CIRCULATION HEAD OF NST REMOVED

New Straits Times Press Berhad has removed its head of circulation Azman Che Chin and replaced him with Eddie H'ng Seng Poh following the free fall in circulation of its flagship newspaper, the New Straits Times.

Industry sources said Azman was removed and assigned to the Properties Division after NST's circulation dipped below 100,000 copies recently.

Interestingly, mainstream newspaper companies have stopped publishing reports by Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) on their circulation figures.

The last report published by the newspapers was the circulation for the first 6 months of 2009 when NST was hit hard at the newsstand when its circulation dropped to 116,411 copies while its rival the Star fell marginally to 293,112 copies.

Industry analysts believed there was no turning back for the NST unless serious efforts were made to revamp its contents.

The analysts lay the blame of NST's poor sales on its contents and that it had nothing to do with its distribution network as the company's other newspaper Metro had done extremely well in the Malay market.

The management of  the NSTP is headed by its CEO Dato' Anthony Bujang while the editorial contents of the newspaper is handled by its Group Managing Editor Dato' Zainul Arifin Mohammed Isa.