Media
Do we need a daily newspaper?
A Singaporean resident from India – Rana - blogs about our ‘monopoly’ newspapers.
Nov 12, 2006

Writing in the sixth anniversary issue of Today this weekend, PN Balji says: "Six years ago we knew the competition." That was when Today was started as an alternative to Singapore's main newspaper, The Straits Times.

But The Straits Times' publishers, Singapore Press Holdings, have since bought a stake in the freesheet, Today. "Now, we don't know what it (the competition) looks like," says Balji.

"It could be blogs, podcasts, emails, SMSes and even lifestyle changes that demand narrowcasting or a combination of all these." He is right.

I was surprised when I read last month that The Straits Times had gained 30,000 new readers this year. It crowed it was gaining readers when newspapers elsewhere were losing them.

But there's no alternative to The Straits Times if one wants to read an English newspaper in Singapore. The New Paper is too down-market, the Business Times mainly business, and the freesheet Today available only at selected spots at certain hours.

And they are all linked to Singapore Press Holdings.

The Straits Times' gains are due to one simple reason. More Singaporeans are switching over from Chinese newspapers, which are also published by the same group. The Straits Times itself said so.

It could also be due to the rise in the number of foreigners living and working in Singapore. Indians, for example, have a newspaper reading habit - and what else can they read in Singapore but The Straits Times?

My wife, when she visits Singapore, checks The Straits Times for the shopping coupons and ads. But when she is not here, there are days when my copy of the paper remains unread.

I can't stop subscribing to The Straits Times because one has to look it up sometimes for official news, about new laws and policies.

But it's not something I read for pleasure.

For that I depend on the Internet, where I can read the Guardian and The Times and the New York Times. Even many of the blogs are more interesting to read.

And from time to time, I look up The Telegraph, published from my hometown Calcutta (Kolkata), and other Indian newspapers.

Coming from India, naturally I am interested in Indian news. And I got into the habit of reading British and American periodicals back in Calcutta where I could read them at the British Council and the American Center.

Selected articles from The Times and the New York Times also used to appear in the local newspapers. I still enjoy reading all that.

Maybe I would have enjoyed reading The Straits Times, too, if I had seen it since my schooldays. But I didn't. So it's still not part of my daily reading.

But one doesn't have to start young to like something. I had never read The Economist or Wired magazine when I was young. So why do I like them?

http://memoryanddesire.blogspot.com/2006/11/do-we-need-daily-newspaper.html