In recent years, Utusan Malaysia went through a critical business period as its daily circulation and readership continued to decline, along with the deteriorating cash flow of its former parent company.

In response to the closure of the newspaper, the then Minister of Entrepreneur Development, Redzuan Yusof, announced that Utusan Malaysia will make its comeback in 2020[13] and formally relaunched on 20 July.

The free service has received recognition from MIMOS (the "Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems") as one of the top five education websites in Malaysia in 2001.

[17][18][19] On February 8, 2019, Utusan is no longer under direct ownership by UMNO after 31.6 per cent stake of its parent company was acquired by Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir.

[21][22][23] The decline of Utusan Malaysia's readership and poor financial performance has been attributed by some to its pro-Barisan Nasional and Malay nationalist standpoint.

[26][27][7] Despite financial injection, Utusan Malaysia and its sister papers continued to suffer losses and mounting debt from decreasing circulations, and it finally shuttered on 9 October 2019.

[38] With its distinctive blue masthead as its logo and trademark, Utusan Malaysia had over 32 pages of news and current affairs, with regular supplements, focusing on diverse topics as entertainment, fashion, music, health, technology, and politics.

[39] Utusan frequently stoked racist sentiments with provocative headlines championing the Dasar Ekonomi Baru and Ketuanan Melayu.

[40][41][42] Just one day after the 2013 general elections, in which the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition suffered what was until then its worst-ever results, Utusan published a highly racist feature article with the headline "Apa lagi Cina mahu?"

[44] Despite Prime Minister Najib Razak's defence of the newspaper, Utusan earned widespread condemnation from Malaysians for its unapologetic race-baiting.

A motion was also set by the Selangor state government to boycott Utusan while all Selangor state agencies and departments were told to refrain from buying and advertising in the newspaper, in a move to protest a short story titled "Politik Baru YB J" by columnist Datuk Chamil Wariya that appeared in the paper which mentioned the assassination of a fictional character resembling Democratic Action Party assemblywoman Teresa Kok.

On 20 May 2013, Hata staged a one-man protest in front of the Utusan Melayu headquarters, calling for an end to "irresponsible journalism" and "racist reporting".

[48] The newspaper has been accused as being a propaganda mouthpiece of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) government as well as inciting racial hatred in its articles against the non-Malays of the country.

[49] The widely perceived view by most Malaysians that Utusan Malaysia was nothing more than a propaganda newsletter for the ruling government was given much greater credence after its deputy chief editor Zaini Hassan openly stated in a forum organised by the National Civics Bureau that it was acceptable for Utusan to "spin facts" to be "biased in our [the BN Government's] favour".

[50] Utusan offered an apology after running news of an 87-year-old Catholic missionary in Java who purportedly converted to Islam after recovering from a coma.

Notably, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng successfully sued for libel twice against the paper, winning RM400,000 in accumulated damages for both lawsuits.

[52][53] On 14 December 2012, Karpal Singh was awarded RM50,000 in damages after a High Court judge declared that an Utusan article painting him as anti-Islam was "by all accounts mischievous".

[54] On 21 January 2013, the High Court awarded Anwar Ibrahim RM45,000 in damages after a series of Utusan articles deliberately misrepresented his statement in a BBC interview so as to suggest that the opposition leader was pro-LGBT (a controversial stance in Muslim-majority Malaysia).