The talk in town is that Malay-language newspaper Berita Har ian would emulate the New Straits Times (NST) and reduce its publication to tabloid size.

According to industry sources, NST picked the tabloid format to combat its drop in circulation and advertisement revenue, but this is not the case with Berita Harian.

Both NST and Berita Harian are published by the New Straits Times Press (NSTP), which also publishes the tabloids Harian Metro and Malay Mail .

Those familiar with Berita Harian , said its position is rock solid and is safely ahead of the competition, namely Utusan Malaysia .

Its advertisement revenue, they added, was also encouraging.

"However, I feel the problem faced by Berita Harian is the overall cost of publishing the daily and its sister newspaper Harian Metro ," said a veteran industry observer who declined to be named.

Currently, Harian Metro has the largest circulation amongst Malay dailies between 235,000 and 240,000, followed by Berita Harian (220,000) and Utusan Malaysia (216,000).

High and low

According to the observer, the reality is that although Harian Metro has the highest circulation, its advertisement revenue is low but its production cost is high.

"More copies printed, higher the cost," said the observer, citing a report in the latest edition of Malaysian Business which estimated the printing cost of Harian Metro at RM2.50 per copy while the paper is sold for RM1.20.

He said a similar situation occurred during the mid 1980s when Berita Harian overtook Utusan Malaysia to become the leading Malay-language daily in the country.

"The sharp increase in Berita Harian sales was due to the implementation of the newspaper in education programme with the cooperation of the Education Ministry where the daily was used for reference in schools," he added.

Initially, he said unsold copies were distributed for free to the schools but when the response became encouraging, current copies were used and the cost of purchasing them was borne by the elected representative in the respective areas.

"However, when the Berita Harian circulation touched 250,000 a day, the same problem arose - high printing cost, low advertisement revenue

"I was made to understand, the next step was to raise the advertisement rate to the same as NST ," he added.

The latest development, according to the observer, signified a full cycle in the newspaper industry.

"The move to turn Berita Harian into a tabloid is probably the best answer to arrest and shoulder the publishing cost of Harian Metro ," he said.