straying chicken. As occupier of the

Mobile Computing and Social Networking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Mobile Computing and Social Networking - Essay Example regards the transmission of personal medical information over wireless networks, and assessing the use of social networking for group support for patients with similar medical concerns. Firstly, with regards to comparing and contrasting the monitoring of patient vital signs using mobile computing technology to inpatient visits, it can immediately be noted that a massive amount of time can be saved with regards to such a monitoring process. Due to the fact that only the data will need to be analyzed and the patient himself/herself is not present at the doctor’s office, it is possible for the doctor/doctors in question to analyze and keep track of a great many more patients than they might be able to otherwise. With employees shortages evidenced in nearly each and every healthcare sector, this is a positive aspect that could be furthered in the future. However, with regards to some of the negatives that such an approach could generate, it must be noted that the responsibility of measurement and/or sustainment of the device/devices in question used to report this information would ultimately be in the hands of the end patient. Whereas in the doctor’s office a team of medical support staff are able to ensure that proper measurements are being affected, quite a different situation entirely is evidenced with regards to a patient being responsible for utilizing equipment in the correct way. In effect, the veracity of the information and key environmental factors must be taken into account with regards to the inference which can be drawn from the date of which is perceived. Similarly, an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile computing technology to monitor patients will herein be engaged. With regards to the advantages which could be realized, it is necessary to note that a massive level of cost savings could be generated by maximizing time that the medical professionals have to devote to each subset of data. Whereas it is important to have personal contact and a discussion of complicated factors with the patient in question, oftentimes this personal contact eats in to the time that the medical professionals have to analyze key healthcare data that could otherwise be leveraged to make a positive overall impact upon the health of the individual. However, the converse view of this particular situation is one in which an impersonal and removed relationship exists between the healthcare professionals and patients. Although it is no doubt beneficial to maximize healthcare professionals time and increase the veracity of the information and data which can be accrued regarding file signs and healthcare information, achieving this at the risk of creating such an impersonal relationship between doctor and patient is a risk that carries a great deal of negative repercussions. Anytime a technology is employed it is necessary to consider the means by which security concerns can impact upon the way in which a particular

Listening power Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Listening power - Essay Example The technique to manage your boss to agree with you is through finding weak spots in him. If you listen carefully, your boss might give you ways into his weaker side through what he says and you could use them to your advantage. For example, if your boss tells you something like â€Å"I am just 2 years away from a great retirement plan. I don’t want to deal with stupid people like you†, then you must focus more on his retirement and less on you being referred to as a stupid person. Let us now move on and outline the basic steps you must take to get your boss to agree with you. First comes the listening part. You must listen carefully and find out what exactly it is that your boss wants. Every boss is different. Some bosses want to feel the power in their hands, some want security, and some are only concerned with the money. Therefore, you must listen and analyze your boss and find out what his basic requirements are. After that, you must deal with him accordingly based on what he wants. For instance, if he’s looking for power, ask him to give you a chance to do things your own way, and that if you failed, you would be ready to do whatever he wants. Similarly, if your boss appears to be insecure, you could try talking to him like a colleague rather than a subordinate and ask him about his family and interests. This would cause him to be more open to you and would develop a bond of trust and understanding between the two of you. It is important to note that arguing does not lead to any good. Whatever insight to your boss you get from listening and communicating with him, you must ensure that your tone is not that of an argument when you try to convince him. Instead, you should devise a well thought out plan of action for your discussion with him and ask him questions to get to the root of his requirements. Even after all the listening and planning, however, you might not be able to reach a

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics-Case Study Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics-Case Study - Essay Example This has brought forth the term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implying the moral and social welfare promoting aspects that a modern day corporate must posses besides its financial or profit making goals. In a single sentence Corporate Social Responsibility is the culmination of the duties towards the stakeholders that encompasses promotion of social welfare, moral development and sustainable environmental safety. Brief analysis of Bhopal Gas Disaster: The majority of the Indian population lies under the poverty line and are technologically backward. 26 years earlier when the disaster took place the situation was even worse. Furthermore the concerned state Madhya Pradesh was regarded as one of the least developed states of India where the labourers were equipped with little technical expertise. This background does not confer the mentioned state as an ideal place to establish a plant that would eventually be handling a substance as toxic as Methyl Isocyanides. The concerned co mpany Union Carbide ignored these technical issues and made a grave mistake in terms of the strategic management and planning. However, the mistakes made that way become the outcome of greedy business steps when the availability of cheap labours that were hired in the process is taken into account. Ignoring technological impediments regarding the poor standards of the knowledge base of the labourers along with the ignorance of environmental standard those were needed to set a plant of such a complex technology at that place in search of financial gain is the brief but ultimate verdict of the Bhopal disaster. Ans 1 An issue dependent and logical reasoning of blaming Mr. Warren Anderson Once the dreadful early December (December 2 and 3) of 1984 was passed claiming thousands of lives, the famous or infamous chairman of Union Carbide Mr. Warren Anderson was immediately taken into custody in charge of sheer negligence of corporate responsibility. Ironically the person who was responsibl e for thousands of death soon got a personal bail of only USD3000 and came out of custody. Anderson then carried out some sort of investigation that came out with dubious results. On one instance Anderson blamed the entire management team of the company for their negligence that brought the catastrophe and on another instance he gave a much narrowed version while blaming the local plant operation manager alone. (Camino, 1989, p 3; Peterson, 1985, pp. 196-197) Whatever doubtful is the explanation of Mr. Anderson; owing to a political-corporate nexus that is like any other country is operative in India as well; Mr. Anderson was protected and managed to get back to his country USA. Questions had been raised against the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Rajiv Gandhi for protecting and eventually helping him to get back to his country. 26 years later of that event, Mr. Arjun Singh the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh though turned down all these allegations against the late Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi; yet pleaded against the heinous acts of Anderson and raised his voice for the immediate arrest of him. Mr. Singh requested the present Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh to initiate a talk with the USA President Mr. Barrack Obama regarding the extradition of Anderson to India where he can be prosecuted for killing of thousands of Indians in front of an Indian court. (Arjun Singh breaks silence on Bhopal gas tragedy, Aug 11, 2010) Owing to the growing agitation regarding

