On the campaign trail

Straits Times to publish separate Election special edition on Saturday

SINGAPORE - Readers will be able to get the latest news and analyses on the keenly watched General Election from The Straits Times across platforms on Saturday (Sept 12).

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The ST's multimedia newsroom will report the results as they come in. Journalists in the field will update ST's GE2015 live stream on www.straitstimes.com with a steady flow of stories, pictures and videos as the night progresses. Readers can also follow ST on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the latest coverage.

In addition, for the first time, ST readers will receive their newspaper in two instalments.

The flagship daily's regular print edition will arrive on subscribers' doorsteps as well as hit the newsstands in the morning as usual. This will contain all the usual reports on world, business and sports news and lifestyle features, as well as non-election-related local news.

On top of this, ST will produce a separate GE2015 special with all the news and commentaries on the election outcome.

This special supplement will be delivered to subscribers' homes - for free - before noon. It will also be sold at 30 cents a copy at newsstands around lunchtime.

The main reason for this two-step delivery is to enable the ST newsroom to give readers the most up-to-the-minute news and features on how the votes stacked up.

With Polling Day this time falling on a Friday, the results will be published on Saturday - typically the day of the week when ST has the largest number of pages and widest circulation, which takes more time to print and deliver.

Said Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez: "Given the significance of the election results, we want to be able to give our readers the results and our analysis of what it might mean in as timely a manner as possible. Our ST team will deliver much of this online, in reports, graphics and videos.

"We also want to serve our print readers and subscribers well. So, we have pushed back our usual printing deadline from midnight, and will hold the presses until the results are in. We will get this Election special to our subscribers' homes as soon as we can on Saturday morning.

"In the meantime, we want readers to be able to catch up on the rest of the news and enjoy their regular morning paper. Hence the idea of this two-stage delivery."

News vendors are making special arrangements to deliver this Election special. Chinese flagship daily Lianhe Zaobao will also be adopting the same two-edition approach on Saturday.

Mr Fernandez added: "It's a big and important news story for all of us in Singapore. So it will be all hands on deck, with my colleagues and I working through the night to meet our readers' needs across platforms."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 10, 2015, with the headline Straits Times to publish separate Election special edition on Saturday. Subscribe