Budiey
Speech by Mr Yamin Vong, Editor, Cars, Bikes & Trucks – New Sunday Times, at the launch of the CBT Portal on Wednesday August 6 2008
There will be a new motoring portal on Malaysia’s internet scene starting tomorrow. This is www.cbt.com.my and it will be done by Malaysia’s leading print publication – Cars, Bikes and Trucks, the motoring section of the New Sunday Times.
We’ve had plenty of support and feedback, including criticism, from our New Sunday Times readers and one of the things our readers have wanted was an internet portal.
So this is it and like Nike’s famous slogan, we’ll “Just do It”.
As a print publication, we’ve been in circulation for 10 years now and of course, there are many readers who want to read us on-line.
But a website is altogether a different animal from a print publication and we drafted in a new partner, Reza Razali, to head this electronic newspaper. Reza has IT training in Malaysia and the US and is an IT industry participant in his own right.
As in our print publication CBT-New Sunday Times, we will be guided by the principle that we’re here to serve our readers – our community of motorists, motorcyclists, motor clubs.
We believe that in the continuation of our responsibility to our readers, we must embrace the internet and the sooner the better.
As for the Gen X and Gen Y’s who read laptops and desktops, www.cbt.com.my is for you and we await your input.
Cars, Bikes & Trucks will continue to evolve. Now published on a weekly basis, we hope that our existing readers of the print media continue to enjoy the luxury of reading our motoring news in hard copy.
The website will carry most of the sections that are on the hardcopy – the editorials, the car reviews, the scoops from the motor shows, Oh Toh’s Used Car section, and our popular AutoCare by Paul David.
Something very new for all of us at the CBT is the video section. But I can tell you that we have natural filmstars in our team as we discovered with Nazim Isa, the winner of the 2008 BMW Shorties film contest.
Yes, video will be something to watch out for. Video is the most powerful communication tool and we’re going to try to exploit it.