Writing a Business Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Writing a Business Plan - Essay Example The cell phones will be widely used by all members and for all purposes of communication as they will have been tested by the relevant authorities to ensure that they do not pose health problems to the users. The plan of starting up a cell phone recycling company was occasioned by the recent developments reported by the United Nations with regards to endangered species in various parts of the world caused by human activities conducted to encourage the production of cell phones. The cell phones produced by the company will cater for average citizens who spend heavily in purchasing phones yearly. The cell phones will tremendously help them to cut their expenses in purchasing phones while at the same time conserving the environment. Secondly, the cell phones will also cater for underprivileged individuals as they will obtain them at an affordable cost The main competitors will be other companies dealing in the same line of cell phone recycling. However, the company will have a competitive advantage over them because of highly trained staffs, more financial incentives and providing customers with a means of mailing or transporting their used cell phones and electronics within the company’s premises free of charge. The cell phones will be extremely effective as they will have the latest technology updates. The shape of the design will be different from those of existing cell phones to give it uniqueness over other phones. The cell phones will also be developed within months and will be launched in the markets in six months time by a team of highly trained engineers with a specialty in different fields. The main source of revenue for the company will be from the sales of the cell phones. It will also involve the donations given to the company by Non-governmental organizations and other well wishers keen on conserving the environment. The prices for the cell phone will be cheaper compared

Perception and intelligence Essay Example for Free

Perception and intelligence Essay Popular ideas of human development need revision to encompass the experience of older persons. In our too quick assumption that old age is a relentless downhill course, we ignore the potential of older persons for strength as well as for a richer emotional, spiritual, and even intellectual and social life than may be possible for the young. Overall physical health of the body plays critical role in determining the energies and adaptive capacities available to older people. They experience a great deal more acute and chronic disease than the younger population. If significant breakthroughs occur in research and treatment of diseases of the aged (heart disease, cancer, arthritis, chronic arteriosclerosis, and acute and brain syndromes), one can envision a very different kind of old age. Assuming adequate environmental supports, including proper nutrition, old age could become a time of lengthy good health with a more gentle and predictable decline. The Process of Becoming Old The kind of personality one carries into old age is a crucial factor in how one will respond to the experience of being old; personality traits produce individual ways of being old. But we will explore the general characteristics of old age and the changes that are fairly common to the aging population at least in the west particularly in the United States, which could also be attributable to other countries (Butler et al. , 1998). Physical changes: Some of the outward alterations experienced by older persons are graying of hair, loss of hair and teeth, elongation of ears and nose, loss of subcutaneous fat, particularly around the face, wrinkling of skin, fading of eyesight and hearing, postural changes, and a progressive structural decline that may result in a shortened trunk with comparatively long arms and legs. Not all of these changes happen to everyone-nor at the same rate. Recent researches have revealed that some or perhaps many of these changes are results of disease states that occur with greater frequency in late life and may be treatable, either by slowing the course of the disease or by preventing it entirely. The potential for life can be lengthened and enhanced, but mysterious flow of human existence from birth to death will prevail (Schaie Willis, 1996; Hurlock, 1982 Peterson, 1989). Although internal changes are not as readily observable as external ones, they are nevertheless are pronounced and as widespread. The muscles tend to become progressively less elastic over time. The most obvious consequence of diminished muscle tone is tiredness and decreased physical strength (Peterson, 1989). The density of our bones become more porous, brittle, fragile (Belsky, 1999) and are subject to fractures and breaks, which are increasingly slow to heal as age progresses (Hurlock, 1986). Internal organs go through a marked transformation. Atrophy is particularly marked by spleen, liver, testes, heart, lungs, pancreas, and kidneys. Perhaps the most marked change of all is in the heart and least and the last affected are the gastrointestinal tract, the urinary tract, and the smooth muscle organs. The senses: Vision and hearing become less sensitive with age. But most of this deterioration is cumulative, beginning early in life. The sensitivity of the other sense of taste, touch, smell and balance also decline with age, though the implications of these changes are generally less serious than for vision and hearing (Schaie Wills, 1996 Peterson, 1989). The motor system: The brain’s rate of electrical activity declines during old age and the conduction speed of the impulses along neuronal fibers throughout the body also decreases. There is slowing down in reaction time-the ability to quickly and accurately take action after a signal to respond appears- with age. It has three major components: sensory transmission time; motor execution time, and central processing time, which involves interpretation, decision, and association. The decreasing speed of processing information could account for many of the observed age differences in learning, memory, perception, and intelligence (Schaie Willis, 1996; Peterson, 1989; Belsky, 1999).

Star Newspaper Business Study

Star Newspaper Business Study COMPANY BACKGROUND Companys history The Star was first published regionally in George Town, Penang on the 9th of September, 1971. The Star went to become a national newspaper on Jan 3, 1976, when it set up an office in Kuala Lumpur. To adapt a growing staff and a new press incorporating the latest technology, it moved its headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to its present premises in Petaling Jaya in 1981. The Star created histor y on June 23, 1995 when it became the first Malaysian newspaper and the third in Asia to launch a World Wide Web edition. In addition to that, The Star also achieved a new milestone in its corporate history in the same year by being listed on the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. In the year 2000, The Star relocated in stages to its very own 17 storey premises, Menara Star in Section 16, Petaling Jaya. In January 2002, The Stars new printing plant, Star Media Hub was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi in Shah Alam, Selangor. The Star also has a new office and printing plant, Star Northern Hub in Bayan Lepas, Penang. About The Star and Sunday Star The Star weekday paper is packaged as a 4-in-1 paper, comprising the Main Paper, StarBiz and StarTwo. The Main Paper covers the latest in regional, national and as well as international news while StarBiz offers a comprehensive coverage of local and international financial news such as market trends, financial reports and latest market updates. StarTwo features articles on lifestyle, entertainment, health, parenting, social issues and et cetera. Every Sunday, there is an additional section known as Sunday Star. For the Sunday Star, it covers current local and as well as worldwide news. Apart from that, Sunday Star also contains an educational section where careers, further education, exams tips and various comments are featured within. Board of Directors The current Executive Deputy Chairman of Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad is Dato Clement Hii Chii Kok whereas the Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer is Datin Linda Ngiam Pick Ngoh. There are two Executive Director in the company which is Tan Sri Datuk Seri Kamal Mohamed Hashim and Mr. Ng Beng Lye. And the Group Editorial / Education Advisor is Dato Ng Poh Tip. Groups Financial Highlights The revenue of the company as at 31 December 2008 is RM 831,040,000. Profit before tax is RM201, 463,000 whereas the profit after tax is RM138, 701,000 which show that the tax expense is RM 62,762,000. Political and Legal Environment There is one law in Malaysia that protects media freedom that is Article 10 of the Constitution. It also notes that there are limits to this freedom, and that these limits are, generally, defined by the Government. The constitution provides freedom for speech of the press. However, some important legal limitations exist. According to the government, it forced restrictions on the media to protect national security, public order, and friendly relations with other countries. The law that provides legislation in the interest of security or public order may restrict freedom of speech. Example, Sedition Act prohibits public comment on issues sensitive such as racial and religious matters. Government used Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, criminal defamation laws, and other laws to limit and threaten political speech. As for Printing Presses and Publications Act, it requires local and foreign publications to apply annually to the government for a permit. This is to make publication of wicked news a punishable offense and authorized the minister of internal security to ban or restrict publications believed to threaten public order, morality, or national security. Besides, it also prohibits court challenges to delay or revocation of publication permits. According to the government, these conditions make sure that the media did not spread twisted news and were necessary to preserve harmony and promote peaceful in a multiracial country. