Myanmar’s private dailies fight to stay alive

April marks the one year anniversary of the entry of private dailies on the Myanmar media market after 50 years of silence. It has yet to become a profitable business, but the editors are prepared to fight. IMS’ regional advisor for Asia, Ranga Kalansooriya, speaks to members of the Myanmar media industry for their take on the future of private dailies in Myanmar

By Ranga Kalansooriya, IMS regional advisor

“Can you think of a company that has a turnover of half a million dollars in two months without a profit? My company does,” said a print media house owner in Yangon last week who did not want to be identified.

His media house is among the top five print media ventures that recently emerged in Myanmar following the move to open up the media landscape in Myanmar to private dailies exactly one year ago. On 1 April, Myanmar marked the first anniversary of this infant industry.

“We never expected such a fast development of the media industry. We have gone through the mill,” said Myint Kyaw of the Myanmar Interim Press Council.

“It has all signs of becoming a dynamic industry,” he added.

Although around 20 daily newspapers emerged when the government permitted private dailies, financial survival is tough and less than a dozen remain today, including three state-owned dailies as well.

“A few others will have a natural death soon,” said Nyan Lynn, an independent journalist.

Investments allow editors to focus only on content

The top five media houses have secured heavy private sector investments, some amounting to hundreds of millions of US dollars, according to industry sources. This phenomenon even includes the state-owned English daily that has secured a Japanese joint venture investment (all private sector investments are by locals). But it is yet to become a profit making venture and no one is making a profit, according to Soe Myint, the exiled journalist turned media tycoon in Myanmar. With a new investor joining the Mizzima Media Group with an attractive package, Managing Director Soe Myint became the Editor-in-Chief of Mizzima Media.

“This is the new trend in Myanmar media landscape,” said U Thiha Saw, a veteran owner-editor whose daily publication was suspended on April 01 until he secures an investor.

“The old style of owner-editor position is vanishing and the media business is getting closer to professional corporate culture. Former owner/editors are becoming a professional editor and his or her focus is only the content. In the old days, we had to look after every aspect of the business. But with the new investors coming in, things have changed. All the other aspects such as human resources, financial management, and administration and so on have become the headache of others,” he said.

More competition

Competition amongst the dailies has turned fierce with the entry of the latest newcomer to the industry Democracy Today (DT) which was the re-launch of Yangon Times.

“The price war has commenced,” said Thiha Saw referring to the extra ordinary low pricing of DT – 45 kyats (0.045 USD) per copy to the retailer.

“This is mainly to win the market of the state-owned newspapers whose price is around 100 kyats (0.10 USD),”  adds independent journalist Nyan Lynn.

The vital issue remains the lack of advertising. According to Myanmar Market Research and Development (MMRD) last year’s total advertising budget of Myanmar was USD 125 million of which only seven percent was allocated to print media. The rest was allocated to broadcasting. The predicted size of the advertising market budget this year is expected to be around USD 550 million.

“Our target is to attract at least 10 percent of that amount to print media,” said Soe Myint said. Many hope that the print media will further consolidate itself within the next few months.

“Who will die and who will survive we still do not know. But one thing is clear – it is a fierce battle,” added Thiha Saw.