Jim Hawkins: A Young Pirate Essay

Stories about pirates are some of the interesting and clever stories to tell such as the Treasure Island. It is a classic story about a young pirate, written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1883. It tells about the young boy, Jim Hawkins, who turned into a pirate with his crew searching for the treasure (â€Å"Treasure Island†). Robert Louis Stevenson was a famous Scottish author of travel and adventure books, but he also wrote fiction stories, essays and poems (â€Å"Robert Louis Stevenson†). He pursued engineering first followed by law; however his interest was never in either of those. He was fond of reading and travelled many places before he became a famous writer (â€Å"Treasure Island: About the Author†). The story about Treasure Island is narrated by Jim Hawkins. He tells the story based from his observations, feelings, perceptions, and on how he responds to the people and events around him. He became easily involved in the pirate game and treasure hunting since his family owned the Admiral Benbow inn. There stayed Billy Bones, the captain who has the map of the treasure that Captain Flint buried. Captain Flint is already dead however the men who worked for him are still alive and searching for his buried treasure (â€Å"Treasure Island: Character Profiles†). The first pirate that Jim met is Billy Bones who stayed at their inn. Bones is a ragged, scarred, and drunkard pirate who always sing a pirate song; but he was kind with Jim. He always asks Jim to look out for any seafaring men along the shore which Jim thought that the man only wants some company. However, it turned out that the man is eager to avoid the other seafaring men especially the ‘seafaring man with one leg’ (â€Å"Treasure Island†). One day, another pirate named Black Dog, a companion of Billy Bones, came to Jim and asked for the whereabouts of Billy Bones. Both pirates wrestle until Bones is greatly injured. However, a blind pirate named Pew came with horsemen to Bones and delivered the ‘black spot’. After Bones died, Jim snatched a key and an oilskin packet from Bones. He and his mother left immediately and went to the next village. The village people, however, are not willing to help them and the two hide under the bridge. The men continuously searched for the â€Å"Flint’s fist† but they could not find it. They escaped leaving Pew behind while the horses of the revenue officers from the village trampled him to death (Nelson). Jim and his mother stayed with Dr. Livesey and Squire Trelawney where the squire analyzed the packet that Jim got from Billy Bones. The squire said that it is the account book of the ‘black-hearted hound’. After studying the rest of the oilskin packet, they found a map of Captain John Flint’s Treasure Island. Trelawney became eager to find the treasure and planned the rest of the voyage including the finances. He secured on of the best ships in England, the Hispaniola, and hired several men including a one-legged ‘seafaring man’ named Long John Silver and a group of sailors. Jim unexpectedly became part of the instant adventure (Nelson). Long John Silver was very much liked by Jim and the squire because of his performance as the ship’s cook. At the beginning of their journey, he is friendly and helpful to the rest of the crew however he is as notorious as Captain Flint who is concerned only about the money he can get (â€Å"Treasure Island: Character Profiles†). Jim, while hiding in an apple barrel, accidentally overhears Silver, Israel Hand, and Dick talking about their plan of overtaking the ship once they get the treasure. After getting on land, Captain Smollet together with his men fought with Silver and the pirates. Jim and his group escaped together with Ben Gunn, one of the original members of Captain Flint’s crew who was abandoned in the Treasure Island three years ago. Jim together with his group is lead to Gunn’s secret cave where he relocated Captain Flint’s treasure. In spite of Silver’s plan, Jim, Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, Gunn and the rest of the group are able to retrieve the treasure and haul it to Hispaniola and return to England (â€Å"Treasure Island†). Treasure Island is an exciting book inspired by adventures of notorious pirates. During the early 1700s, thousands of pirates wander along different seas in the world who plundered ships and private vessels for coins and precious metals that were likely hidden in small islands. This perhaps is one of the sources of Stevenson’s pirate stories. However, most of the pirates began in their early twenties until they age fifty or so, some crippled, blind, or dead. Young pirates were also common, but there were no enough records to prove that teenagers became fierce pirates. Young pirates like Jim Hawkins is like a dream come true for kids who always dream of sailing and travelling and someday finding a treasure (â€Å"Treasure Island†). In the early 18th century, there was a story about a young boy who joined a group of buccaneers. The story was based from the records of Captain â€Å"Black Sam† Bellamy. In 1716, Captain Bellamy’s ship Marianne attacked Bonetta, a ship travelling from Antigua to Jamaica. Some of Bonetta’s