Lianhe Wanbao to merge with Shin Min Daily News

Lianhe Wanbao will be merged with its evening counterpart, Shin Min Daily News, from Dec 26, with its last edition on Christmas Eve, said SPH Media Trust chairman Khaw Boon Wan in an interview published in Lianhe Zaobao yesterday.

Christmas Day, or Dec 25, is traditionally a printing holiday.

Mr Khaw said that with digitalisation resulting in a rising demand for instant access to news, it makes less sense to have evening papers, and most regional evening papers have folded. The merger will also be in tandem with efforts to help more elderly readers pick up digital ways of reading the news.

Mr Khaw noted that local media faces the same financial and resource pressures as the media in other countries do to close its evening papers, but that in consideration for the reading habits of the older generation, SPH Media Trust's Chinese Media Group decided on a two-pronged approach to address the challenge.

The first way is to consolidate resources by delivering only one evening paper, while the second is to help senior citizens learn and get accustomed to using tablets and other technology to read the papers, so that no one will be left behind in the Chinese newspapers' push towards digitalisation.

"They need guidance to learn to adopt technology, and need time to transition," he said.

"We must try to help every person, and understand the readers, what they are afraid of, because to change an old habit needs time and is a process."

Under the merger, Wanbao's resources and part of its content will be transferred to Shin Min.

Wanbao has been in circulation for 38 years, and Shin Min will mark its 55th anniversary next year.

Chinese Media Group head Lee Huay Leng said that in making the decision for the merger, two things were considered - the limited supply of local talent working in Chinese media and the shrinking market for hard-copy papers, while both evening papers had increasingly overlapping content.