Alternative media becoming more acceptable

There was a time when no one wanted to advertise on Malaysiakini--the country's leading news Web site--because they were afraid of negative political repercussions if they did so.

No more.

Nowadays, Malaysiakini carries lots of ads. And no wonder, it has twice the number of pageviews as The Star, the country's leading English-language newspapers.

When you have traffic like that, people want to tap onto your reader base.