TopGear MY's Chinese print magazine reaches end of the road after 6 years

TopGear Malaysia (Chinese) recently thanked readers for six years of their support, explaining in a Facebook post that its last edition was in March this year and that its print magazine has ceased. The last copy marks its 67th issue. It added in the Facebook post that magazine subscribers will be refunded and that moving forward, it will continue publishing the latest motoring news, updates and test drive reports on BigRoad.my. 

TopGear Malaysia magazine is a licenced publication of BBC's TopGear magazine and is published by Big Road Media. The company also publishes the magazines Cycling Plus Malaysia and Golf Vacations Malaysia. Big Road Media did not respond to A+M's queries about the reason for ceasing print and its circulation numbers at the time of writing.

The past few months have seen several changes in Malaysia's publishing industry. In April, the now defunct publishing company Blu Inc Media ended its print and digital publications, ceasing operations. Former CEO Azliza Tajuddin explained then that the business had already been under “tremendous challenge from digital disruption” over the past few years. The Movement Control Order also did the company no favours, causing it to experience even more losses during March and April. 

Meanwhile, The Edge Financial Daily also ceased print after 13 years, as it was unable to survive the double onslaught of the shift to digital news and the current lockdown of the economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last issue was printed on 21 April. Berjaya Media, publisher of theSun, also recently delisted after Bursa Securities dismissed its appeal for an extension of time to submit its regularisation plan. However, all is not lost for the publishing industry, for Utusan Melayu and Kosmo! recently relaunched under a new publisher named Media Mulia after ceasing publication last year.

Related articles:
Media Prima's ntv7 Mandarin news ceases broadcast after 21 years
SPH motoring mag Torque ceases print, merges with sgCarMart ops
Malay Mail ceases print and goes into digital, employee cuts 'still being studied'