Utusan will be paying each employee RM2,000 tonight.
Utusan Malaysia and its sister publication Kosmo! will continue their operations but are set to increase the price of their editions by an additional 50 sen.
According to sources, Utusan Malaysia employees were told that the company will continue the print and online editions while its management tries to get their finances in order.
The Utusan Malaysia print edition will be an additional 50 cents from the current RM1.50 while the Kosmo! print edition will increase from RM1 to RM1.50 and Mingguan Malaysia will increase from RM2 to RM2.50.
“We were told we won’t shut down and the company can continue to stay afloat if we can reach our sales targets,” an Utusan Malaysia source told Malay Mail.
“What these sales targets are I’m not too sure but for now, we are still operational.
“Management is in the midst of gaining their CF (certificate of fitness) and it’s an ongoing process. If we can get that done, we were told the finances will be more stable.”
According to sources, the company also has set a daily sales target of RM50,000 to RM60,000 for Utusan Malaysia and RM90,000 to RM100,000 for Kosmo!
The new prices are set to start tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has chided Datuk Seri Najib Razak today for blaming the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government for Utusan Malaysia’s financial woes.
The PKR president said the former prime minister made the remark simply to score political points, explaining that the paper’s situation today was due to its company’s mismanagement.
“Utusan had already been bleeding for many years and that has been exacerbated by a change of government as there’s no longer protection,” Anwar told reporters.
He added that Putrajaya cannot bail out Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd as it is a private company.
Najib said that Utusan could be shut down because the new government had frozen Umno’s accounts for allegedly receiving money from 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
He said PH could not be counted on to rescue the country’s oldest Malay-language paper.
“Don’t expect PH to help Malaysia’s oldest newspaper. Don’t expect PH to save these Malay cultural treasures.
“Therefore, it is time for all people to come forward to help by buying a copy of Utusan or Kosmo.
As for Utusan staff, the company said it will be paying each employee RM2,000 tonight.
Human resources, administration and property general manager Nazlan Osman said the amount is based on the company’s current financial situation.
“The payment will be credited into the staff’s accounts by tonight and it will be deducted from salaries owed by the company.
“We hope that this payment will help ease the staff’s financial situation,” he said in a statement.