For the investors who think that Huaren Holdings Sdn Bhd taking over Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press is just "business is usual" and are sure of making money, they are wrong.

Chinese newspapers are not ordinary commodities like apples, cars or furniture. They are linked to many other non-business factors which are emotional and symbolic like politics, culture, language, education and the community's expectations and norms, etc. These are quite messy variables in the calculation of profit and loss.

As far as I know, the Chinese community looks up to the Chinese newspapers as guardians of its culture, tradition and language. They have high expectations of the newspapers, too, for objectivity, fairness and impartiality.

Any Chinese newspaper, however good, that is taken over by any group which is perceived (merely perceived!) to be partial and partisan, would see its circulation and readership drop, hence also advertisements.

The now defunct MCA-controlled Malayan Thung Pao is a classic example. No amount of capital injection could save that miserable and pathetic Chinese-language newspaper - and merely because it was perceived to be controlled by MCA, at that. Investors must learn lessons from the past.