crew joined the pirates. John King, a kid travelling with his mother, also wanted to join the group of buccaneers so bad that he even threatened to kill himself after the captain did not allow him. It was not clear why John wanted to become a pirate, but there were speculations that maybe he was with a harsh parent or he does not want to go wherever they are going. Later, a kind a charismatic Captain Bellamy allowed John King to join the band (Krystek). In connection with the story of John King, a treasure hunter named Barry Clifford searched for the remains of Captain Bellamy’s boat – Whydah that sunk along Cape Cod. He found a cannon, artifacts, and silver coins. The artifacts they found included a human leg bone, a stocking, and a shoe belonging to a tiny adult, as he said. However in 2006, after the bone was examined in The Center for Historical Archeology in Florida, they found out that the bone belonged to a child aged between eight and eleven years old. The tale of a John King, a little boy who turned into a young pirate indeed was true (Krystek). In the early chapter of Treasure Island, the story was established through the first person narrative of Jim Hawkins. Money is introduced as the major driving force of the characters’ actions. Through Jim’s narration of events, greed and corruption are even more highlighted. As the number of pirates looking for the map increases, it pushes Jim into learning more about the treasure and acquiring the map. The first six chapters slowly unravel Jim’s transformation. He is now not controlled by Billy Jones and the other pirates and he chooses to stand with his mother and save her. He is beginning to take part into the action happening and acted like a hero (Nelson). In the middle chapters, more terrible things happened which challenged how Jim would respond. Jim has witnessed several deaths including Billy Bones’ and Tom’s. However, his response to the death of Tom’s death is different from Billy Bones’. He cried at Bone’s but not to Tom’s death where he just sat in silence. Upon arriving at the island after all the terrible things that he witnessed, Jim found a friend and a father figure whom he has gained trust (Nelson). At the later chapter, Jim is able to develop both physical and moral strength after their triumph against the pirates. Jim is able to survive and gain enough guts to face Silver and his crew and help his crew. He has matured and does not act like a child in the middle of the events. Jim is a child and adult in deciding and justifying the things he did. He is now acting not just to save himself but also the rest of his crew after he stole and find a boat. He became the story’s hero but not because of luck and fortune. Also, Jim does not forget how to be adventurous and try things despite failure. He never gives up although he is now engaging to wrong choices, these are justifiable by the arbitrary death that could happen anytime (â€Å"Treasure Island: Character Profiles†). Throughout the story, Jim Hawkins character changed from a simple observer of the events around him into a character who became actively involved and became a certified pirate. Even though he is just a kid, he is able to help in uncovering the mutiny plan of Long John Silver and retrieve the treasure. He became a competent boy physically and beat Israel Hands. He has grown morally mature after choosing not to run away from Long John silver despite Dr. Livesey urging him to. Jim is a smart boy with courage and good heart. Anyone reading the book could easily identity himself with Jim. Stevenson created it in such a way the reader could put his own imaginations in place of Jim. Jim Hawkins is an open, predictable character who narrates the story by telling what he sees and observed, but is close in telling his own feelings and thoughts about the other characters (Nelson). The transformation in Jim’s character was evident when he delivered a speech to the pirates. He is able to survive and save himself against the fierce pirates by offering deals that an adult would usually do. His courage has developed from their journey, a courage that he does not have back to the inn. An interesting encounter between Jim and Long John Silver once proved Jim’s ability to stand up and fought for himself even though it is Silver, a notorious pirate, he is talking to (Nelson). Jim Hawkins justifies the thoughts and imagination of a teenager and later the beginning stage of maturity developed from the combination of different adversities. The story of Jim Hawkins and the Treasure Island is not as exciting as it is when summarized because there is no other of telling his story in such an engaging way except reading all the chapters. Works Cited Krystek, Lee. â€Å"The Littlest Pirate†. 2006. 5 May 2008. . Nelson, Britanny. â€Å"Gradesaver: Treasure Island – Study Guide – Character List†. 2008. 5 May 2008. . â€Å"Robert Louis Stevenson†. 2008. Jalic Inc. 5 May 2008. . â€Å"Treasure Island†. Bibliomania. com Ltd. 5 May 2008. . â€Å"Treasure Island†. 2008. Wiley Publishing. 5 May 2008. . â€Å"Treasure Island: About the Author†. 2008. Wiley Publishing. 5 May 2008. . â€Å"Treasure Island: Character Profiles†. 2008. Novelguide. 5 May 2008. .

