An eighty-year-old Malaysian newspaper, which had close links to the corruption-plagued former ruling party, halted publication yesterday after years of financial struggle, with 862 staff affected. Utusan Malaysia was the country's oldest Malay-language newspaper, founded in 1939 during British colonial rule by Yusof Ishak, who went on to become the first president of neighbouring Singapore. "Staff salaries could not be paid on time, debts could not be settled," executive chairman Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir said, adding the circulation of the paper had declined and advertising revenue dried up. The closure reflects the problems faced worldwide by traditional print media as readers stop buying papers and shift to consuming news online.