SPH Media Trust (SMT),

trading as A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

SPH Media, is a

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

company in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. It was incorporated on 19 July 2021 as a

company limited by guarantee A company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of company where the liability of members in the event the company is wound up is limited to a (typically very small) amount listed in the company's articles or constitution. Most have no share ca ...

, it was a spin off from

Singapore Press Holdings Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH) was one of Singapore's two state media companies, which published ''The Straits Times'', numerous other newspapers and operated radio, television and digital media. In 2021, the media division was spun ...

as part of a restructuring. It owns several major newspapers in the country, including the English-language ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' (also known informally by its abbreviation ''ST'') is a Singaporean daily English-language newspaper owned by the SPH Media Trust. Established on 15 July 1845, it is the most-widely circulated newspaper in the country and ...

and The Business Times,'' Chinese-language ''

Lianhe Zaobao ''Nanyang Sin-Chew Lianhe Zaobao'', commonly abbreviated as ''Lianhe Zaobao'', is the largest Singaporean Chinese-language newspaper with a daily circulation of about 136,900 (print and digital) as of 2021. Published by SPH Media (formerly ...

'' and ''

Shin Min Daily News ''Shin Min Daily News'' () is a Singapore Chinese-language afternoon newspaper published by SPH Media. The newspaper was founded on 18 March 1967, by Singapore businessman Liang Runzhi (梁潤之) and Hong Kong writer Louis Cha as an offshoot ...

'', Malay-language ''

Berita Harian ''BH'', previously known as ''Berita Harian'', is a Malay daily newspaper in Malaysia, published by the New Straits Times Press. It was first issued on 1 July 1957. Its Sunday edition, ''BH Ahad'' (formerly ''Berita Minggu''), debuted on 10 ...

,'' and ''the Tamil Murasu''. The company also publishes magazines and operates five radio stations. It forms part of a

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them. Duopoly is the most commonly ...

of the mass media in the country, alongside the state-owned enterprise

Mediacorp Mediacorp Pte. Ltd. is the state media, state-owned media conglomerate of Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the investment arm of the Government of Singapore—it owns and operates television channels, radio, and digital media properties. ...

. SPH Media has over 2,500 employees, including a team of approximately 1,000 journalists, including

correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

s operating around the world.

History

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. SPH readership has stagnated since the early-2000s as Singaporeans increasingly turned to online media for their news consumption. On 6 May 2021, SPH in response to shareholder pressures, had proposed that it would restructure itself and transfer its media business into a

(CLG), which will be privately managed. The new company 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. The government would also lift the shareholder limits on the currently listed SPH entity. This new CLG was named SPH Media Trust. On 10 September 2021, an

extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wo ...

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. 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 cash and of SPH stocks and SPH REIT units. As part of its restructuring, it discontinued the print publication of ''

The New Paper ''The New Paper'' is a Singaporean newspaper. It was originally published in tabloid format as a "noon paper", then from 2016 as a freesheet in the morning from 7 a.m. onwards. In December 2021 the paper went to digital only. History Firs ...

'' on 11 December 2021, becoming a digital-only publication. It also merged the ''

Lianhe Wanbao Lianhe Wanbao (; literally Joint Evening News) was a Singapore Chinese-language afternoon newspaper published daily by SPH Media from 16 March 1983 after the merger between the Singaporean editions of '' Nanyang Siang Pau'' and '' Sin Chew ...

'' (联合晚报) into the ''

'' (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. To aid with the restructuring of its operations, the Singapore government announced on 16 February 2022, that it would provide SMT up to 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 Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

groups and youth. A review of internal processes of SMT was started in March 2022 which included the reporting of circulation data. In January 2023, it was reported that daily circulation numbers of SPH's publications, including broadsheets ''

'' and ''

'', were inflated by 10 to 12 percent. 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.

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

, 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 The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI; ; zh, 数码发展及新闻部; ) is a ministry of the Government of Singapore responsible for overseeing the development of the infocomm technology, media and design sectors, as well ...

, 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. New management shares are to be issued to the individual media businesses under SMT. The institutional members of SMT are: *

DBS Bank DBS Bank Limited is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The Development Bank of Si ...

United Overseas Bank United Overseas Bank Limited (), often known as UOB, is a Singaporean regional bank headquartered at Raffles Place, Singapore, with branches mostly found in Southeast Asia countries. It is one of the three "big local banks" in the country, t ...

OCBC Bank Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (), abbreviated as OCBC, is a Singapore, Singaporean multinational corporation, multinational Bank, banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the OCBC Centre. It operates through sub ...

* Great Eastern Life *

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

CapitaLand CapitaLand Group Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean headquartered company focusing on investment, development and management of real estate. The company has a presence in over 260 cities across more than 40 countries. CapitaLand has six listed real ...

Changi Airport Singapore Changi Airport ( ; ) is the primary international airport that serves the country of Singapore, and is one of the largest transportation hubs in Asia. More than 100 airlines operate from the airport, with flights to destinations in A ...

Group *

PSA International PSA International Pte. Ltd., formerly the Port of Singapore Authority, is a global port operator and supply chain company. One of the largest port operators in the world, PSA's portfolio comprises over 70 deepsea, rail, and inland terminals. The ...

* Mapletree Investments *Fullerton Limited * Income Insurance * NTUC Enterprise Co-Operative *

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1981, it is also the second oldest autonomous university in the country. The university is organised across numerous colleges and schools, includi ...

Singapore Management University Singapore Management University (SMU) is a publicly funded private university in Singapore. Founded in 2000, SMU is the third oldest autonomous university in the country, modelling its education after the Wharton School. The university is trip ...

Singapore University of Technology and Design The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is a public university, public autonomous university in Singapore. History The founding president is Thomas L. Magnanti, who is a professor associated with the Massachusetts Institu ...

Newspapers

SPH Media publishes 9 newspaper titles in four languages in Singapore. English *''

'' (Sunday edition: ''The Sunday Times'') *'' The Business Times'' (Saturday edition: ''The Business Times Weekend'') *''

'' – 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 *''

'' (聯合早报) (Sunday edition: ''zbSunday'') *''

'' (新明日报) – Chinese tabloid newspaper Malay *''

'' (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. *''Female'' *''

HardwareZone HardwareZone is an IT-oriented Internet portal based in Singapore. It is operated by Hardware Zone Private Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of SPH Media. Some features of the portal are: IT price lists for several countries, feature a ...

'' *''Harper's Bazaar Singapore'' *''

Her World ''Her World'' is a monthly English-language magazine published in Singapore targeted at the female professionals reading market. It is also the first English-language women's magazine to be published in Singapore. History The magazine was publi ...

'' *''Home & Decor'' *''ICON'' *'' Nüyou'' *''The Peak'' *''Singapore Women's Weekly''

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.

Other media

Straits Times Press

SPH Media's subsidiary Straits Times Press produces books and periodicals in English and Chinese.

Digital

Apart from

AsiaOne AsiaOne.com is a Singaporean news and lifestyle website and news aggregator. It is Singapore's first pure play digital content platform, serving readers primarily in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. AsiaOne was launched in 1995 by Singapore ...

and

Tech In Asia Tech in Asia is a Singapore- and Jakarta-based technology news website covering topics on startups and innovation in Asia. Backed by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin in 2015, it has hosted annual conferences across the continent primarily i ...

, 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.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2021 establishments in Singapore Publishing companies established in 2021 Mass media companies established in 2021 Mass media companies of Singapore Newspaper companies of Singapore Singaporean brands Singaporean companies established in 2021