“Broken home”: what is it and what are its consequences

Relationships between parents and children have always been a significant topic to discuss and a serious matter to think about. In fact, they are the essence of the family life and the basis of children’s formation as a personality. It is important to pay attention to these relationships because they are usually tensed and strained. When a child is grown up in a family where he/she feels indifference and coldness he/she will take such vision of mutual relationships into his/her own adult life. Love and care of the family members have a crucial impact on the child’s psychical development.â€Å"In the English language, â€Å"broken home† refers to the family where the bonds between mother, father and children have turned sour or ruptured; individuals are weakened or uprooted as a result† (Fend â€Å"Broken Home†). This term is used to note a family in which love, care, and understanding are absent. Every family member is a victim. Nobody wants to blam e him-/herself, nobody cares about other person’s feelings, and nobody wants to suffer. Parents are quarrelling among themselves and as a result have no time for their kids.Sometimes it can be even worst – parents blame their children in all problems. No doubt, such a family cannot be useful for a society as it cannot be useful even for its own members. In the â€Å"broken home† family relationships are broken. For a child life in such a home is a nightmare. As we all well know, every child needs love and attention. Without these elements child will suffer emotionally, thus he/she won’t develop as a well-balanced personality. Moreover, child in such a family will always be between his/her fighting parents.The kid loves both parents equally and wants them to leave in mutual love and respect. When the child sees his/her parents quarreling, he/she may think that he/she is the reason of their disagreement. This awareness makes the kid’s life more compl icated. The famous Papa Roach’s song reflects the child’s feelings and emotions which he/she experiences while leaving in such family. The kid begins to blame his-/herself in all parents’ problems: Broken home†¦ all alone I can't seem to fight these feelings . . . . . . . . . .. . . And my wounds are not healing I'm stuck in between my parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . I know my mother loves me, but does my father even care If I'm sad or angry you were never ever there . . . . . . . . . . . . . What’s wrong with me (1-2, 4-5, 13-14, 20) That’s why parents should pay due attention to their mutual relationships, as well as to the relationships with their kids. Life in a â€Å"broken home† negatively influences kid’s growth. â€Å"Broken home† is a serious problem families must deal with.Such type of family is characterized by constant cry, fear, and tears. On the contrary, well-being family is characterized by love, care, an d joy. The parents’ divine duty is to make their home a desirable place for leaving, a place where their children will always want to go to. All that is needed to make a kid happy is just a sincere hug, a word of support, a smile, and a tolerance. Parents should try to be patient with each other and not to quarrel about trivial things. And even if they do quarrel, they should make sure their kids are not witnessing this.Every problem can be solved if there is a mutual desire, even the problem of a â€Å"broken home†. Why are so many people unhappy? Why do they perceive mutual relationships as a constant mortification and pain? The answer is simple: they were grown up in â€Å"broken homes†. Our task is to ensure joyful and happy life for kids and to eradicate the phrase â€Å"broken home† from our language. Works Cited Fend, Peter. Broken Home. 1 July 2004. < http://old. thing. net/ttreview/mayrev97. 03. html>. Roach, Papa. Broken Home. 1 July 2004. .

