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By Tan Khoon Wooi (Malaysia) 文:陈勤伟(马来西亚) A Journey Through the dec The story of Crescent News highlights the pursuit of Malaysia’s oldest publisher and distributor of English books to promote reading. 2 -p 2 2 2 po - o p pu u l l a ar rn n e e w w s s 1 1 3 3 1 1 Crescent News was established in 1968 by Tuan Haji Syed Mohamed and Tuan Haja Kamaludin on Hutton Lane in Penang as Crescent News Agencies. Making its debut as a joint enterprise between the two founders, Crescent News Agencies had grown much larger by 1989, and was converted into a private limited company. A Passion for Reading in the Community Before setting up his own company, Tuan Haji Syed Mohamed spent 17 years working with his eldest brother, Syed Abdul Majeed, to develop his brother’s company S. Abdul Majeed & Company. He then decided to strike it out on his own by setting up Crescent News Agencies with his brother- in-law, Tuan Haja Kamaludin. The new company started off by selling magazines and newspapers, but soon expanded its offerings to include other publications like books later on. According to current director Tuan Haji Khabeer, Crescent News has always been very popular with the community in Penang as Penangites love reading books – especially English books. "They were more interested in spending their time flipping through books than doing anything else," he said smilingly during the interview with Popular News. Expanding their Reach to Promote Reading In 1971, Crescent News expanded its business beyond Penang, opening a new branch in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Tuan Haji Khabeer was one of the several staff assigned to travel to several other Malaysian states to promote and