CURRENT and former journalists gathered on Friday (Jun 23) at the launch of Once Upon a Times House, a collection of stories about life at the old home of Singapore’s leading newspapers.

Times House, once located on Kim Seng Road, was home to Singapore’s English- and Malay-language press, including The Straits Times (ST), The Business Times (BT), Berita Harian and the now-defunct New Nation, for more than four decades.

Written by 16 veteran editors and journalists who worked there, the book showcases Singapore’s history of journalism through its transformative years, including memories and scandals at Times House from the 1960s to the 1990s. Among the contributors are former deputy BT editor Margaret Thomas, former Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi (who was a journalist before he entered politics), former Life! editor Richard Lim and former deputy political editor of ST Sonny Yap. The book is published by The Rice Company Limited (TRCL).

Clement Mesenas, editor of Once Upon A Times House, said: “You cannot get any more diverse and inclusive than this colourful bunch, who dominated those roaring decades of journalism, to tell and record the unstructured drive, (and) draft up the history of Singapore’s emergence from third world to first world.”

The idea to publish the book came about last year at the 50th anniversary of the Singapore Press Club, when a group of ex-journalists who used to call themselves the “Young Turks” had gathered and were exchanging old war stories and trading old jokes. Then Victor Ng, who has since become a private equity fund manager, decided to mobilise the writers and rally more through social media to join the cause.

“Spirited conversations over all manner of spirits soon gave rise to the idea that each one of us still do have our untold stories,” said Ng. “Well, here we are with this collection after barely six months of coffee, some agonising moments ... to get our respective copies out!” 

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In the book, former BT news editor Quak Hiang Whai recounts Singapore Press Holdings’ first venture into television. Crash courses were organised to train print journalists in TV reporting. While many managed to make the switch, there were some who were unsuitable, he wrote in the chapter “Lights, camera, action!”

“Poor diction, missing teeth, blinking eyes, squeaky voices, bad complexion, poor dress sense and grooming, among other things. Like it or not, TV is largely about looks and how you sound.”

Wong Wei Kong, current editor-in-chief of SPH Media Trust’s English/Malay/Tamil Media group, said: “One day, perhaps we will have a book on the News Centre, which would have its own generations of journalists and its own stories to tell.”

The News Centre at Toa Payoh is where the group is currently based.

Autographed copies of the book are available from TRCL at S$100 each. Proceeds from the sales of the book will go towards the BT Budding Artists Fund, which provides resources and opportunities to financially disadvantaged youth in the arts. Members of the public may also purchase the book at major bookstores from July onwards.