Friday, January 7, 2011

Heritage Poster of The Star (Malaysia)

Story of the one and only surviving "Star Goes National" promotional poster!

First, for those not in the know, I am quoting Wikipedia:

"The Star is the leading English-language tabloid format newspaper in Malaysia. It is the largest in terms of circulation in Malaysia, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It has a daily circulation of between 290,000 to 300,000.
 
The Star is also a member of the Asia News Network.

The Star is majority-owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-largest party in the ruling Barisan Nasional alliance. Its major competitors are the New Straits Times and the The Sun, both tabloids."

In 1974 I joined the young Star as their first Photo Editor.

In 1974 we had to fight with scores of established English, Chinese and Malay newspapers! Our biggest "enemies" were "The Straits Echo", "The New Straits Times" and their afternoon tabloid, "The Malay Mail"!

Our founder Mr K.S.Choong, who was also the MD and Editor In Chief realised that the only way we can beat the others are by publishing "Scoop News" and "Scoop Pictures".

Choong has the vision to play up good news pictures BIG and that gets the attentions of our readers! Asked any Star readers that live through the 70's and they will tell you we had the BEST pictures!