"Prime News", NST-style

It’s been a week since the New Straits Times introduced a new format (on 9 Aug) that is supposed to help the readers to identify the purportedly important news that they shouldn’t miss. Under the label of “Prime News”, some local, national and international news items are bundled together and showcased in a few pages after the front page of the newspaper. This, says its editorial note, “is a compilation to help you navigate the complex world we live in.”

This may be seen as one of the ways – no matter how superficial – a newspaper can draw more readers or hold on to existing ones in a keenly competitive media environment. But what it essentially means is that this establishment daily is trying to tell readers explicitly if not not brazenly what it deems to be important news that must be read. Incidentally, today’s NST (August 17) announced that the paper would come in two physical versions by September 1: the usual broadsheet edition and a tabloid version. This cosmetic change, which will be introduced in the Klang Valley initially, indicates the newspaper’s desire to test whether a tabloid version would be more marketable than its existing broadsheet version.

Traditionally, a newspaper rates its news items in a number of ways, indirectly or subtly telling its readers what it considers to be important and not-so-important news. For example, how bold its headlines are, the positioning of a news report on a page, the placing of a news item on page one as opposed to being buried in the inside pages, the use of photos (big or small), the use of catchy headlines, etc.

Put differently, newspapers do have their editorial preferences – which mainly hinge on the paper's political inclinations and economic concerns – and the way the pages are laid out reflects these preferences. But such subtlety in the layout is not as patronising as telling readers in no uncertain terms what constitutes the important news.

Those concerned about press freedom may interpret the NST's move as a way of further marginalizing voices of dissent and of government critics by “quarantining” them - if at all they appear - in the domain outside the “Prime News”. In other words, this is an attempt to give further legitimacy to statements by people in the government and their supporters through this new "Prime News" category.

On the other hand, there are others who may argue that this new formatting may well be a feeble attempt by this establishment newspaper to "smuggle" in a little space for news items relating to government critics and dissidents. This could be done by placing the non-establishment news outside the “Prime News” pages.

For example, in yesterday’s (16 Aug) NST, there were two items on Umno and the BN in relation to the forthcoming Kuala Berang by-election in Terengganu on page 5 in the “Prime News” section. On page 6, however, there was a half-page interview with Pas president Abdul Hadi Awang with a banner headline, “Pas will rise again in next polls” as well as a huge photo of the Islamist party leader.

In today’s NST (August 17), the Eric Chia trial was placed outside the “Prime News” category.

Only time will tell whether this is a fresh move to marginalise other voices or to create some room for them.