I refer to the letter Malaysiakini should be free to all. I believe it deserves a reply from Malaysiakini’s management and so here it is.

Firstly, thanks very much for voicing on an issue which I am sure is being well-debated privately and in cyberspace. And of course, no offence is taken. At Malaysiakini , we strongly believe in having constructive debates and independent voices.

For a start, let’s think about what would happen if Malaysiakini indeed went free. When Malaysiakini was free for a week, we received quite a few complaints from subscribers, especially since the increase in readership caused an overload on our servers, denying many access.

I believe that should Malaysiakini go free, there would be an outcry from our paying subscribers. A refund would cost Malaysiakini about RM2 million, not including the workload involved in executing the refund. The enormous task would also generate tremendous loss of credibility. If alternative revenue strategies fail, it would be very difficult to convince subscribers to subscribe once again.

Nevertheless, by going free Malaysiakini would require less customer service and technology staff, and we would be able to save about RM200,000 per year in staffing costs.

Let’s say we get through with this initial hurdle. I believe Malaysiakini would get a huge readership – easily 500,000 per day. The big question is this - can we create advertising revenue from this readership? Here lies the RM2 million dollar question. To date, with over 100,000 readers per day, Malaysiakini only sells less than 10% of our pageviews.

Would increasing our readership generate more advertising? Theoretically yes, but how much and when? Malaysiakini would also then be dependent on advertising for our survival. Would we be able to report independently? Would we be able to run letters and articles which criticise our key advertisers, knowing very well that a drop in advertising could close down Malaysiakini ?

Besides search engines, most news websites do not get substantial advertising, unless one has a huge global audience. The Malaysian market is not of a similar size. As the online market grows, there are bound to be new online news organisations which will compete with Malaysiakini for the online advertising market.

We could, of course, rely on subscribers to donate funds to us in order to keep Malaysiakini alive. However, our readers are fond of complaining that we are either too pro-establishment or pro-opposition. Knowing that we are dependent on subscribers, it may be likely that potential donors, especially large ones, ‘suggest’ that we report one way or another.

Again Malaysiakini ’s editorial independence will be held hostage to personal agendas. Donors too, often suffer from donor fatigue, they may donate once, twice but they normally move on to another cause.

Some have suggested that we ask the opposition parties to bank role Malaysiakini . It would be difficult to believe that Malaysiakini will remain independent under such circumstances.

Advertising and donations are also highly unpredictable. Unfortunately, Malaysiakini does not have the working capital to sustain a few years of losses in order to survive short-term downturns in advertising and donations.

There are other possible revenue options – classified advertising, e-commerce, affiliate programmes, Google ads – however, none are sufficient to compensate for the loss of revenue from subscriptions.

Subscription revenue is excellent in the sense that we are accountable to the most important person – the reader. No single subscriber can pressure Malaysiakini to censor or change a particular story, thereby preserving our independence.

If Malaysiakini is inaccurate, biased or merely slow in reporting the news, we will quickly lose readers to free alternatives. Subscribers keep us on our toes, day in, day out, and - believe me - we feel the pressure everyday.

Malaysiakini does receive substantial donations from well-wishers and we also receive grants from press freedom organisations such as the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) and international bodies such as the Asia Foundation and Friedrich Naumann Foundation. However, no one organisation contributes more than 10% of Malaysiakini’s total budget.

In short, making Malaysiakini free hands your - the reader’s - power over to the dictates of advertisers and donors. While we recognise our role in providing independent news and views to the nation, we hope that our readers and subscribers can also recognise that independent news is something that should be appreciated, supported and paid for by a small contribution from every subscriber.

Indeed, independent media needs independent financing. To all our loyal subscribers out there, thanks very much! We wouldn’t be here without you.

The writer is chief executive officer, Malaysiakini.com. He can be reached at: [email protected]