SIA
Half full or half empty
ST proves there are different ways to present a story. By Seah Chiang New.
Feb 4, 2006

Singapore Airlines has just announced its latest quarter result, and the foreign media covers it as follows: -

Bloomberg
Singapore Airlines' 3rd-Qtr Profit Falls 15% on Fuel
Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world's second-largest carrier by market value, said profit fell for a fourth straight quarter because of an increase in fuel prices.
Net income dropped 15 percent to S$397 million ($243 million), or 32.5 cents a share, in the third quarter ended Dec 31, from a restated S$465 million, or 38.1 cents a share, a year earlier, Singapore Airlines said today…
Chief Executive Chew Choon Seng, whose term has been extended for three more years, raised surcharges and hedged the airline's oil needs to protect it from a 25 percent rise in the price of jet fuel, its single-biggest expense.
The carrier, which has been cutting costs, faces competition by Emirates, Qantas Airways Ltd. and budget airlines including AirAsia Bhd.

Dow Jones
Singapore Airlines Ltd Thursday said high fuel costs offset rising revenue for a 14.6% decline in net profit for the fiscal third quarter.
SIA, the world's second biggest airline by market capitalisation after US discount carrier Southwest Airlines, recorded net profit of S$396.6 million for the three months ended Dec 31, compared with S$464.6 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose 11.1% to S$3.56 billion from S$3.2 billion a year earlier, on strong passenger traffic during the year-end holiday period.
But increases in expenditure, due mostly to a sharp rise in jet fuel prices, outpaced revenue growth. Expenditure in the third quarter grew 14.1% to S$3.18 billion from S$2.79 billion a year earlier.

But the Strait Times angles it quite differently: -

Feb 3, 2006
SIA soars on the back of record 4 billion passengers
Quarterly results beat expectations, despite sky-high jet fuel prices
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has soared above market expectations with its latest quarterly profit results.
The airline also carried a record number of 4.36 billion passengers and posted its highest ever turnover for any quarter in the three months to Dec 31 last year, its financial third quarter.
This strong showing by one of Singapore's most important blue chip companies came despite jet fuel prices hitting sky-high levels.

Then finally on the 5th paragraph, the crux emerges...

“These fuel prices dramatically increased SIA's costs, dragging net profits down by 14.6 per cent to $397 million compared to the same period a year earlier, its fourth straight quarterly fall.”

The contrast between the foreign and local coverage is quite stark. What are holders of SIA shares to make of it? Are the results are good or bad.

Is the paper trying to paper the quarter profit decline behind a “RA..RA..” angle? Sure looks that way!

Nothing wrong in the ST report, but it has to be careful not to come across as a newspaper that reports only the good and avoids – or plays down – the bad.

It’s important for the media to hold or regain credibility of its readers, without which it cannot help sweeten the ground for the government.

About the time another Straits Times headline proclaimed, “Jobless rate down to 2.5% - the lowest in four year.”

If readers believe this, then well and good, if not, they’ll start looking for Bloomberg and Dow Jones versions to find out what they may have missed.
By Seah Chiang Nee