Analysis of Mrs Hayward from the Novel Spies by Michael Frayn

How is the character of Mrs Hayward developed throughout the opening 3 chapter of Frayn’s ‘Spies’? Mrs Hayward is a contradictory character who is established through Stephen’s fragmented memory to be both a character of smiling perfection and a broken woman, sitting in the dust weeping. She is both the embodiment of a perfect British wartime wife and a character of suspicion; a spy, a traitor, the epitome of deceit and the focus of two young boys’ overzealous imagination. When the reader is first introduced to this character it is through the listing of three declarative clauses in one of Stephen’s long, complex sentences. It is here that his fragmented memory is emphasised by the fragmented syntax where only glimpses of Mrs Hayward are shared with the reader. She is ‘in the long-lost green summer shade, her brown eyes sparkling, laughing at something Keith has written. ’ Through his use of the verbs ‘sparkling’ and ‘laughing’ Mrs Hayward is portrayed as a friendly and happy character who clearly takes delight from time spent with her child. The use of the adjectives ‘blue’, ‘green’ and ‘long-lost’, help to coat the memory with a sense of vibrancy and suggest that these memories, and characters, are positive, fun and safe; they belong to a lost time that was happy. This is further reflected in the use of pathetic fallacy as the memory, and Mrs Hayward, are in the ‘summer shade’, a time of year and image associated with freedom and enjoyment, suggesting this is a character who is pleasantly remembered and much-liked by the narrator. However, as Mrs Hayward is in the shade this could subtly suggest to the reader that there is an element of darkness to the character as she is shaded, half hidden and perhaps that her motivations and intentions are not always as clear as first imagined. The reflective, gentle tone of Mrs Hayward’s introduction is shattered by the use of the short simple sentence ‘Then the laughter’s gone. ’ indicating to the reader that the memory of her is tainted by events that are still unclear to the reader, events that leave her ‘sitting in the dust in front of [Stephen], weeping’. The antithesis of ‘weeping’ and ‘laughing’ highlight to the reader how Mrs Hayward is a character who evokes feelings of both happiness and shame in Stephen, due to her respective actions and emotions. She is a fragmented and incomplete character who is portrayed to the audience through an anaphoric series of present tense memories, which make her actions, and consequent responses of the narrator, seem immediate and continual. She is a character who evokes an emotional response in our narrator almost sixty years after unknown events have occurred, suggesting to the reader that she is going to be central to his journey down ‘memory lane’. When Mrs Hayward is next introduced to the reader it is through elderly Stephen’s third person account of what would have happened if young Stephen had asked Keith to play at his house for the afternoon. This hypothetical pondering of the narrator occurs after a substantial amount of description has been dedicated to Keith’s home, room and father, suggesting to the reader that these male characters were the main objects of focus for young Stephen, Keith because he idolised his friend and his father because Stephen clearly feared him. Mrs Hayward then appears with her ‘perfectly plucked eyebrow’ while she is ‘reclining on a sofa’ and ‘looking up from her library book’. Frayn has positioned Mrs Hayward in the domestic sphere of the house and then used stative verbs to show her lack of movement and action. This is further highlighted when Keith asks if he can go to Stephen’s house and Stephen knows ‘precisely’ that her response will be to tell Keith to ‘ask Daddy’. Here Mrs Hayward establishes herself as having a typical female role within a traditional patriarchal family. She is contemplative, rested and motherly, she does not make decisions; she is not the dominant person in the relationship and she defers decision-making to her male counterpart – not unlike Stephen in his childhood relationship with Keith. Keith’s mother is referred to in the opening chapters using either the pronoun ‘Mrs Hayward’ or ‘Keith’s mother’, both name link her clearly to the males in her life, showing their dominance as her identity is always linked to them. She is not given her own name or identity and this emphasizes the position that she is in within the family; she is the wife and mother. She is surrounded with the semantic sphere of tranquility and passivity, she is ‘unhurried’, ‘calmly smiling’ ‘reclining’ or ‘looking’ and the only time we ee any use of dynamic verbs is when she is ‘shopping’ or fetching things for Aunt Dee. Mrs Hayward is clearly enclosed within the domestic sphere and has a clear role within her family, even her diary entries revolve around ‘Ted’s parents’, ‘Ted to OH dinner’, ‘K’s term starts’, ‘K’s sports dayâ€⠄¢. Each of these entries foregrounds one of the men in her life and shows their overwhelming importance to her daily routines; this is not unfamiliar of a war-time lady of leisure in Britain but it does highlight how she is trapped and isolated from both the world and society. Mrs Hayward is clearly a character that on the surface is shrouded in an air of tranquility and domesticity. She is the image of perfection and is clearly held in an idiolised position, along with everything associated with Keith, according to Stephen and both his adult and child-like perspective. She is a character who appears rested and calm but underneath this facade there is a secret that she is keeping, it may not be that she is a German Spy like the young boys think but all is clearly not as it seems and Stephen’s ‘perfect’ account of her suggests in itself that maybe she is too good to be true.