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum of two years in jail, a fine, or both. This is along with the government power over annual license renewal and other policies inhibited independent or investigative journalism and resulted in widespread self-censorship. Government had banned some foreign newspapers and magazines and, occasionally, covered up foreign magazines or newspapers. Furthermore, you could point to the guarantees under the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) if you want to impress the crowd which covers broadcasting and Internet. The guarantees under this act are no monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves and nothing in the Act is to be regarded as censorship of the Internet. No monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves is that no group of companies should own enough of the radio and television stations to prevent listeners and viewers from having a choice of material. So far is all good but they have not seen it put into practice as yet. As for censorship of the Internet, it is a bit more of a problem. Although there is not any censorship or control of the Internet under this Act, doesnt mean there isnt any censorship of the Internet. Internet access was widely available and internet subscriptions totalled approximately 13.5 million at the end of 2006. However, criminal offence and preventive detention laws generated some self censorship from local Internet content sources. Examples are bloggers, Internet news providers and NGO campaigners. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) shut down 11 Web sites for breaking rules and regulations concerning the publication of information on the Internet. Neither the MCMC nor the government released the names of the 11 Web sites. The CMA requires certain Internet and other network service providers to obtain a license. Previously, the government stated that it did not intend to enforce controls on Internet use but that it would punish the misuse of information technology. The CMA permits punishment of the owner of a Web site or blog for allowing content of a racial, religious, or political nature that a court deems offensive. Besides that, almost all the newspaper companies are under a political control. This is where the politician uses the publications to spread their news to the public. The biggest press group was Media Prima which is owned by Malaysia Resources Corporation Berhad which has close ties with the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and government. Media Prima owns the leading English-language newspaper The New Straits Times, the second biggest Malaysia-language paper Berita Harian, Malay Mail, Harian Metro and the ShinMin Daily News. In addition, Media Prima owns four terrestrial TV channels. However, the acquirement of Nanyang from MCA two years ago which is 2005 has since setup its monopoly in Chinese media. Sin Chew Media Group was being owned by the timber tycoon, Tiong Hiew King. He already corners about 90% of the Chinese language newspaper market, with his control of Sin Chew ,which publishes Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily, and Nanyang Holdings, which has Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press. As for The Star, it was owned by MCA while MIC owned Malaysia Nanban. Economic environment 2009 will bound to be a very challenging year for Malaysia, although Malaysias economy is holding up pretty well this year. The first half of 2009 is expected to be a very tough period for Malaysia. The impact on Malaysia this year has somehow been cushioned but many are beginning to feel the economic downturn towards the year-end. Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, much has been said and published about its economic and financial impact, but relatively little has been said about the socio-economic impact. While it is not difficult to observe the direct and often immediate unpleasant social impact of the crisis, little is known about their indirect and long-term effect on the countrys human development and social capital potential which are increasingly acknowledged in developing economies as a critical factor for sustainable development. Economic pressures are becoming the primary forces determining the behaviour of Malaysian newspaper companies. It is increasingly clear that the responses of some newspaper managers are affecting journalistic quality, producing practices that reduce the social value of newspaper content and that redirect the atten ­tion of newspaper workforce from journalism to activities primarily related to the business interests of the press. This situation has promoted encouraged self-interested behaviour aimed at exploiting market potential, and there is a growing conflict between the role of newspapers as servants of readers and the exploitation of readers to seek additional com ­mercial gain. It should not be surprising that the public increasingly sees the press as just another business that is more concerned with its own economic interests than with the broader interests of those it purports to serve. This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation and expressed as a percent. The graph above shows the overall performance of Malaysian in economy. We can see the economy started to drop from the middle for second quarter of 2008 till 2009. (Source: CIA World Fact book, September 17, 2009) The print media is already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Newspaper adex has fallen for four consecutive months from October to January 2009. In January, newspaper adex declined 4% year on year to RM258.6 million while total adex for the media industry as a whole (TV, radio and print) inched up 2% year to year. This means that newspaper companies suffered a bigger blow than other media channels. As an open economy, Malaysia was badly affected by the global financial crisis and economic downturn. The major decline in exports, in turn, affected domestic demand. Thus, economic growth contracted 6.2% in the first quarter of 2009. However, the decline narrowed to 3.9% in the second quarter, assisted by speedy and effective operation of stimulus packages as well as monetary easing. Economic performance is expected to improve in the second half of the year, supported by counter-cyclical measures and reinforced by stabilization in the global economic environment. As such, the economy is expected to turn around in the fourth quarter, though for the year it is estimated to contract 3%. The current environment exists as the Malaysian newspaper industry faces an uncertain future because of inactive markets, increasing competition from other media for audience attention, use by progressively smaller portions of the population and changes in advertiser media choices. It is a common view that the newspaper business is elastic because people read the papers every day, regardless of the economic climate. People want to know the latest happenings in good times and bad. It is expected to see a slowing down in adex in this year, 2009, with the absence of any major events, together with the weakening economic climate. The lower economic growth forecast has an effect on the newspaper industry including advertising. Last years growth was driven by worldly TV adex (up 20%), newspaper (8%), radio (21%) and point-of- sale (28%). Malaysia Advertising Expenditure Trends Year 1997 to 2008 Circulation Generally, there is a total newspaper circulation rise since 1998. The actual figure in appendix for 2008 should have rose higher though if the data from Nanyang, Malay Mail and Weekend Mail are included. Newsprint has not dead yet and will co-exist with online media. The circulation growth has been steadily all these years which contributed by the increase of the population and the knowledge of society. There are a few online news portals which without print circulation have been gaining huge popularity since last year. This creating a strong competition in online space compared to the print circulation. In English newsprint, The Star is still far ahead of everyone. As for The Sun, it considers that it offers free controlled circulation. Competition in Malay circulation is only reserved for the big three which similar to the online scenario shown in figure 2 at appendix. Harian Metro is gaining popularity in recent years. This had posed a challenged to Utusan Malaysias top position. Another famous trend in the Malay segment is newspaper sales on weekends are generally much higher than working days. Societal About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year, according to comScore Media Metrix (digital marketing research company). While the figures quoted in May edition of OnMedia, OmicomMediaGroups industry newsletter, were based on average daily readership for the online news sites over the past year from March 2008 to February 2009. In total, the average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiakini led online English news sites with 91,943 average daily visitors over the past year. In second place was The Star Online with 74,417 readers a day. Malaysia-Today.net registered 12,948 readers daily, putting it in third place. The New Straits Times Online came in fourth with an average of 16,871 readers a day. However, in fifth place was theedgedaily.com, the website of The Edge Malaysia, which averaged 3,844 readers daily over the past year. However, according to Google Analytics which monitors online site traffic, since its relaunch in March this year as theedgemalaysia.com, the site has averaged around 14,000 readers daily. For the Malay-language online portals, Utusan Malaysia Online led with an average daily readership of 70,641 over the past year. It was followed by Berita Harian Online which averaged 55,764 readers a day for the past year. myMetro (the website of Harian Metro) averaged 51,767 readers daily, placing it third. ChinaPress dotCom was the most popular of the Chinese-language online news portals with an average of 29,950 readers a day. It was closely followed by nanyang.com which averaged 27,168 a day, and Sinchew-i which received an average of 23,779 readers a day. Key points that emerged from the study, if price were not a factor and if their choice was restricted to paper, online, e-paper and mobile devices. