SPH reorganises newspaper divisions

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) said on Friday that its two newspaper divisions will be reorganised and renamed from Jan 1, 2015 to reflect the integrated nature of newsroom operations and enable the growth of media-related subsidiaries and new lines of business.

The English & Malay Newspapers Division - to which The Business Times (BT) belongs to - will be renamed English/Malay/Tamil Media group. This group will comprise the print and digital operations of BT, as well as those of The Straits Times, The New Paper, Berita Harian, My Paper (BT) belongs to - will be renamed English/Malay/Tamil Media group. This group will comprise the print and digital operations of BT, as well as those of The Straits Times, The New Paper, Berita Harian, My Paper (English section).

Several media-related units will also be transferred to this renamed group.

These are Tamil Murasu Ltd, which publishes Tamil Murasu and tabla!, SPH's book publishing arm Straits Times Press, SPH Data Services - which licenses the use of the Straits Times index in partnership with the Singapore Exchange and FTSE Ltd, financial data company ShareInvestor, and the two English stations of SPH Radio - Kiss 92 and HOT FM.

The Chinese Newspapers Division will be renamed Chinese Media group. Apart from its three Chinese newspapers, four student weeklies, ZbBz Newsgazine and My Paper (Chinese section), the group will incorporate SPH Radio's Chinese radio station, UFM 100.3, and Focus Publishing, which produces a range of books and magazines including U-Weekly.

The transferred subsidiaries are currently accounted for under SPH's "Others" business segment.

SPH said that there would be no change to the staffing and leadership of the two groups, and to the various newsrooms and subsidiaries.

Alan Chan, SPH chief executive officer, said: "The whole nature of our media business has changed profoundly. The renaming of the divisions better reflects the transformation that all our newsrooms have gone through in the past year to become integrated operations, producing both print and digital output across all platforms throughout the day. The transfer of our media-related subsidiaries is aimed at facilitating growth of our media adjacencies and new lines of business."

SPH's shares closed flat at S$4.30 each on Friday.