SINGAPORE - Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) is re-organising and re-naming its two newspaper divisions to incorporate other forms of media, including digital and radio subsidiaries. The changes, which will take effect from January 1, were announced on Friday.
The existing English and Malay Newspapers Division comprises The Straits Times, The Business Times, The New Paper, Berita Harian and the English section of My Paper.
It will now be renamed the English/Malay/Tamil Media group and will include Tamil Murasu, which publishes the Tamil Murasu and tabla! newspapers.
It will also include book publishing arm Straits Times Press; SPH Data Services, which licenses the use of the Straits Times Index in partnership with the Singapore Exchange and FTSE; financial data company ShareInvestor; and the two English stations of SPH Radio, Kiss 92 and HOT FM.
The Chinese Newspapers Division now comprises the newspapers Lianhe Zaobao, Lianhe Wanbao and Shin Min Daily News, four student weeklies - zbCOMMA, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Up Junior and Thumbs Up Little Junior - as well as ZbBz Newsgazine and the Chinese section of My Paper.
It will be renamed the Chinese Media group and will incorporate SPH's Radio's Chinese station UFM100.3, as well as Focus Publishing, which produces a range of books and magazines including U-Weekly.
All the transferred subsidiaries were previously accounted for under SPH's "Others" business segment.
The move reflects the profound changes in the nature of the media business, said SPH's chief executive officer Alan Chan.
"The renaming of the divisions better reflects the transformation that all our newsrooms have gone through in the past year to become integrated operations, producing both print and digital output across all platforms throughout the day," he said.
"The transfer of our media-related subsidiaries is aimed at facilitating growth of our media adjacencies and new lines of business."
There will be no change to the staffing and leadership of the two groups and in the various newsrooms and subsidiaries.