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of respondents would pick traditional newspapers as their first choice for news consumption. While, twenty-nine percent (29%) would make online sources their first choice, with the remaining twenty percent (2%) opting for e-paper or mobile devices first. The gap between traditional newspapers and online was, however, significantly smaller for younger respondents. Both consumers and advertisers have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for high value, topic-specific publications than they would for newspapers providing general news only, wrote authors Marieke van der Donk and Marcel Fenez in the reports executive summary. Financial readers were willing to buy financial online content for 97% as much as they would pay for a traditional paper. Meanwhile, sports fanatics would pay as much as 77% as they would for a traditional paper, for an online edition that focused on sports. The study showed newspapers are still the major sources of news and information for consumers, with survey respondents listing almost equally television, the Internet, and newspapers (free and paid) as their main source of news and information. Moreover, all 4,900 respondents were willing to pay for the general print news content. This is not to say that newspapers should not make the move online, said the report. Over 60% of respondents were willing to pay for general online news. Furthermore, based on the reports findings, a key future trend is the willingness of younger readers to pay for online content. According to the report, newspapers have been able to earn readers trust and loyalty, thus giving them the opportunity to both lead and follow audiences as they migrate online and into the use of portable electronic media like mobile devices. It also noted that although the rapid adoption of the Internet and mobile technology have created a market for mobile devices, especially for those under 35, they are low on the list of preferences for accessing information because of the difficulty of reading content on these devices. Malaysians are not giving up newspapers for the Internet. This research based on the data sourced from Nielsen Media Index from 2006 to 2008. It shows that newspaper consumption levels held steady all through 2008 despite the rise in Internet consumption. Malaysian newspaper consumption holds steady despite Internet. Its written by Emily Tan, Tuesday, 01 September 2009 at 11:24.While the average time a Malaysian spends online has increased by 24% from three hours a day in 2006 to three hours and 46 minutes a day in 2008, the average time spent reading a newspaper has held steady at 49 minutes in the same time span. There is no sign that Malaysians are shifting from newspapers to the Internet, said the report published in PHDs August newsletter — PHD Pioneering. PHD is a media service agency under the Omnicom Media Group. The PHD study found that Malaysians over the age of 30 spend more time reading newspapers and its about 50 minutes daily, while the teenagers and young adults read for about half an hour on average per day. A few online news portals that without print circulation have been gaining a huge popularity since last year, creating a stiff competition in online space compared to the print circulation. As for English newsprint, The Star is still well ahead of everyone, considering The Sun offers free controlled circulation. Newspaper readership in Peninsular Malaysia for the fourth quarter of last year (4Q08) grew about two percentage (2%) points to 55% from 52.9% in the same period in 2007, possibly in tandem with population growth of those aged 15 and above. Bahasa dailies seemed to have gained the most from the slight increase in newspaper readership, growing from 26.8% to 29.3% in the fourth quarter. English dailies saw marginal growth of 0.3 percentage point while Chinese and Tamil dailies saw a drop of 0.2 and 0.4 percentage point correspondingly. This is written by Aznita Ahmad Pharmy, Thursday, 05 March 2009, at 17:44. Technology On the other hand, the media industry is challenged by the rapidly changing environment, birth of new digital technologies and advertising money diverting to new media platforms on the internet. The local media industry has yet to capitalize on the full potential of the internet which will remain the fastest and the next powerful media platform, globally. Largely driving this change is technological development but the industry is also being affected by the impact of globalization of media ownership, the phenomenal growth of the internet, and other ambient media such as outdoor, point of sale, television, bus and taxi sites. The process of creating media strategies has become more complex and dynamic with the introduction of very highly developed software designed to optimize media selection against an unending range of criteria. There is a growing movement away from the use of simple age sex demographics for most media assumptions and an increasing appreciation of the need for a more holistic understanding of current and potential customers, including characteristics such as media usage, buyer behaviour, attitudes, lifestyles and interests. According to Nielsen Media Index, while mainstream media continues to control the Malaysian media scene, the internet is fast catching up. There was a double growth in internet penetration which reaching up to two out of ten people compared to five years ago. The executive director for Nielsen Media Research Malaysia, Andrea Douglas said that internet will become a more important part of the media mix with its continuous growth in the market. She added that Malaysians are decided to go on online news for faster and constant updates. This can be seen by the 35% growth in online newspaper readership over a year, reaching one million readers. Those who only read news online exclusive online newspaper readers, it grew from 55,000 to 70,000 in 2008. The index signified a 21% increase in internet users with almost four out of ten users spending one to two hours on the internet every day. Increasing internet penetration goes hand-in-hand with increased Internet usage. However, news seekers have not abandoned the traditional medium as nine in 10 readers still obtain their news through a hard copy. Apart from more common features such as email, surfing and information gathering, the popular activities for citizen are online TV/music/games (47%), followed by message/chat/blogging (45%) and reading newspaper/magazines (35%). Within the Top 10 categories, nine categories advertised online but the spending only between less than 1% and 3% of the total budget online. Newspaper industry players have to constantly evolve themselves to stay ahead by improving technology and addressing readers preferences. The second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop urged the industry to play actively its role by involving themselves in developing the digital medium instead of ignoring it. He said it in his keynote address at the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association forum. Nor Mohamed said that with the online global reach, publish news about the countrys development became faster and easier. He added that to promote Malaysia as a developing and stable nation to potential foreign investors, information reported must be accurate. This image would be able to attract more foreign investments and visitors in Malaysia. As for Group M chief executive officer, Henry Tan said that as technology drove change, consumers, media, media agencies and clients were changing as well. New generation was created by new technology while new media structure and ownership will strengthen competition. The role of media agencies has expanded to more than just planning and buying media spots. Agencies also have to recognize changes in clients and deal with each one differently. Dow Jones Asia-Pacific sales director, Mark Hollands said change was not uncommon in the print media which comprised it to be better and more efficient. Potential new revenue stream and the branding improvement from a strong online presence in the combination of global trend, these have seen that local traditional news organizations begin to put more resources on the online platform. Besides, they also hired people who recognize the benefits of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking site Facebook, and Twitter, the so-called SMS of the Internet. The growing popularity of online news sites where readers can read for free is one reason decision-makers at traditional news organizations find it very hard to raise cover prices for their printing product. A drop in circulation numbers directly impacts the advertising rate which a publication commands. According to the On Media newsletter, the circulation numbers from Nielsen Media Research signified online news portals have not affected print newspaper that much though online readership has increased rapidly over the past year. At present, online news sites still do not enjoy the level of