It is the continuation of a print paper which was first published on 1 December 1896 when Kuala Lumpur was the capital of the then new Federated Malay States, making it the first daily newspaper to appear in the FMS.

A major example of this was the People's Live Telecast Fund, a public donation drive organised in June 1982 under the editorship of Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar to crowdfund live matches of the World Cup happening around the same time for Radio Televisyen Malaysia totalling RM300,000 for 5 telecast; each broadcast was underwritten Ditaja Oleh Rakyat Malaysia ("Sponsored By The Malaysian People").

[4] In 1997, the Malay Mail was the NSTP Berhad's single most profitable unit through its grip on classifieds which, in the nature of a virtuous cycle, actually intensified its popularity.

The Malay Mail was linked to another daily newspaper, the New Straits Times via its holding company, the NSTP Berhad.

In the early stages of 2005, plans were unveiled to change the direction of the paper and offered voluntary separation scheme to senior writers and journalists of the Malay Mail.

Media Prima Berhad relaunched the Malay Mail on 5 May 2006 as a free afternoon paper but still failed to overturn its losses.

Besides Siew, the other directors of Malay Mail are Tan Sri Mohd Al Amin Abdul Majid and Datuk Rocky.