The decision by Singapore Press Holdings to spin off its media business into a not-for-profit entity is timely and unsurprising (SPH plan to hive off media business gets MCI support; Move lets SPH maximise returns, says chairman, both May 7). If anything, this move could be overdue.

Worldwide and not just in Singapore, newspaper advertising, circulation and subscriber revenue have been on the downtrend for years. For instance, newspaper revenues in the United States declined dramatically in the decade between 2008 and 2018, while advertising revenue fell 62 per cent in the same period from US$37.8 billion to US$14.3 billion (S$18.95 billion), according to the Pew Research Centre.

The Covid-19 cataclysm and ensuing economic paralysis have only served to worsen the newspaper industry's declining fortunes.

The digitalisation of news from print to online will be of little help in staving off this assault, going by the predictions of industry experts who forecast that global print revenues will continue to fall faster and further than digital growth can offset.

Global newspaper print and online advertising is predicted to fall 27 per cent over the five years from US$49.2 billion in 2019 to US$36 billion in 2024, while global circulation and subscriber revenue are expected to fall from US$58.7 billion to US$50.4 billion in the same period.

With these sombre statistics, even news websites are increasingly turning to not-for-profit channels for their funding needs.

In the post-Covid world, companies need to more than ever be nimble and seek to maximise value by streamlining and repositioning themselves.

SPH's move to restructure its media business to reposition itself is hence timely, and will go far to consolidate its place in the industry and preserve this fine bowl of china.

Woon Wee Min