loyalty and commitment shown by readers to newsprint. Online readership tends to change based on economic, political and social events, said the newsletter. Based on Nielsen Media Research and Com Score, the newsletter concluded that readers spend less time reading online news than print. About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year according to ComScore Media Metrix, a digital marketing research company. The average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiankini led online English news sites average daily visitors over the past year. As for The Star Online was placing second. Utusan Malaysia Online led Malay-language online followed by Berita Harian Online. As for the Chinese-language online news portals, ChinaPress dotcom was the most popular. There are more on societal changes. Managing director of Omnicom Media Group, Andreas Vogiatzakis said that newsprint have little to fear from online news portals. He said that newspapers must learn to pull on their online portals to add value and enhance their offerings to the consumer. The industry has seen a decline in newspaper adex over the past three years, from 58% in 2006 to 54% 2008 said the Nielsen Co Malaysia executive director Andrea Douglas. She said that the reasons for these changes are difficult to said but some categories have changed their spending patterns. There has been a decline in residential ad spending due to the economic downturn and this category is almost fully print advertising. The web has introduced new advertising potential and new media that could be eroding the traditional print share. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 65 per cent below 40 and 35 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 62 per cent below 40 and 38 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. The readership of age above 55 years old in 2006 increases 3.5% compared with the readership of age 55 years old in 2005. The old generation between the age of 55 and above are still enthusiastic supporters of newspapers while the younger generation appear to be much in tune with computers and the internet. The newspapers are not only challenged by online websites but also the electronic media having regular updates in the news bulletin. Many youngsters enjoyed reading serious news on the internet rather than from the newspapers. Hence, newspaper publisher should focus on public from the age of 55 and above. According to a statistic from Department of Statistics, Malaysia, the population of Malaysia is increasing. The population of age 15 and below is decreasing every year. The decreasing rate of year 2002 to 2004 is 0.3% whereas the decreasing rate of year 2005 to 2008 is 0.2%. The population of age 64 and above is increasing every year by 0.1 % except for the year 2005 and 2006 which remain same at 4.3%. The same pattern of readership frequency could also be observed among the respondents with different educational backgrounds. According to The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000, the frequency of newspaper readership continued to be the highest among those with tertiary education where 60.0% of them read the newspaper daily. This was followed by those with secondary education (44.1%) with the lowest frequency (28.1%) among those with primary or lower education. In terms of locality, The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000 also revealed that 49.3% of the urban respondents read the newspaper daily compared to those in rural areas (39.8%). On the frequency of readership, the opposite situation could also be observed in the other categories (a few times a week, once a week, or seldom). For example, about one-third (32.1%) of the rural respondents and similarly about 34.4% of the urban respondents read newspapers only a few times a week. Identify the rivalry currently exists in the industry in which the company is operating. Are there many competitor or just a few competitor or no competitor? There are many competitors around Star Publication. For instance, Berita Harian, Guang Ming Daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, The Sun Daily, Utusan Malaysia, and also New Straits Times. The largest Star Publication newspaper competitor is the New straits Times. The sell recommendation of analysts on Star Publications (M) Bhd are the countrys largest and most profitable print media group and as well as other media stocks, such as Media Chinese International Ltd and The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd, shows the current negativity on the industrys earnings prospects in the coming quarters, if not years. The Nielsen Media Report shows that Stars gross adex dived 20.6% y-o-y in January. Citi Investment Researchs analyst Alyson Shin has noticed that the page count for classified advertisements, which make up 25% of Stars advertising revenue, has fallen 33% to 40 pages from 60 pages in better times. Alyson Shin mention that Star has raised its advertising rates by an average 4% for both classified and display advertisements for the heavier days which is Wednesday to Saturdays. However, this is unlikely to be sufficient to offset the drop in adex in FY (Financial Year) 2009. Factoring in the 4% ad rate hike, we still forecast adex to contract 12% in FY2009, Alyson Shin comments in a February research report. Over the past two decades, Star has grown by shooting up and bounds in terms of earnings as well as manpower, after its English daily, The Star, overtook its main rival New Straits Times. The groups fixed operating costs have blown up. Its total operating costs that inclusive of printing and the newsprint have been above RM600 million in the past three years. This ascend to RM651.2 million in FY (financial year) 2008 versus revenue of RM831 million and net profit of RM138.9 million. The high fixed cost structure is a blessing for the group when advertisers are fighting for space in the newspaper because of the profit margin is getting bigger as the advertisement relative amount rises. Star has been the case this for over the past 10 years. It is the countrys most profitable newspaper with a handsome pre-tax profit margin of 24.2%, compared with its rival NST (New Strait Times) which manages only 9.5%. NSTP lost much of its thump over the past 25 years, especially on two separate occasions. During Operasi Lalang in October 1987, Star Publications (M) Bhds licence was revoked under a plan to crack down on the opposition leaders and social activists. After Star got back its licence, its readership and circulation surged. According to Nielsen Media Research, as at end-2008, NSTPs flagship newspaper New Straits Times had a readership of 308,000 while New Sunday Times readership stood at 263,000. As at end-June last year, New Straits Times circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, stood at 136,530 while that of New Sunday Times was 156,910. These figures cannot rival that of its main competitor, Star Publications, which had a readership of more than one million for both its daily and Sunday paper. Stars circulation was over 300,000 daily. Are the products/ services offered by company very much different from its competitors in terms of price/feature/others. KUNTUM An educational monthly in Bahasa Malaysia for children ages 6 to 12. In keeping with its Learning is Fun motto, the Kuntum Club organises many fun activities and ho Star Newspaper Business Study Star Newspaper Business Study COMPANY BACKGROUND Companys history The Star was first published regionally in George Town, Penang on the 9th of September, 1971. The Star went to become a national newspaper on Jan 3, 1976, when it set up an office in Kuala Lumpur. To adapt a growing staff and a new press incorporating the latest technology, it moved its headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to its present premises in Petaling Jaya in 1981. The Star created histor y on June 23, 1995 when it became the first Malaysian newspaper and the third in Asia to launch a World Wide Web edition. In addition to that, The Star also achieved a new milestone in its corporate history in the same year by being listed on the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. In the year 2000, The Star relocated in stages to its very own 17 storey premises, Menara Star in Section 16, Petaling Jaya. In January 2002, The Stars new printing plant, Star Media Hub was officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi in Shah Alam, Selangor. The Star also has a new office and printing plant, Star Northern Hub in Bayan Lepas, Penang. About The Star and Sunday Star The Star weekday paper is packaged as a 4-in-1 paper, comprising the Main Paper, StarBiz and StarTwo. The Main Paper covers the latest in regional, national and as well as international news while StarBiz offers a comprehensive coverage of local and international financial news such as market trends, financial reports and latest market updates. StarTwo features articles on lifestyle, entertainment, health, parenting, social issues and et cetera. Every Sunday, there is an additional section known as Sunday Star. For the Sunday Star, it covers current local and as well as worldwide news. Apart from that, Sunday Star also contains an educational section where careers, further education, exams tips and various comments are featured within. Board of Directors The current Executive Deputy Chairman of Star Publications (Malaysia) Berhad is Dato Clement Hii Chii Kok whereas the Group Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer is Datin Linda Ngiam Pick Ngoh. There are two Executive Director in the company which is Tan Sri