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The toughest first year of anything and everything… – Rocky Bru

A special note to mark Scoop's first birthday

1:50 PM MYT

 

AND just like that, we are ONE!

On August 8, 2023 we launched Big Boom Media and its flagship portal Scoop. A media company owned and run by thoroughbred newsmen.

Since then Scoop has had younger siblings in the form of Moosang, our social media engagement platform, and podcast channel Podaboom.

The journey has been fraught with challenges.

There were a lot of uncertainties and scepticism, if we could make it through our first year. But thanks to the support and help of all of you, we persevered.  

There will be some changes in the coming weeks that will reflect the evolution of Big Boom Media and in particular Scoop. 

This is part of our growth so we can look forward to another year of news you can use and hold our place in the changing and challenging media landscape. 

Thank you once again.

Rocky

Zainul

Terence

***

Terence Fernandez, most probably the hardest working editor alive, penned this simple Thank You note to mark the first anniversary of Scoop. 

This past year was anything but simple. It was as difficult and complicated, if not more so, than that final year I was at The Vibes, the news portal Terence and I helped start with businessman and friend Vinod Sekhar to make a difference. 

It has been a year of promises made and promises broken (or merely forgotten), late salaries and pro bono services, and hard decisions. 

I have decided that the news portal business is one for the passionate, the foolhardy or/and the vengeful. 

The prime minister himself told me that we journalists won’t have the business acumen to make a news business profitable. 

But profits, like my foes, have never been the motivation. 

Zainul Ariffin, Terence and I – who used to call ourselves Good, Bad and Ugly before we found our own podcast fame Trick Lama – remain true to our lifelong goals as journalists. For good journalism.

To continuing to make a difference. And, most of all, in helping build a great future for this good country. – August 8, 2024

Big Dog and Aliff
Big Dog and Aliff in happier times. – Pic by Terence Fernandez, August 8, 2024

p.s. This post is in memory of Zakhir Mohamed, aka Big Dog, and Aliff Faithullah who were in the trenches with us and whom we lost too soon.

Datuk Ahirudin Attan, better known by as Rocky Bru, is the executive director of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop and president of the National Press Club (NPC)

This article first appeared on his blog Rocky’s Bru.

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