SPH Media Trust will invest more in talent and technology in coming years, says chairman Khaw

Published Thu, Jan 27, 2022 · 08:31 AM

The media business of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has seen an under-investment in talent and technology over the last few years - and these are 2 areas that SPH Media Trust (SMT) must address, said SMT chairman Khaw Boon Wan on Thursday (Jan 27).

"Those are the 2 big gaps where we have to make the corrections as soon as we can. And in fact, we have started that process," he said at a media briefing to give an update on SMT's work over the past 2 months.

"We are grateful to the listed company that they have facilitated some of the changes that we wanted to push in even before we took over on Dec 1,'' Khaw added.

SMT is a company limited by guarantee that took over SPH's media operations last December.

Also present at the session were SMT interim chief executive officer Patrick Daniel; Warren Fernandez, editor-in-chief of SMT's English, Malay, and Tamil Media Group; and Lee Huay Leng, head of the Chinese Media Group.

Fernandez, who is also the editor of The Straits Times, stressed that SMT will invest in its people, products and services.

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As part of its efforts to attract talent and a renewed commitment to training, he said the SPH Media Academy will be set up with The Straits Times deputy editor Paul Jacob as its dean.

The academy will work with local and regional institutions such as the Nanyang Technological University, Civil Service College, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, as well as with international media organisations like the Poynter Institute, Columbia University School of Journalism, and Reuters Institute of Journalism at the University of Oxford.

On investing in products, Fernandez said: "Once we have gotten the content, we must enhance the user experience, so people keep coming back and have a good experience, and that requires investment in the product."

As SMT strives to be "the leading multimedia organisation in Asia", Fernandez listed out the roles that the different publications with the organisation should play.

The Business Times, for instance, should be the platform that people go to for "deep insight into the financial business strengths in our region".

In line with SMT's transformation, Khaw said the organisation will now be "much more" customer-focused, data-driven, and collaborative.

"Recognising that you require much more expertise to work and collaborate with you, I think that is a very important part of the transformation process," he added.

To achieve its ambitions, SMT will be looking at multiple sources of funding, and the emphasis on commercial revenue remains in areas such as advertisements and subscriptions, Khaw noted.

Although the average revenue per subscriber may be lower for digital compared to print, at some stage he hopes that the increase in digital subscription numbers can "more than cover the decline in print revenue".

"The government, in principle, has agreed to support us, knowing the larger objective of this exercise, knowing that some of these initial investments have a very long payback period," he added.

Noting that SMT is a nation-building project, he said that apart from government ministries, it will also work with community organisations for funding. These include the Chinese clan associations that also have a shared vision of promoting the Mother Tongue.

When asked for updates on SMT's search for a permanent CEO, Khaw said the process is already complete and that an announcement on the new chief will be made "within the next week or 2".

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