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Because it requires subscription, I think malaysiakini will lose out to other sites that are free.
Why not remove subscription fees for one month and see if the readership increases by a significant margin, alert the advertisers and gain alternative financial income?

JEFF OOI says: Another free lunch mentality we have here. If you can spare RM15 a month for a subscription to Malaysiakini, you would have read that, even with subscription in place, "The independent news website kicked off with three journalists but now publishes in three languages, attracting over 100,000 unique visitors per day who collectively access one million pages and 15,000 video downloads daily. "

On Sep 17 this year, the New York Times scrapped its online subscription business and made its content accessible online. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/business/media/18times.html?_r=1&hp

This is a significant milestone as NYT was the last mainstream paper that charges for its online access. It proves that in the highly competitive online publishing, fee-paying subscription model does not work.

In the case of Malaysiakini, I believe the same lesson is very applicable. While I can easily afford to pay for the subscription and I am a subscriber, I feel the model is only stopping it from realising the much larger potential it actually has - the vacuum created by the controlled media in the country.

Another argument that may be slightly unfair to Malaysiakini is that, it plays an extremely role of the alternative, high-quality media that the Malaysian society deserves. Accepting this argument may require the management to make the conscious decision to reap its return only in the future when such role is no longer required, when the country regains its basic right of access to free and fair media.

What about a hybrid model of advertiser support and donations from subscribers and civil society groups? Further innovation may be possible: free access to basic news, but pay service to premium content, reviews, email alert service, etc.