Chauvet Cave Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Chauvet Cave - Assignment Example The art is simply something worth looking at. In Nine Lives, by Dalrymple, the people and places could be compared to the Chauvet Cave. This is in the sense that they all possess certain characteristics. The following paper will look into the comparisons between the cave and the places and people recounted in Nine Lives. In comparison, the cave and the places in India could share very many similarities. For example, the places in India have the same symbolism as the cave in Southern France. The people there look up to their land to find peace and a sense of belonging. They all can relate to the places they are in for it is their source of life. They are used to those places and cannot trade it for any other. In the cave during the early periods when the paintings were being done, the people went there to reveal themselves to the world (Clottes, p. 25). They could identify what it was that really mattered to them and paint on the walls of the cave. The history of people is embedded in the places they have stayed. Their roots are firmly tied to their place of origin. The art in the cave could bear huge similarities to the places in Nine Lives since the history of a civilisation are painted on the cave walls. The history of any people in a given place at a given period of time is very important. The story of their existence is also firmly told to the generations that follow (Curtis, p. 12). This way, the generations that come into being know of their origins, and they end up telling it to the next generations. In Nine Lives, India bears this symbolism. Another similarity is the way culture and tradition is being maintained. It is through all this that the culture of a people can go on without being eroded or corrupted. The preservation of the Chauvet Cave is done so as to keep the ways of certain people intact (Clottes, p. 27). These ways are often seen as pure and the interference of other ways and/or mannerisms could be very unhealthy. In Nine Lives, this is als o seen with people keeping the traditions of their people alive through poetry, song and dance (performing arts). Moreover, the people of these areas are recognised through these works of art performed. It is through it that their spirit as a people comes alive. Through the cave art and/or paintings, the way of worship was recognised. The kind of gods they worshiped and the entire process. It is the same as in Nine Lives. The people’s form of worship was described to the people, how the sacrifices were made and the stages involved in it. This showed that in both these settings, communication to the people was made clear to them in cultural ways. This was to ensure that they were not forgotten through time (Guy, p. 25). However, the differences in the two are very distinct. The way and manner in which the cave paintings have been skilfully done is something to be admired. There is nothing naive about the art in the walls. This is unlike the ways and manner in which the people described by Dalrymple carry out their daily rituals. This cave represents the time taken by a certain group of people to relay a message to the people who will read it. The people of India as described in Nine Lives do not give a reason as to why and how the rituals come about and how the message meant for them is passed through (Curtis, p. 20). Also, the cave had the art preserved in a way that no one could tamper with the message it relayed. Unlike the

Value Chain Analysis - Google Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Value Chain Analysis - Google - Essay Example Google has managed to not only capture most of the internet search queries ,but also some of the highest internet advertising revenues of any web based company today. Although technology has been one of the critical success factors that is driving the success of Google Inc., their value added services and activities distinguish them from the competition. Through their partnering activities with advertisers and third party publisher websites, and the use of technology the company has achieved a great deal of success in the marketplace.Other that its core business, the company also provides web portal services such as Blogger (blogging ), Picassa (photo sharing) and Gmail their free WebMail application. Other tools offered by Google to help enhance its end user’s digital experience include Google Images (online image gallery), Google News (news portal), Google Maps and Earth as well as other services that help drives the digital experience of its end-users. At the core of Google ’s business is its advertising system module, which includes its AdWords and AdSense products. Its AdWords services help drive qualified customers to its advertiser’s websites and help produce sales leads. Through its AdSense services, Google provides integrated search capabilities to its customer base, further enhancing the companies lead as the premier web services provider. AdSense also helps drive targeted ads to publisher’s websites, which are precisely matched to its content and target market or user base.

