Reliable sources in the daily, which has for long depended on government contracts to survive amid a plunge in newspaper readership, said an air of uncertainty now pervades the company, with plans to encourage staff to resign.
There are even calls growing among union members for Umno to let go its stakes in Utusan Melayu Bhd, the daily’s publisher, as union leaders yesterday met with the top management to discuss the future of the company.
Utusan’s funding had largely come from projects linked to Umno when it helmed the government. This included a controversial contract awarded to it last year, to supply more than 180,000 tablets to teachers nationwide.
“There were many projects awarded to Utusan through Umno, some of which Umno had yet to pay. How are we going to operate when there is no longer such projects?” a union spokesman from the National Union of Journalists told FMT.
He said the company was also recently awarded the job for printing Barisan Nasional campaign posters in the recent polls, worth some RM30 million.
He said Utusan should be prepared to be run as a profit-oriented company, and not subservient to political masters.
The development in Utusan comes as another Umno-backed media company, New Straits Times Press, urged its staff to adjust to the new political climate.
Yesterday, NSTP chief executive officer A Jalil Hamid said it was time to “adjust editorially” in light of the shock defeat of Umno and its allies in BN.
“We need to transform to the political environment,” he told some 200 staff members in a special briefing.
Meanwhile, there is also speculation that PPBM, the party formed by former Umno leaders, is eyeing a takeover of the media group.
But this was dismissed by PPBM vice-president Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.
He said there was no need for a takeover of Utusan from Umno, adding that PPBM, now part of the government, could start its own media outfit.
But Rashid said there could be PPBM members who still own Utusan’s shares, which they had bought while still in Umno.
“Utusan may not be owned by PPBM. But there are shareholders who are PPBM members,” he told FMT.