Datuk Seri Kamal Mohamed Hashim and Mr. Ng Beng Lye. And the Group Editorial / Education Advisor is Dato Ng Poh Tip. Groups Financial Highlights The revenue of the company as at 31 December 2008 is RM 831,040,000. Profit before tax is RM201, 463,000 whereas the profit after tax is RM138, 701,000 which show that the tax expense is RM 62,762,000. Political and Legal Environment There is one law in Malaysia that protects media freedom that is Article 10 of the Constitution. It also notes that there are limits to this freedom, and that these limits are, generally, defined by the Government. The constitution provides freedom for speech of the press. However, some important legal limitations exist. According to the government, it forced restrictions on the media to protect national security, public order, and friendly relations with other countries. The law that provides legislation in the interest of security or public order may restrict freedom of speech. Example, Sedition Act prohibits public comment on issues sensitive such as racial and religious matters. Government used Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, criminal defamation laws, and other laws to limit and threaten political speech. As for Printing Presses and Publications Act, it requires local and foreign publications to apply annually to the government for a permit. This is to make publication of wicked news a punishable offense and authorized the minister of internal security to ban or restrict publications believed to threaten public order, morality, or national security. Besides, it also prohibits court challenges to delay or revocation of publication permits. According to the government, these conditions make sure that the media did not spread twisted news and were necessary to preserve harmony and promote peaceful in a multiracial country. Criminal defamation is punishable by a maximum of two years in jail, a fine, or both. This is along with the government power over annual license renewal and other policies inhibited independent or investigative journalism and resulted in widespread self-censorship. Government had banned some foreign newspapers and magazines and, occasionally, covered up foreign magazines or newspapers. Furthermore, you could point to the guarantees under the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) if you want to impress the crowd which covers broadcasting and Internet. The guarantees under this act are no monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves and nothing in the Act is to be regarded as censorship of the Internet. No monopoly or oligopoly control of the airwaves is that no group of companies should own enough of the radio and television stations to prevent listeners and viewers from having a choice of material. So far is all good but they have not seen it put into practice as yet. As for censorship of the Internet, it is a bit more of a problem. Although there is not any censorship or control of the Internet under this Act, doesnt mean there isnt any censorship of the Internet. Internet access was widely available and internet subscriptions totalled approximately 13.5 million at the end of 2006. However, criminal offence and preventive detention laws generated some self censorship from local Internet content sources. Examples are bloggers, Internet news providers and NGO campaigners. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) shut down 11 Web sites for breaking rules and regulations concerning the publication of information on the Internet. Neither the MCMC nor the government released the names of the 11 Web sites. The CMA requires certain Internet and other network service providers to obtain a license. Previously, the government stated that it did not intend to enforce controls on Internet use but that it would punish the misuse of information technology. The CMA permits punishment of the owner of a Web site or blog for allowing content of a racial, religious, or political nature that a court deems offensive. Besides that, almost all the newspaper companies are under a political control. This is where the politician uses the publications to spread their news to the public. The biggest press group was Media Prima which is owned by Malaysia Resources Corporation Berhad which has close ties with the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and government. Media Prima owns the leading English-language newspaper The New Straits Times, the second biggest Malaysia-language paper Berita Harian, Malay Mail, Harian Metro and the ShinMin Daily News. In addition, Media Prima owns four terrestrial TV channels. However, the acquirement of Nanyang from MCA two years ago which is 2005 has since setup its monopoly in Chinese media. Sin Chew Media Group was being owned by the timber tycoon, Tiong Hiew King. He already corners about 90% of the Chinese language newspaper market, with his control of Sin Chew ,which publishes Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily, and Nanyang Holdings, which has Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press. As for The Star, it was owned by MCA while MIC owned Malaysia Nanban. Economic environment 2009 will bound to be a very challenging year for Malaysia, although Malaysias economy is holding up pretty well this year. The first half of 2009 is expected to be a very tough period for Malaysia. The impact on Malaysia this year has somehow been cushioned but many are beginning to feel the economic downturn towards the year-end. Since the beginning of the global economic crisis, much has been said and published about its economic and financial impact, but relatively little has been said about the socio-economic impact. While it is not difficult to observe the direct and often immediate unpleasant social impact of the crisis, little is known about their indirect and long-term effect on the countrys human development and social capital potential which are increasingly acknowledged in developing economies as a critical factor for sustainable development. Economic pressures are becoming the primary forces determining the behaviour of Malaysian newspaper companies. It is increasingly clear that the responses of some newspaper managers are affecting journalistic quality, producing practices that reduce the social value of newspaper content and that redirect the atten ­tion of newspaper workforce from journalism to activities primarily related to the business interests of the press. This situation has promoted encouraged self-interested behaviour aimed at exploiting market potential, and there is a growing conflict between the role of newspapers as servants of readers and the exploitation of readers to seek additional com ­mercial gain. It should not be surprising that the public increasingly sees the press as just another business that is more concerned with its own economic interests than with the broader interests of those it purports to serve. This entry gives GDP growth on an annual basis adjusted for inflation and expressed as a percent. The graph above shows the overall performance of Malaysian in economy. We can see the economy started to drop from the middle for second quarter of 2008 till 2009. (Source: CIA World Fact book, September 17, 2009) The print media is already feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. Newspaper adex has fallen for four consecutive months from October to January 2009. In January, newspaper adex declined 4% year on year to RM258.6 million while total adex for the media industry as a whole (TV, radio and print) inched up 2% year to year. This means that newspaper companies suffered a bigger blow than other media channels. As an open economy, Malaysia was badly affected by the global financial crisis and economic downturn. The major decline in exports, in turn, affected domestic demand. Thus, economic growth contracted 6.2% in the first quarter of 2009. However, the decline narrowed to 3.9% in the second quarter, assisted by speedy and effective operation of stimulus packages as well as monetary easing. Economic performance is expected to improve in the second half of the year, supported by counter-cyclical measures and reinforced by stabilization in the global economic environment. As such, the economy is expected to turn around in the fourth quarter, though for the year it is estimated to contract 3%. The current environment exists as the Malaysian newspaper industry faces an uncertain future because of inactive markets, increasing competition from other media for audience attention, use by progressively smaller portions of the population and changes in advertiser media choices. It is a common view that the newspaper business is elastic because people read the papers every day, regardless of the economic climate. People want to know the latest happenings in good times and bad. It is expected to see a slowing down in adex in this year, 2009, with the absence of any major events, together with the weakening economic climate. The lower economic growth forecast has an effect on the newspaper industry including advertising. Last years growth was driven by worldly TV adex (up 20%), newspaper (8%), radio (21%) and point-of- sale (28%). Malaysia Advertising Expenditure Trends Year 1997 to 2008 Circulation Generally, there is a total newspaper circulation rise since 1998. The actual figure in appendix for 2008 should have rose higher though if the data from Nanyang, Malay Mail and Weekend Mail are included. Newsprint has not dead yet and will co-exist with online media. The circulation growth has been steadily all these years which contributed by the increase of the population and the knowledge