SPH has had retrenchments in the past even closing down papers such as the New Nation. In the early 1990s they even outsourced some parts of sub-editing to Sydney and in the late 90s brought in a number of reporters, lead writers and columnists mostly from the sub-continent.
So why is it different now?
1. The print media is more or less a subset industry the World over. Not only readership continues to fall, advertisements which is the actual bread and butter is falling as the alternate wired media is a better proposition.
2. End of a monopoly where previously flushed with funds it could dictate terms and buy opinions and views that met its agenda and that of its masters.
3. Short-sighted strategies where things like paywall and moving away from pounding the streets for news and items of interest proved costly. Paywall helped weaned large segments of society from the need to read the daily news. In some ways it was cold turkey. A better way was to have snippets and abridged versions of articles. Asking someone schooled in Oxbridge to walk the streets for news was never in the cards.
4. The retirement (removal) of the leadership team including the No. 1 and 2 few months ago spoke volumes. It was a clear indication that no one had any idea how to fix it.
5. The appointment of a known corporate failure to lead the organisation with no background in the field surprised many. Army scholar generals after the first 2 batches have proved disastrous. Why the move?
6. As no new strategy has been revealed, except for the hiring of 11 foreigners to provide depth in foreign coverage, the retrenchment is to cover the ever widening cost gap.
7. The value of SPH journalists have been so badly damaged there is little or no respect for them. For the private sector looking for PR and media talent it will be easier and much cheaper for organisations to bring in new and young graduates that have not be compromised and guided by experienced foreigners.
8. Unlike the sheer numbers of retiring Police and Army retirees who can translate into PAP votes, the number of affected SPH staff are small and there is no need to make special arrangements to get them employed as Op staff in schools. The 2 key sucophants have already been absorbed into the senior ranks in the Civil Service some years ago.
9. It is likely that the PAP will work even more closely with PA, NTUC, MOE etc to create a new vehicle to carry PAP friendly news aka propaganda and possibly free.
So why is it different now?
1. The print media is more or less a subset industry the World over. Not only readership continues to fall, advertisements which is the actual bread and butter is falling as the alternate wired media is a better proposition.
2. End of a monopoly where previously flushed with funds it could dictate terms and buy opinions and views that met its agenda and that of its masters.
3. Short-sighted strategies where things like paywall and moving away from pounding the streets for news and items of interest proved costly. Paywall helped weaned large segments of society from the need to read the daily news. In some ways it was cold turkey. A better way was to have snippets and abridged versions of articles. Asking someone schooled in Oxbridge to walk the streets for news was never in the cards.
4. The retirement (removal) of the leadership team including the No. 1 and 2 few months ago spoke volumes. It was a clear indication that no one had any idea how to fix it.
5. The appointment of a known corporate failure to lead the organisation with no background in the field surprised many. Army scholar generals after the first 2 batches have proved disastrous. Why the move?
6. As no new strategy has been revealed, except for the hiring of 11 foreigners to provide depth in foreign coverage, the retrenchment is to cover the ever widening cost gap.
7. The value of SPH journalists have been so badly damaged there is little or no respect for them. For the private sector looking for PR and media talent it will be easier and much cheaper for organisations to bring in new and young graduates that have not be compromised and guided by experienced foreigners.
8. Unlike the sheer numbers of retiring Police and Army retirees who can translate into PAP votes, the number of affected SPH staff are small and there is no need to make special arrangements to get them employed as Op staff in schools. The 2 key sucophants have already been absorbed into the senior ranks in the Civil Service some years ago.
9. It is likely that the PAP will work even more closely with PA, NTUC, MOE etc to create a new vehicle to carry PAP friendly news aka propaganda and possibly free.
