Beginning tomorrow, malaysiakini readers will be greeted with a new look when they visit the popular news website. The new look comes with a few additional features and a subscription plan.

The changeover, the third since this site's inception in November 1999, will see some improvements to make our website even more user friendly.

"Readers will notice that the site downloads faster,"said chief executive officer Premesh Chandran. "They will also find simple menus that will ease browsing through the website."

"At the same time, we have maintained the familiar news structure news, columns, letters, opinions/features, foreign news and the readers' poll."

Among the major changes readers will experience is an improved search function, a 7-day archive and a new polling system which only permits one vote for each registered user.

"These changes are only a taste of what is to come. Throughout the year, we plan to introduce a variety of content and more services for our readers, including a mobile version and SMS (short-messaging system) news alerts.

With our one-registration-one-vote poll, malaysiakini will provide a more in-depth and informative survey, through which we hope to better measure public opinion on critical issues confronting the nation."

Be members

From tomorrow, only subscribed readers can have full access to the site. Others however, for the time being, can still continue to read news and letters for free, though registration will be required for the latter.

Those who join as members will have a complete access to the latest news, letters forum, columns, opinions and features, foreign news, polls and other additional features this site will have in the near future.

Subscription rates start at RM10 for a month, RM50 for six months and RM100 for a year. Other packages such as for corporate and life-time users are also available.

"We believe readers are quite prepared to fork out just 30 sen a day for independent news. For those who would like to read malaysiakini but can't afford the payment, they will be able to sign up for sponsorship. I believe that many of our loyal supporters will come forward to sponsor these readers."

Readers can subscribe to the site by making payments through credit cards or through Maybank2u online banking service, which will be available from mid-February onwards.

They can also use the traditional method of sending cheques and postal orders.

Innovative payment system

Realising that readers are still wary of making online payments through credit card, the malaysiakini business team has introduced an innovative pre-paid card system.

These cards, called the e-coupons, can eventually be used by Internet users to make other online purchases.

The e-coupons, for RM10 and RM50, are now available at selected stores.

Like pre-paid mobile phone cards, readers just need to scratch the panels on the card for the login and key numbers. By entering these numbers in the website, a secret password will be sent by email to subscribers immediately.

With the password, readers will have complete access to malaysiakini contents.

"The e-coupon is another innovation by malaysiakini as it is the first Internet pre-paid card in Malaysia. This is our first venture into online payments and we have a few more innovative ideas in the online payment market segment," said Premesh.

Technical glitches

While new technology will make reading malaysiakini a much richer experience, Premesh however warned that there will still be teething problems.

"Like any new software, the malaysiakini site is bound to have bugs. We hope readers will be patient as we rectify these technical glitches."

Readers can report bugs to malaysiakini's chief technology officer Kana Sabaratnam.