Icing on 10th birthday cake
mStar is first Bahasa Malaysia news portal to bag international award
From left: mStar product manager Michael A. Fredericks, mStar executive editor Rozaid A. Rahman and mStar entertainment editor Niezam Abdullah pose after receiving the Bronze for the Asian Digital Media Awards in Hong Kong
HONG KONG: It was a success story when mStar Online became the first Bahasa Malaysia news portal to win an international award for digital news.
The portal, owned by Star Media Group, bagged the bronze award for the Digital Media Asia Best Lifestyle Website at the prestigious Asian Digital Media Awards yesterday.
The other awards went to English language news websites except the Hong Kong-based Chinese language Apple Daily.
The awards were presented by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) yesterday.
WAN-IFRA is an organisation that represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and 3,000 companies in 120 countries.
mStar executive editor Rozaid A. Rahman said winning the award was the cherry on top of its 10th year anniversary celebration.
The portal started in 2005 reporting on entertainment and lifestyle, but has evolved to breaking news after a revamp of the website last year.
“The fact that we won this award at the international level shows the revamp process we went through last year has put us on the right path.
“There are many aspects mStar can improve on its way forward.
“This award has lifted our spirits to give more to our audience,” said Rozaid.
The portal has 650,000 unique visitors and 4.5 million page views a month.
mStar product manager Michael A. Fredericks said the award was a validation of the Star Media Group’s effort to penetrate the Malay market.
The Asian Digital Media Awards saw 133 entries from 34 media press organisations for the 13 categories.
