Time magazine in its latest Asia edition of Oct 16 reported that the Nielsen's study found that since 1998, the readership of major newspapers such as New Straits Times has dropped 27%, while Malay-language Berita Harian plunged 30% and Utusan Malaysia fell 27%.

Only two papers - The Star and Guang Ming - recorded slight increases in daily readership, with an increase of 5.4% and 11.8% respectively. Malay Mail, whose readership tumbled 37.5%, was the biggest loser among the dailies.

Going down
Source: AC Neilsen Mid Year Media Index, Sept 2000

Newspaper	1999 '000	2000 '000	Variance
The Star	969	1,021	+5.4
New Straits Times	557	491	-11.8
Malay Mail	168	105	-37.5
Sun	205	145	-28.8
Sin Chew Jit Poh	891	847	-4.9
China Press	553	507	-8.3
Nanyang	522	496	-5.0
Kwong Wah	272	268	-1.5
Guang Ming	204	228	+11.8
Berita Harian	1,560	1,404	-10
Utusan Malaysia	1,538	1,420	-7.7
Harian Metro	412	370	-10.2
Nanban	182	174	-4.4
Tamil Nesan	104	101	-2.9