Abu-Dhabi City Using GIS Techniques Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Abu-Dhabi City Using GIS Techniques - Essay Example While agencies are conventionally linked with catching the criminals after the crime, they are also tasked with preventing crimes before they happen (Dressler, 2002). To do this, Police not only take active measures but also use intelligence gathering and data to develop strategies. Traditionally, resources have always been limited and impeccably utilizing this data has been questioned. Collecting actual information from different sources is the prime responsibility of any intelligence organization. Although different tools of technical devices are in operation in gathering information, to me, these are inadequate and as a consequence, we are not able to pre-empt the impending danger of criminal activities. Main issues posing hurdles in identifying the ensuing possibility of any danger lies in (a) effective information sources (b) coordination (c) timely actionable information/intelligence (d) quick decision makers, etc. The only effective way to combat criminal activities is the ado ption of high-end Technologies. This would definitely act as force multipliers; improve in decision-making not only in police organizations but also in other government agencies. One solution to this is the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for crime analysis (Chainey and Ratcliffe, 2005). A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a blend of computer technologies that incorporate huge databases of spatial data and provides a display and query interface for constructing and analyzing spatial relationships. GIS utilizes both geography and computer-generated maps as an interface for incorporating and assessing huge amounts of location-based information.  

The Importance of Recruitment and Selection in Public Sector Business Essay

The Importance of Recruitment and Selection in Public Sector Business - Essay Example 2. Recruitment and Selection are two different but related terminologies. This project shall therefore be an opportunity of identifying the difference that exists between these two terms and how each of them contributes to the success of the organization. 3. Through this project, the research shall seek to look into the difference between processes and merits of recruitment private sector and public businesses though the public sector shall be made the experimental sample. 4. Within the public sector business, the researcher shall scrutinize various reasons why human resource managers undertake recruitment and selection on regular basis. 5. Clearly, the various merits or importance of recruitment and selection cannot be realized if certain factors are not adhered to. Through this project therefore, the researcher shall find out the various factors that human resource managers within the public sector business setup must stick to in order to ensure that they benefit from the importanc e of recruitment and selection. 6. ... LITERATURE REVIEW Having noted that human resource personnel in the public sector have always been involved in recruitment and placement, one is left with not more than to ask of the importance of recruitment and placement in the public sector that human resource personnel cannot seem to stop the practice. There indeed exists a number of importance of undertaking recruitment and placement. Five major reasons, merits or importance behind recruitment and selection in the public sector have been discussed below. Satisfies Legal and Social Obligations of Organizations The first importance of undertaking recruitment and selection in the public sector is that it is a process that goes a long way to satisfy the legal and social obligations of institutions. International and various labor laws provide that public institutions make their placement processes very fair and open. For that matter, placement must be done only after certain stipulated guidelines have been fulfilled (Gilmore and Wil liam, 2009). In labor provisions, undertaking recruitment and selection is the legally mandated means to get employees to occupy vacancies. By undertaking recruitment and selection therefore, public organizations are getting themselves out of legal entanglements and fulfilling their social obligations of making the lives of deserving skilled and unskilled personnel better (Thompson and McHugh, 2009). Previously, activities of public sector managers regarding placement was not seen as a social task but strictly business and corporative. Today, it has come to be accepted that there could not be any better way for public institutions to be socially responsible to the people than employing as many deserving people as possible (Arnold, J. et al 2005). This is because research has

