KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — Life doesn’t often offer up second chances, but in the case of Elaine Lo and Afif Abdul Halim they carved out one for themselves. One follower at a time.
From a little unknown blog that Elaine Lo used as an outlet to keep reporting about the two sports she loves after quitting a full-time job with a magazine, ArenaMalaysia Asia has made a name for itself among endurance sports’ faithfuls.
The digital magazine now boasts over 60,000 followers on their social media platforms.
“I did it after quitting my job in 2020. I was writing for a cycling magazine at the time, but it wasn’t doing that well because of Covid-19, so I quit.
“Then I started this, well, like a blog where I write about running and cycling events... not that much following then,” said Lo, who loves trail running and cycling.
Things got serious when Lo met Afif Abdul Halim, a former photojournalist with news portal The Malaysian Insight, while she was covering the Le Tour de Langkawi.
It was fate, both of them said.
Afif is the creative driving force behind ArenaMalaysia Asia. Like his partner, Afif is also an amateur cyclist who had a desire to do something more than just taking the same photos of politicians at press conferences day after day.
“We chatted and I saw what she did. I told her you can grow it, but it needs to be presented better. I said it’s all about video content, but she had no idea how to do it, so I said I’ll help,” the photographer recalled.
“That ‘thing’ [then] grew into something better.”
Jet-setting and six-digit revenue
Considering Lo and Afif are the only two full-time team members running ArenaMalaysia Asia, they are doing well relative to their bigger rivals like Astro, a multi-billion ringgit company.
At just over three years old, ArenaMalaysia Asia has managed to build a solid rapport with some of the world’s biggest sports companies like Asics, New Balance, Mizuno and Under Armour, regular clients who have been sponsoring them to travel all over the world to produce content of their athletes or brand representatives.
The media outlet is also winning the trust of sporting event organisers abroad. Their latest gig? A trip to Milan to cover a triathlon event.
And it won’t stop there. It’s a packed schedule for the rest of the year, with New York, Bangkok, Hong Kong among the list of where work calls.
“It can be tiring,” he said. “Sometimes we feel like we’re getting a lot of work, but I tell myself this is all fun.”
Yet the pressure to deliver is still very real and running on a very small team amplifies it, the two admitted.
While ArenaMalaysia Asia’s revenue reached six digits this year, income in the content industry can be very inconsistent and there will be days when tightening the proverbial belt is inevitable.
But that’s the trade-off Lo and Afif are willing to take.
“Back then I would have to ask the editors if I can do this or that (story) and they usually ask first if we would get paid. Now I get to do whatever I want. I mean, if you don’t try new things, how would you know if it works or not,” Lo said.
Doing more than just sports reporting
So how does one explain ArenaMalaysia Asia’s rapid popularity growth? Lo and Afif believe what makes the project well-received is still quality journalism.
Unlike mainstream sports reporting, which has the tendency to be dry and event-focused, ArenaMalaysia Asia’s ethos is grounded in the belief that elite and amateur athletes have more in common than most would assume.
The runner or cyclist with a full-time job who competes may not be as fast as their pro counterparts, yet both understand the level of dedication towards training.
So what ArenaMalaysia Asia does is tap into this shared experience. By getting elite athletes to talk about their own trials and tribulations, it makes the sports more relatable.
On ArenaMalaysia Asia, elite and competitive amateur runners and cyclists are featured in behind-the-scenes footage that tend to be more candid, deepening the personal connection between viewers and subject.
“We always want athletes with good stories,” Afif said. “Of course we need to feature the winners as well, but the athlete needs to have a good story.”
It’s an ethos that was perfectly reflected in the interview with Nuraudillina Adila J. Sam, the former national cyclist who competed in a highly taxing physical event that is almost similar to Crossfit, while seven months pregnant.
In that clip, Adilla wanted to shatter the myths around what a pregnant woman can or can’t do, as she encouraged them to stay active. The video became one of the platform’s most popular, with over 1,000 likes on Instagram and five-digit views.
Where to next?
Money isn’t everything, even if it’s important, Afif and Lo said.
Both have ambitions to make ArenaMalaysia Asia a major sports medium that will continue to focus on telling good stories of both pro and amateur athletes, but with a steady stream of income and hopefully a bigger team.
Lo said the proudest moment for her was having the ability to realise the dream of runners and cyclists to compete abroad, all thanks to that good relationship ArenaMalaysia Asia has built with event organisers and sportswear brands.
“It just feels good to see them so happy being able to race overseas,” she said. “I’d like to think this is actually more about them than about us.”
For Afif, it’s the recognition and being able to work side-by-side with some of the best content makers attached to global sporting giants at some of the most prestigious endurance sporting events in the world, despite being relatively obscure and small.
“When we get these invitations, it means we’re up there with them, at least that’s what I feel,” he said when asked about his proudest moment.
“And we can see how good they are and how far behind we are. And it makes me feel like I want to do better, produce better. I tell myself I’m representing Malaysia, you know. We need to show them we’re just as good.”
