as it turns out, the editor as well as his subordinates have to be fully prepared for being detained and none of them have been arrested so far. their income comes from subscriptions and grants while hardly any is made from online advertisements. no one wantes to affiliate themselves with the ultra-notorious malaysia kini perhaps? however, they are hoping to be able to fully depend on subscriptions in three to four years.
malaysia kini is a niche publication with their main focus being on politics. but once in a while they do report on other stories that they feel people would want to read about. ie siti nurhaliza's extravagant wedding at klcc.. anyways, they decided to go niche because they saw a need in malaysia for a publication to be more critical of how our country is being run. they also want to make it clear that they are not an enemy of our government. i feel that that's fair and makes sense.
they also at first thought that their main target audience would be news-hungry university students but turns out that their main audience are now corporate executives
they used to have a one-day subscription but decided to scrap that idea since there were a lot of complications with relying on how fast the h/p network would be able to respond with a username and password to those wanting to subscribe. they also didn't see much from it.
over all, it was a good experience and pathma and i are interested in doing our internship there. the office has a pretty warm atmosphere and there is an air of mutual repsect among them. the editor also said that anyone was welcome to disagree with him or challenge his ideas and opinions. he also said that the only reason reporters still have posts is so that everyone knows where to go or who to report to. other than that, everyone in the office is seen as an equal.