Another looming shadow:
Losing youths
A whole new generation has grown up, many of whom are cynical, demanding more serious newspaper choices. By Seah Chiang nee. TheEdge Singapore.
Oct 2, 2004

An early lesson I learned about newspapers in Singapore came from an advertising hand when he said, "We're the guys who're bringing in the money; you (the journalists) are the people spending it."

That was some 25 years ago when I was editing a newspaper. It was budget-allocation time and it was his tongue-in-cheek way of arguing his case.

Shortly afterwards, a cabinet minister asked me how much foreign exchange our newspaper was bringing in. Of course, he knew the answer: Zero.

It was probably his subtle way of saying that until we became a regional winner we didn't matter too much.

They don't call this Singapore INC for nothing. In those days, every business - including newspapers - was judged by its financial contribution. It's our national psyche.

It didn't matter who you were. If you lost money, even Singapore Airlines, you would be history.

It, of course, made business sense. There's no other way but I think the death sentence surely can't be passed without exhausted all options.

This survival tenet remains today, shown by the failed experiment with media to structure two media rivals - Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and MediaCorp - to compete in TV and newspapers.

Their launch four years ago was to stifle Singaporean complaint of media monopoly. The end came abruptly. On Sept 17, the two rivals agreed to merge some of their operations, closing one free-sheet paper and probably one TV channel.

The bigger loser is SPH, which paid the price for having the bigger ambition of the two. It started - and continued to fund - two new TV channels and two tabloids, one of which, Project Eyeball, was closed earlier.

It has lost a massive $180 million on the new ventures, enough to sink anyone other than SPH. The verdict: It pleases shareholders but riled the public, which, as I said, hates monopoly.

But behind the pain of job losses, a larger long-term dilemma looms on the horizon - disappearing young newspaper readers.

For almost a decade, sales of The flagship The Straits Times have been stagnant despite its control of the market.

To be fair, the problem of declining newspaper circulation is worldwide, affecting US and Europe, too. Many readers are turning to the Internet press, round-the clock TV news and numerous other distractions.

To lure back young readers, The Straits Times is revamping itself, promising to put on three free magazine supplements on weekdays and improvements on all its sections.

The paper remains one of Asia's top English-language newspapers, winning several design awards in Asia. It is generally well written with superior foreign coverage.

Above all, it enjoys a benefit under law that other publishers can only dream about. It is the only broadsheet daily in one of the world's richest cities, with 4.25 million highly educated people and no challenger.

During the past decade, however - when the population jumped by a million or 30% - the newspaper's circulation rose a paltry 6.5% to 389,248 copies a day.

In fact sales dropped by 2.4% in 2001 and 0.5% in 2002. Worst of all was the decline in advertising revenue.

Only 35% penetration
Selling some 390,000 copies a day to 4.25m highly literate people rings up a poor penetration rate of 35 per cent under the circumstances.

The global trends don't entirely explain its present straits. Part of the reason lies in restrictive press laws and the editors' perceived compliance.

Since independence, a whole new generation - more demanding, independent-minded and worldly-wise - has grown up, aware of what is available in other advanced cities.

Many of them are cynical, demanding more serious newspaper choices; others want a more credible voice to air opposing views.

True or not, a frequent complaint is that the media play up the good and downplay the bad to please the government. Another is that the press is outspoken only when reporting other countries, not at home.

In the past, the Government delivered the goods, so few readers were discerning enough to want to discuss options.

Today, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is faced with a new generation and a set of new problems.

An excessively obedient press, which is not strong on credibility, may not be able to help him succeed today. It has to help him persuade and convince.

It should contribute to his efforts of involving the youths in nation building, ridding them of a boh chap (don't care) attitude and cutting down migration.

It certainly can't help if too many youths turn away from newspapers. All the restructuring can't get them back.

(This article was published in TheEdge,Singapore September 27, 2004)