Vernacular titles serving communities are critical part of media scene

Vernacular newspapers like Lianhe Zaobao, Berita Harian (BH) and Tamil Murasu (TM) are an important part of the transformation process for the yet-to-be-formed SPH Media Trust, its chairman Khaw Boon Wan said yesterday.

At a press conference on the new company that will take over Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) media business, Mr Khaw said the different papers are not simply translations of one another but serve the needs of their different audiences and communities.

"They are all Singaporeans, but their interests and priorities are not always identical," he added.

As an example, Mr Khaw said he subscribes to both The Straits Times (ST) and Zaobao because the coverage and perspectives offered are different.

He was responding to a BH journalist who asked what role vernacular papers will play in SPH's restructuring and transformation, and whether sufficient resources would be given to vernacular papers to help them grow.

Mr Khaw said the newsrooms publishing media in four different languages are like "four different vehicles... running in the same direction, but at different speeds".

Vernacular newspapers serve smaller audiences, but they also play a role in nation building, Mr Khaw noted, so the bottom line cannot be dollars and cents, as it is under the current listed company model.

"Money will always be important, but it is not just money alone. At the highest level, what are our strategic objectives? We want a well-informed population. We want a united people, and we want an actively engaged citizenship."

In a speech at a townhall meeting with SPH staff earlier, Mr Khaw had noted that newsrooms will "continue to be squeezed" without radical restructuring.

"Their products' quality and circulation will eventually decline. The first casualties will likely be our vernacular papers. This will be detrimental to our multiracial society," he said.

Reporters from SPH's Chinese Media Group and TM also asked during the press conference about the potential for growing the readership of vernacular newspapers outside of Singapore.

Mr Khaw replied that he was confident about expanding the overseas audience of SPH Media.

"The key difference between digital media and print media is that, for digital media, the marginal cost of production is almost zero, once you have a certain size."

He cited The New York Times, which grew its subscriber base from one million to seven million within a few years.

But Singapore has only 1.2 million households, Mr Khaw said, and even with 1.2 million paid subscribers, it will not be enough to hit a financially sustainable and comfortable level.

"Zaobao shows that there's interest in China, and the Zaobao brand is quite a positive one in China. Can we do more? I certainly hope we can do that and I hope to pump in resources to help them grow that market."

He also said it will be hard work, but not impossible, to attract overseas subscribers who want to know Singapore's perspectives.

The Straits Times, he noted, has a sizeable audience in the United States, which is interested in its perspectives on how Asia is changing, not least with the rise of China.

Similarly, audiences in Malaysia turn to The Straits Times in significant numbers each time there is an election there.