Premium Beer Customer Segment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Premium Beer Customer Segment - Essay Example This segment straddled two of the Maslow’s hierarchies, social recognition and esteem needs because they are highly motivated by ego of social recognitions and esteem life style. They have an attitude on sophistication and looking good and represent themselves as one of the boys who are recognised in the society as a rich and having prestigious lifestyle. When drinking beer PPs prefer full strength beer which fulfil their need for masculine appeal and also preferred test. Foster identified this segment as their target customer for Pure Blonde brand but the misconception of â€Å"one of the boys† attitude of Premium Peter could have cannibalize its leading brand Crown. So, the company refined this segment and positioned Pure Blonde as a â€Å"low carbohydrate premium beer with full strength and test† in the Premium Peter segment. Thus the brand got a competitive advantage from other premium beer brands of its competitors who also targeted the PPSs. The customers o f Premium Peter segment realised that Pure Blonde has an extra benefit of low carbohydrate as well as it also satisfy their needs like full strength beer with test. ... This effective discussion was not possible if the product was offered in glass in the premises. So the company made this available only in bottles. Therefore, the word of mouth started spreading as Foster had created a beer that meets all the needs of Premium Peter. Thus, the full strength taste and the low carbohydrate parameters have strengthen the current competitive advantage of Pure Blonde. So, the advantage of low carbohydrate was that it differentiated the product by a health positive benefit which other premium beer brands did not have. This unique benefit w2as the key reason of attraction of the premium beer segment towards the brand as the target segment were becoming health conscious. The disadvantage is that it could not take the attention of the Premium Larrikin segment of customers who are demographically included in the Premium Peter but having carefree attitude and enjoy the test too much that conscious about health. Answer 2 After facing a huge competition in the yea r 2010, Foster realised that they need to include women in their target customer rather refining the men demography. So, the company realised that there is a steadily unnoticed growing segment of women who have started enjoying beer recently. This particular segment of women has started enjoying lighter beer qualities of Pure Blonde because of two reasons. Firstly, this segment of women previously highly focused on the vodka, premix cocktail drinks as a hard drinks and lime and soda as premium drinks. Recently they are shifting to the premium beer. Secondly, females are more health conscious especially about the concern about body weight. As, low carbohydrate

Literature- Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Literature- Poetry - Essay Example Easily understanding the conceptual metaphor that life is a journey, when applied to the poem, those who choose to look beyond the imagery determine that the poem is telling us that individuals should strive to follow their own path in life rather than attempting to follow the paths that have been mapped out for them by others. It isn’t bad advice, but it isn’t exactly what Frost had in mind. According to biographer Larry Finger (1978), Frost once told an audience, â€Å"You have to be careful of that one; it’s a tricky poem - very tricky† (478) when referring to â€Å"The Road Not Taken.† While the conceptual metaphor still applies, a close reading of the textual cues of the poem indicate that Frost is not recommending which road should be selected, only providing a warning that, once selected, it is impossible to know what might have been missed had one followed the other way. Generally speaking, a conceptual metaphor is defined as a metaphor â€Å"that is so basic in the way people think about something that they fail to perceive that it is a metaphor† (â€Å"Conceptual Metaphor†, 2007). It is an idea that is brought forward by Lakoff and Johnson that illustrates that this connection is made at such a deep level that it cannot be avoided. â€Å"Lakoff and Johnson revealed, through theoretical argument supported by empirical investigation, the centrality of metaphor to thought exemplified in the ubiquity of metaphorical forms in everyday, conventional language† (Bailey, 2003). In other words, it is the means by which we are able to discuss our ideas and beliefs with others, which requires a shared language and cultural base and serves as a means by which we define ourselves. â€Å"Accordingly, we talk about things the way we conceive of them, and this is fashioned through and grounded in experience and culture: our basic conceptual s ystem ‘is fundamentally

