Newspapers of Sabah: English & Chinese Dailies Guide

Overview of Sabah's press

Sabah supports a varied newspaper landscape that reflects the state's mixed population and its layered history, from the British colonial era through the creation of Sabah in 1963 and into the present day. The state's titles run across three main language streams: English broadsheets that serve as papers of record, Chinese-language dailies that have documented community life for the better part of a century, and bilingual titles that carry Malay alongside an indigenous Sabah language.

What makes Sabah's press notable is its longevity. The oldest surviving title, the Overseas Chinese Daily News, began publishing in 1936 — long before Sabah joined Malaysia — while the Daily Express was founded on the very day Sabah was created. Together these papers form a continuous written record of the state, and they remain in print today rather than existing only as digital archives. For a reader trying to understand how Sabahans receive their news, the picture is one of established mastheads with deep local roots rather than a churn of short-lived publications.

The titles also divide neatly by audience. English papers reach the broad general readership and the business community; the Chinese dailies serve specific communities in Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan; and Utusan Borneo's Kadazan-Dusun pages reach indigenous readers who are rarely served in their own language elsewhere in Malaysian print media.

Daily Express

The Daily Express is Sabah's oldest surviving English-language newspaper and is widely regarded as the state's English-language paper of record. It was founded on 1 March 1963 — the same day Sabah came into being as the successor to the British colony — by Tan Sri Yeh Pao Tzu. That shared founding date ties the masthead directly to the modern history of the state, and the paper has chronicled Sabah's development continuously ever since.

As a broadsheet published in English, the Daily Express carries a full editorial mix: local Sabah news takes pride of place, supported by national coverage, business, sports and entertainment. According to its Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) audit, the paper records a circulation of around 33,790 copies a day, which makes it the largest daily newspaper in Sabah. Its website is dailyexpress.com.my.

For visitors and researchers, the Daily Express is usually the first stop for English-language coverage of events inside Sabah, both because of its reach and because of its position as the established daily of record.

Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo

The Borneo Post is an English-language broadsheet with a clear East Malaysia focus, covering both Sabah and Sarawak. It was founded on 24 April 1978 in Sibu, Sarawak, and expanded into Sabah in 1986. Its parent company is the Sarawak-based Hua Ho Group. In the state, the Borneo Post recorded a Sabah circulation of 22,971 in the 2015 ABC audit. Alongside its English broadsheet content, the paper carries sister Mandarin pages, and its website is theborneopost.com.

Closely linked to the Borneo Post today is Utusan Borneo, which was first published in 1978. Utusan Borneo is unusual among Sabah titles because it carries bilingual content with both Malay and Kadazan-Dusun sections — it is the only major paper to publish in Kadazan-Dusun alongside Malay, which gives it a distinctive role in indigenous-language media. Since 2020, Utusan Borneo has no longer appeared as a standalone newspaper; instead it runs as a pull-out section within the Borneo Post.

The relationship between the two titles means that a single Borneo Post edition can reach across language communities — English in the main paper, Mandarin in the sister pages, and Malay with Kadazan-Dusun through the Utusan Borneo pull-out.

Chinese-language newspapers

Sabah has a long-established Chinese-language press, and two titles stand out. The Overseas Chinese Daily News (OCDN), published in Traditional Chinese, was founded on 1 March 1936 and holds the distinction of being the first daily newspaper in Sabah. Because it pre-dates Sabah's entry into Malaysia, OCDN has documented the state's history from the British colonial era onward, and it remains in print serving Sabah's Chinese community to this day.

The second major Chinese title is the Sandakan Merdeka Daily News, founded in 1967 and published in Chinese. It is the largest Chinese newspaper in Sandakan, which is home to the largest Chinese community outside Kota Kinabalu. Its coverage is firmly regional, concentrating on Sandakan city and division news, business, and community announcements that matter to readers in eastern Sabah.

Together, these two papers show how the Chinese press in Sabah is split between a long-running statewide title with deep historical roots and a strong regional daily anchored in Sandakan. For Sabah's Chinese readers, the language and the community focus of these papers keep them relevant in a way that English broadsheets cannot replicate.

Indigenous-language representation

One of the most distinctive features of Sabah's newspaper scene is the presence of indigenous-language content in print. Utusan Borneo is the only major paper to publish in Kadazan-Dusun alongside Malay, which gives the Kadazan-Dusun community a rare measure of representation in mainstream print media. In a country where indigenous languages seldom appear in daily newspapers, this bilingual approach stands out as a meaningful example of language inclusion.

This matters beyond the newsroom. Print coverage in an indigenous language helps keep the language visible in everyday public life, supports literacy in that language, and signals that the community's affairs are worth reporting in their own words. While Utusan Borneo now appears as a pull-out within the Borneo Post rather than as a standalone title, the Kadazan-Dusun content has continued, preserving that representation within a larger and more widely distributed paper.

Taken as a whole, Sabah's press — English, Chinese and Malay with Kadazan-Dusun — mirrors the diversity of the state itself, and the indigenous-language pages are a small but significant part of that mix.

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