of society. There are a few online news portals which without print circulation have been gaining huge popularity since last year. This creating a strong competition in online space compared to the print circulation. In English newsprint, The Star is still far ahead of everyone. As for The Sun, it considers that it offers free controlled circulation. Competition in Malay circulation is only reserved for the big three which similar to the online scenario shown in figure 2 at appendix. Harian Metro is gaining popularity in recent years. This had posed a challenged to Utusan Malaysias top position. Another famous trend in the Malay segment is newspaper sales on weekends are generally much higher than working days. Societal About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year, according to comScore Media Metrix (digital marketing research company). While the figures quoted in May edition of OnMedia, OmicomMediaGroups industry newsletter, were based on average daily readership for the online news sites over the past year from March 2008 to February 2009. In total, the average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiakini led online English news sites with 91,943 average daily visitors over the past year. In second place was The Star Online with 74,417 readers a day. Malaysia-Today.net registered 12,948 readers daily, putting it in third place. The New Straits Times Online came in fourth with an average of 16,871 readers a day. However, in fifth place was theedgedaily.com, the website of The Edge Malaysia, which averaged 3,844 readers daily over the past year. However, according to Google Analytics which monitors online site traffic, since its relaunch in March this year as theedgemalaysia.com, the site has averaged around 14,000 readers daily. For the Malay-language online portals, Utusan Malaysia Online led with an average daily readership of 70,641 over the past year. It was followed by Berita Harian Online which averaged 55,764 readers a day for the past year. myMetro (the website of Harian Metro) averaged 51,767 readers daily, placing it third. ChinaPress dotCom was the most popular of the Chinese-language online news portals with an average of 29,950 readers a day. It was closely followed by nanyang.com which averaged 27,168 a day, and Sinchew-i which received an average of 23,779 readers a day. Key points that emerged from the study, if price were not a factor and if their choice was restricted to paper, online, e-paper and mobile devices. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of respondents would pick traditional newspapers as their first choice for news consumption. While, twenty-nine percent (29%) would make online sources their first choice, with the remaining twenty percent (2%) opting for e-paper or mobile devices first. The gap between traditional newspapers and online was, however, significantly smaller for younger respondents. Both consumers and advertisers have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for high value, topic-specific publications than they would for newspapers providing general news only, wrote authors Marieke van der Donk and Marcel Fenez in the reports executive summary. Financial readers were willing to buy financial online content for 97% as much as they would pay for a traditional paper. Meanwhile, sports fanatics would pay as much as 77% as they would for a traditional paper, for an online edition that focused on sports. The study showed newspapers are still the major sources of news and information for consumers, with survey respondents listing almost equally television, the Internet, and newspapers (free and paid) as their main source of news and information. Moreover, all 4,900 respondents were willing to pay for the general print news content. This is not to say that newspapers should not make the move online, said the report. Over 60% of respondents were willing to pay for general online news. Furthermore, based on the reports findings, a key future trend is the willingness of younger readers to pay for online content. According to the report, newspapers have been able to earn readers trust and loyalty, thus giving them the opportunity to both lead and follow audiences as they migrate online and into the use of portable electronic media like mobile devices. It also noted that although the rapid adoption of the Internet and mobile technology have created a market for mobile devices, especially for those under 35, they are low on the list of preferences for accessing information because of the difficulty of reading content on these devices. Malaysians are not giving up newspapers for the Internet. This research based on the data sourced from Nielsen Media Index from 2006 to 2008. It shows that newspaper consumption levels held steady all through 2008 despite the rise in Internet consumption. Malaysian newspaper consumption holds steady despite Internet. Its written by Emily Tan, Tuesday, 01 September 2009 at 11:24.While the average time a Malaysian spends online has increased by 24% from three hours a day in 2006 to three hours and 46 minutes a day in 2008, the average time spent reading a newspaper has held steady at 49 minutes in the same time span. There is no sign that Malaysians are shifting from newspapers to the Internet, said the report published in PHDs August newsletter — PHD Pioneering. PHD is a media service agency under the Omnicom Media Group. The PHD study found that Malaysians over the age of 30 spend more time reading newspapers and its about 50 minutes daily, while the teenagers and young adults read for about half an hour on average per day. A few online news portals that without print circulation have been gaining a huge popularity since last year, creating a stiff competition in online space compared to the print circulation. As for English newsprint, The Star is still well ahead of everyone, considering The Sun offers free controlled circulation. Newspaper readership in Peninsular Malaysia for the fourth quarter of last year (4Q08) grew about two percentage (2%) points to 55% from 52.9% in the same period in 2007, possibly in tandem with population growth of those aged 15 and above. Bahasa dailies seemed to have gained the most from the slight increase in newspaper readership, growing from 26.8% to 29.3% in the fourth quarter. English dailies saw marginal growth of 0.3 percentage point while Chinese and Tamil dailies saw a drop of 0.2 and 0.4 percentage point correspondingly. This is written by Aznita Ahmad Pharmy, Thursday, 05 March 2009, at 17:44. Technology On the other hand, the media industry is challenged by the rapidly changing environment, birth of new digital technologies and advertising money diverting to new media platforms on the internet. The local media industry has yet to capitalize on the full potential of the internet which will remain the fastest and the next powerful media platform, globally. Largely driving this change is technological development but the industry is also being affected by the impact of globalization of media ownership, the phenomenal growth of the internet, and other ambient media such as outdoor, point of sale, television, bus and taxi sites. The process of creating media strategies has become more complex and dynamic with the introduction of very highly developed software designed to optimize media selection against an unending range of criteria. There is a growing movement away from the use of simple age sex demographics for most media assumptions and an increasing appreciation of the need for a more holistic understanding of current and potential customers, including characteristics such as media usage, buyer behaviour, attitudes, lifestyles and interests. According to Nielsen Media Index, while mainstream media continues to control the Malaysian media scene, the internet is fast catching up. There was a double growth in internet penetration which reaching up to two out of ten people compared to five years ago. The executive director for Nielsen Media Research Malaysia, Andrea Douglas said that internet will become a more important part of the media mix with its continuous growth in the market. She added that Malaysians are decided to go on online news for faster and constant updates. This can be seen by the 35% growth in online newspaper readership over a year, reaching one million readers. Those who only read news online exclusive online newspaper readers, it grew from 55,000 to 70,000 in 2008. The index signified a 21% increase in internet users with almost four out of ten users spending one to two hours on the internet every day. Increasing internet penetration goes hand-in-hand with increased Internet usage. However, news seekers have not abandoned the traditional medium as nine in 10 readers still obtain their news through a hard copy. Apart from more common features such as email, surfing and information gathering, the popular activities for citizen are online TV/music/games (47%), followed by message/chat/blogging (45%) and reading newspaper/magazines (35%). Within the Top 10 categories, nine categories advertised online but the spending only between less than 1% and 3% of the total budget online. Newspaper industry players have to constantly evolve themselves to stay ahead by improving technology and addressing readers preferences. The second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop urged the industry to play actively its role by involving themselves in developing the digital medium instead of ignoring it. He said it in his keynote address at the Malaysian Newspaper Publishers Association forum. Nor Mohamed said that with the online global reach, publish