The Human Rights Act 1998 and Parliamentary Sovereignty Essay

The Human Rights Act 1998 and Parliamentary Sovereignty - Essay Example Although Section 3(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 provides for a limitation on the court’s power, in practice it appears as though it is the courts rather than Parliament that ultimately determines the extent to which human rights can be enforced and protected. 1 Section 3(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 provides that courts are required to interpret national legislation in such a way as to ensure that they are consistent with human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.2 However, in practice Parliament seemingly ceded parliamentary sovereignty relative to Convention rights to the judiciary. As Young notes, Section 3(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 â€Å"could have the same effect as if it impliedly repealed the provisions of all statutes† that are inconsistent with Convention rights.3 Some members of the judiciary have expressed concerns over how the judiciary’s enhanced role under the Human Rights Act 1998 can be applied in a manner that corresp onds with Parliamentary sovereignty.4 Goldsworthy however, argues that concerns about the Human Rights Act 1998 usurping Parliamentary sovereignty and introducing judicial sovereignty are unfounded. The Human Rights Act 1998 does confer unprecedented authority upon the judiciary in terms of interpreting statutes so as to render them consistent with Convention rights. At the same time, the Human Rights Act 1998 does not provide the judiciary with the authority to â€Å"disapply† or â€Å"invalidate† those statutes.... Lord Hope observed that: The rule of law enforced by the courts is the ultimate controlling factor on which our constitution is based.10 Therefore from Lord Hope’s perspective, Parliamentary sovereignty has evolved with the implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998 and has not altered the UK’s constitutional principles and values. Lord Steyn, however alludes to a dual sovereignty shared by the judiciary and Parliament as a result of the Human Rights Act 1998.11 Keene argues that the Judiciary under the deference principles implicit in the Human Rights Act 1998, attempts to strike a fair balance between individual rights and â€Å"the need to respect Parliament’s proper function†.12 This balancing act can be observed in the judgment of Laws LJ in International Transport Roth GmbH v Secretary of State for the Home Department. In this case Laws LJ set fourth four guiding principles for judicial application and interpretation of Convention rights under the a uthority permitted by the Human Rights Act. To begin with, the courts must give deference to Acts of Parliament rather than to executive or other official decisions and measures. Secondly, there will be no deference in instances when the Convention calls for a fair balance or where the rights under the Convention are absolute. Thirdly, where parliament will be given deference in instances where the manner is within their constitutional prevue and less deference will be given when the matter is within the judiciary’s constitutional prevue. Finally: Greater or less deference will be due according to whether the subject matter lies more readily within the actual or potential expertise of the democratic powers or the

The novel Oliver Twist Essay Example for Free

The novel Oliver Twist Essay The novel Oliver Twist was written in 1867 by Charles Dickens, a social reformer and also a philanthropist. Dickens had a particular aim in writing the novel. He wanted to show the reality of underclass criminals, traditionally glamorized in fiction. He was motivated by writing such personal experiences as his obsession with grinding poverty was intense. Dickens was middle lower class. His father was jailed for debt and with know one to maintain him, he was sent to work in a blacking factory. The labour force incorporated urchins and rough working class lads, here he was forced to accept the reality of poverty. Bill Sikes is one of the main characters in Oliver Twist he is essential to Dickens aim because he illustrates criminality and poverty. Critics stated that Sikes had no redeeming features, but the truth is he has. it is TRUE every man who has watched these melancholy shades of life must know it to be so. And because it is so unrealizable that people like Bill do exist Dickens offers the reality to poverty, hypocrisy, crime and hunger. Dickens use of superlatives shows us how he tries to paint a picture of the exactness of underground criminals. To paint them all in their deformity and wretchedness. Bill is the archetypal villain in Oliver Twist, his actions ruin the life of prostitute Nancy who saves Oliver because she doesnt want Fagin and Sikes to corrupt his life just like they corrupted hers. Sikes is manipulative and he knows what he is capable of. Dont speak to me its not safe. When we first meet Bill, Dickens describes him as a stoutly built fellow of 35 with a bulky pair of legs and large swelling carves. This automatically gives the reader an impression of Bill Sikes power. It looks as if he intimidates people with his body size, he not only uses his body but his eyes also give a sense of extortion two scowling eyes. Although Sikes has a subdue attitude, he tries to impress people by wearing expensive clothes that dont quite make the grade. A black velveteen coat, a brown hat and a dirty belcher handkerchief around his neck, his solid drab breeches remind people of his criminal dealings. Sikes often wipes the beer from his face on to his velveteen coat and it is distinctly confirmed in the quote that his handkerchief is filthy. This shows us that in spite of the fact him wearing costly garments he doesnt meet the standards by reason of grubbiness. Dickens characterizes Sikes as a ruffian, his voice is griff due to him not speaking proper standard English. Growled his engaging ruffian.

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