SPH Media Trust (SMT), trading as SPH Media, is a mass media company in Singapore. Incorporated on 19 July 2021 as a company limited by guarantee, it was spun off from Singapore Press Holdings as part of a restructuring. It owns several major newspapers in the country, including the English-language The Straits Times and The Business Times, Chinese-language Lianhe Zaobao and Shin Min Daily News, Malay-language Berita Harian, and the Tamil Murasu. The company also publishes magazines, and operates five radio stations.
 | |
 Headquarters of SPH Media at Toa Payoh | |
| Company type | Company limited by guarantee (SMT)[1] |
|---|---|
| Industry | Mass media |
| Founded | 1 December 2021 |
| Headquarters | Toa Payoh, Singapore |
Key people | Khaw Boon Wan (Chairman) Teo Lay Lim (CEO) |
Number of employees | 2,500 |
| Website | www |
It forms part of a duopoly of the mass media in the country, alongside the state-owned enterprise Mediacorp.[2] SPH Media has over 2,500 employees, including a team of approximately 1,000 journalists, including correspondents operating around the world.
History
Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH) was formed on 4 August 1984 through a merger of three organisations, The Straits Times Press Group, Singapore News and Publications Limited and Times Publishing Berhad.[3]
SPH readership has stagnated since the early-2000s, as Singaporeans increasingly turned to online media for their news consumption.[4]
On 6 May 2021, SPH in response to shareholder pressures, had proposed that it would restructure itself and transfer its media business into a company limited by guarantee (CLG), which will be privately managed.[5][6] The new CLG would initially be managed by the holders of SPH's management shareholders at the time, while still having to issue new management shares of the media business under the CLG as required by Newspaper and Printing Presses Act.[7][8] The government would also lift the shareholder limits on the currently listed SPH entity.[8] This new CLG was named SPH Media Trust.[9]
On 10 September 2021, an extraordinary general meeting was convened over the restructuring proposal to transfer all media business-related assets and staff to SMT. Approximately 97.55% of the 300 shareholders voted in favour of the proposal.[10] The transfer was completed on 1 December 2021. The assets transferred included its headquarters, News Center, and its press, Print Center, as well as all intellectual property and information technology assets. Along with the assets transfer, 2,500 staff were transferred to SMT as well. SPH had also injected SMT with S$80 million cash and S$30 million of SPH stocks and SPH REIT units.[11]
As part of its restructuring, it discontinued print publication of The New Paper on 11 December 2021, becoming a digital-only publication.[12] It also merged the Lianhe Wanbao (联合晚报) into the Shin Min Daily News (新明日报) on 24 December 2021, citing the limited number of Chinese media talent in the country, redundancy in content, and a plan to focus on bolstering its digital operations.[13]
To aid with the restructuring of its operations, Singapore government announced on 16 February 2022 that it would provide SMT up to S$900 million over the next five years, with the amount dependent on achieving certain targets such as reach and engagement of its products and to certain vernacular groups and youth.[14]
A review of internal processes of SMT was started in March 2022 which included the reporting of circulation data.[15] In January 2023, it was reported that daily circulation numbers of SPH's publications, including broadsheets The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao, were inflated by 10 to 12 percent.[15] The figures were inflated due to double counting of subscriptions, a project account which was funded to purchase fictitious circulation and arbitrarily derived circulation numbers.[15]
Ownership
As a private company, SPH Media Trust is managed privately by its shareholders. The initial shareholders were made up of the management shareholders of Singapore Press Holdings,[7][8] as SPH was a newspaper company as defined under the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (NPPA) of 1974. The management shares are regulated through NPPA and its issuance and transfers have to be approved by the Ministry of Communications and Information, and in "any resolution relating to the appointment or dismissal of a director or any member of the staff" the vote of one management share is equivalent to 200 ordinary shares.[16]
New management shares are to be issued to the individual media businesses under SMT.[7][8]
The institutional members of SMT are:[17]
- DBS Bank
- United Overseas Bank
- OCBC Bank
- Great Eastern Life
- Singtel
- CapitaLand
- Changi Airport Group
- PSA International
- Mapletree Investments
- Fullerton Limited
- Income Insurance
- NTUC Enterprise Co-Operative
- National University of Singapore
- Nanyang Technological University
- Singapore Management University
- Singapore University of Technology and Design
Newspapers
SPH Media publishes 9 newspaper titles in four languages in Singapore.[18]
English
- The Straits Times (Sunday edition: The Sunday Times)
- The Business Times (Saturday edition: The Business Times Weekend)
- The New Paper – English tabloid newspaper
- STOMP – citizen journalism web portal
- tabla! – free English language newspaper for the Indian community; 30,000 copies distributed each Friday at 7-Eleven outlets
Chinese
- Lianhe Zaobao (联合早报) (Sunday edition: zbSunday)[19]
- Shin Min Daily News (新明日报) – Chinese tabloid newspaper
Malay
- Berita Harian (Sunday edition: Berita Minggu)
Tamil
- Tamil Murasu (தமிழ் முரசு)
Magazines
SPH Media publishes and produces 9 magazine titles in Singapore and the region, covering a range of interests from lifestyle to information technology.[20]
- Female
- HardwareZone
- Harper's Bazaar Singapore[21]
- Her World
- Home & Decor
- ICON
- Nüyou
- The Peak
- Singapore Women's Weekly[22]
Radio
SPH Media manages and operates 5 radio stations: 96.3 Hao FM and UFM100.3 in Mandarin as well as MONEY FM 89.3, Kiss92 FM and ONE FM 91.3 in English.[23][24] All the frequencies below can be heard in the Johor Bahru/Johor Bahru District, Singapore and Batam City/Batam Islands.
Other media
Straits Times Press
SPH Media's subsidiary Straits Times Press produces books and periodicals in English and Chinese.
Digital
Apart from AsiaOne and Tech In Asia, SPH Media's online and new media initiatives include STJobs, online portal for jobs; and STClassifieds for general classified ads.
Advertising
SPH Media has ventured into outdoor advertising through its digital out-of-home platform SPHMBO.[25]