news about the countrys development became faster and easier. He added that to promote Malaysia as a developing and stable nation to potential foreign investors, information reported must be accurate. This image would be able to attract more foreign investments and visitors in Malaysia. As for Group M chief executive officer, Henry Tan said that as technology drove change, consumers, media, media agencies and clients were changing as well. New generation was created by new technology while new media structure and ownership will strengthen competition. The role of media agencies has expanded to more than just planning and buying media spots. Agencies also have to recognize changes in clients and deal with each one differently. Dow Jones Asia-Pacific sales director, Mark Hollands said change was not uncommon in the print media which comprised it to be better and more efficient. Potential new revenue stream and the branding improvement from a strong online presence in the combination of global trend, these have seen that local traditional news organizations begin to put more resources on the online platform. Besides, they also hired people who recognize the benefits of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking site Facebook, and Twitter, the so-called SMS of the Internet. The growing popularity of online news sites where readers can read for free is one reason decision-makers at traditional news organizations find it very hard to raise cover prices for their printing product. A drop in circulation numbers directly impacts the advertising rate which a publication commands. According to the On Media newsletter, the circulation numbers from Nielsen Media Research signified online news portals have not affected print newspaper that much though online readership has increased rapidly over the past year. At present, online news sites still do not enjoy the level of loyalty and commitment shown by readers to newsprint. Online readership tends to change based on economic, political and social events, said the newsletter. Based on Nielsen Media Research and Com Score, the newsletter concluded that readers spend less time reading online news than print. About three million Malaysians visited local online news portals daily in March this year, compared with 2.5 million in the same month last year according to ComScore Media Metrix, a digital marketing research company. The average daily readership for local news portals for that period was about 2.8 million. Malaysiankini led online English news sites average daily visitors over the past year. As for The Star Online was placing second. Utusan Malaysia Online led Malay-language online followed by Berita Harian Online. As for the Chinese-language online news portals, ChinaPress dotcom was the most popular. There are more on societal changes. Managing director of Omnicom Media Group, Andreas Vogiatzakis said that newsprint have little to fear from online news portals. He said that newspapers must learn to pull on their online portals to add value and enhance their offerings to the consumer. The industry has seen a decline in newspaper adex over the past three years, from 58% in 2006 to 54% 2008 said the Nielsen Co Malaysia executive director Andrea Douglas. She said that the reasons for these changes are difficult to said but some categories have changed their spending patterns. There has been a decline in residential ad spending due to the economic downturn and this category is almost fully print advertising. The web has introduced new advertising potential and new media that could be eroding the traditional print share. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 65 per cent below 40 and 35 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. According to Nielsen Media Research, newspaper in Malaysia has a mainly younger readership, with 62 per cent below 40 and 38 per cent of its readers are above 40 years. Percentage of newspaper readership between 20-29 age is the highest while the age between 50-54 is the lowest percentage of newspaper readership. The readership of age above 55 years old in 2006 increases 3.5% compared with the readership of age 55 years old in 2005. The old generation between the age of 55 and above are still enthusiastic supporters of newspapers while the younger generation appear to be much in tune with computers and the internet. The newspapers are not only challenged by online websites but also the electronic media having regular updates in the news bulletin. Many youngsters enjoyed reading serious news on the internet rather than from the newspapers. Hence, newspaper publisher should focus on public from the age of 55 and above. According to a statistic from Department of Statistics, Malaysia, the population of Malaysia is increasing. The population of age 15 and below is decreasing every year. The decreasing rate of year 2002 to 2004 is 0.3% whereas the decreasing rate of year 2005 to 2008 is 0.2%. The population of age 64 and above is increasing every year by 0.1 % except for the year 2005 and 2006 which remain same at 4.3%. The same pattern of readership frequency could also be observed among the respondents with different educational backgrounds. According to The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000, the frequency of newspaper readership continued to be the highest among those with tertiary education where 60.0% of them read the newspaper daily. This was followed by those with secondary education (44.1%) with the lowest frequency (28.1%) among those with primary or lower education. In terms of locality, The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000 also revealed that 49.3% of the urban respondents read the newspaper daily compared to those in rural areas (39.8%). On the frequency of readership, the opposite situation could also be observed in the other categories (a few times a week, once a week, or seldom). For example, about one-third (32.1%) of the rural respondents and similarly about 34.4% of the urban respondents read newspapers only a few times a week. Identify the rivalry currently exists in the industry in which the company is operating. Are there many competitor or just a few competitor or no competitor? There are many competitors around Star Publication. For instance, Berita Harian, Guang Ming Daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh, The Sun Daily, Utusan Malaysia, and also New Straits Times. The largest Star Publication newspaper competitor is the New straits Times. The sell recommendation of analysts on Star Publications (M) Bhd are the countrys largest and most profitable print media group and as well as other media stocks, such as Media Chinese International Ltd and The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd, shows the current negativity on the industrys earnings prospects in the coming quarters, if not years. The Nielsen Media Report shows that Stars gross adex dived 20.6% y-o-y in January. Citi Investment Researchs analyst Alyson Shin has noticed that the page count for classified advertisements, which make up 25% of Stars advertising revenue, has fallen 33% to 40 pages from 60 pages in better times. Alyson Shin mention that Star has raised its advertising rates by an average 4% for both classified and display advertisements for the heavier days which is Wednesday to Saturdays. However, this is unlikely to be sufficient to offset the drop in adex in FY (Financial Year) 2009. Factoring in the 4% ad rate hike, we still forecast adex to contract 12% in FY2009, Alyson Shin comments in a February research report. Over the past two decades, Star has grown by shooting up and bounds in terms of earnings as well as manpower, after its English daily, The Star, overtook its main rival New Straits Times. The groups fixed operating costs have blown up. Its total operating costs that inclusive of printing and the newsprint have been above RM600 million in the past three years. This ascend to RM651.2 million in FY (financial year) 2008 versus revenue of RM831 million and net profit of RM138.9 million. The high fixed cost structure is a blessing for the group when advertisers are fighting for space in the newspaper because of the profit margin is getting bigger as the advertisement relative amount rises. Star has been the case this for over the past 10 years. It is the countrys most profitable newspaper with a handsome pre-tax profit margin of 24.2%, compared with its rival NST (New Strait Times) which manages only 9.5%. NSTP lost much of its thump over the past 25 years, especially on two separate occasions. During Operasi Lalang in October 1987, Star Publications (M) Bhds licence was revoked under a plan to crack down on the opposition leaders and social activists. After Star got back its licence, its readership and circulation surged. According to Nielsen Media Research, as at end-2008, NSTPs flagship newspaper New Straits Times had a readership of 308,000 while New Sunday Times readership stood at 263,000. As at end-June last year, New Straits Times circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, stood at 136,530 while that of New Sunday Times was 156,910. These figures cannot rival that of its main competitor, Star Publications, which had a readership of more than one million for both its daily and Sunday paper. Stars circulation was over 300,000 daily. Are the products/ services offered by company very much different from its competitors in terms of price/feature/others. KUNTUM An educational monthly in Bahasa Malaysia for children ages 6 to 12. In keeping with its Learning is Fun motto, the Kuntum Club organises many fun activities and ho