NSTP makes senior editorial team changes

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 13): The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd (NSTP) has announced changes to its senior editorial team as part of the manpower rationalisation exercise undertaken by parent Media Prima Bhd in November last year.

In a statement today, NSTP said Ahmad Lokman Mansor has been appointed as the group editor of New Straits Times (NST) effective Jan 1.

Lokman started his stint with NSTP in April 1993 as a reporter for Business Times. He went on to eventually become its deputy editor.

In June 2009, Lokman was promoted to the role of new media editor for NST and in November 2012, he was made the associate editor of opinion leaders (op-eds), where he managed and planned the editorial and commentary pages of the newspaper on a daily basis.

Lokman has also held several key positions within NST, including as associate editor of current affairs and digital (2015-2016), associate editor of business, op-eds and Cars, Bikes & Trucks (2016-2018) sections and convergence editor of business (2018-2019). He was promoted to executive editor of business, Op-Ed and digital of NST in early 2019.

Meanwhile, Saidon Idris has been appointed as the new group editor of Berita Harian (BH), also effective Jan 1.

Saidon’s appointment as BH’s new group editor is a culmination of a long career within the NSTP which started in 1997, when he joined as a senior writer for Dataniaga, a business magazine published by the group.

A year later, Saidon was transferred to BH’s news desk and in 2003, he was promoted as BH assistant economics editor before assuming the post of economics editor in 2004. In January 2014, he was appointed as BH associate editor of current affairs overseeing the features, economics and foreign desk as well as writing op-eds for the newspaper.

Saidon was then promoted as BH senior specialist writer of economics and current affairs in 2015. In January 2018, he was made the senior executive editor of convergence, NSTP and a year later became a senior executive editor at BH.

NSTP also announced the appointment of Husain Jahit as Harian Metro’s new group editor effective March 16.

Husain started his career at NSTP in January 1990 as a marketing assistant at Beriteks, a teletext service introduced by TV3 in 1985. In 1996, he honed his skills as an information technology (IT)/online journalist with BH for a total of 10 years, before joining Harian Metro as an IT/online journalist in 2007.

Husain was later promoted as Harian Metro’s Editor for business and IT before being made the associate editor for features. In February 2019, he was appointed as the executive editor for commercial.

Media Prima executive director fo news and editorial operations and interim CEO of NSTP Mustapha Kamil Mohd Janor said the appointments are part of the group’s internal succession planning, adding that "we strongly believe in grooming talent from within the company".