‘We now start each day looking at data’

Ong Hwee Hwee, 49

Ms Ong Hwee Hwee joined The Straits Times in 1999 as a translator. Over the years, she took on editing roles at the foreign and Singapore desks, as well as an overseas posting as the paper’s Taiwan correspondent from 2005 to 2008.

In 2014, she made the leap from print to digital journalism, at a time when the media industry was undergoing a transformation from print to online. She was the digital editor from 2016 to 2023, and also led The Straits Times’ audience growth strategy.

In this capacity, Ms Ong was involved in the online coverage of major news events, from the death of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in 2015, to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Singapore’s general elections.

Ms Ong, 49, now oversees the visualisation cluster, comprising the digital graphics, video, photo and art desks, as well as the product and tech teams who build and develop The Straits Times’ website and apps.

Recollections

“It was March 23, 2015, just after 4am. I was woken up by a call from my editor, who said: ‘He has passed; let’s get down to work.’

Within minutes, I was in the next room sitting in front of my laptop, which had been left switched on so I could start work quickly. My colleagues were up and working from home too, and we were communicating online.

I was then working at The Straits Times’ digital desk, which was responsible for putting out breaking news. We were on the alert after Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was hospitalised for severe pneumonia on Feb 5. 

The official announcement of Mr Lee’s passing came at 4.07am. By 4.21am, we had published the news and sent out the news alert. 

In the hours that followed, there was a live stream which showed then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announcing the death of his father: ‘The first of our founding fathers is no more.’

Condolences and tributes poured in, and we put up a microsite in remembrance of the late Mr Lee.

In the week that followed, a live blog captured the outpouring of grief and gratitude, as Singaporeans lined up in the sun for hours to pay their last respects, and stood in the rain to bid a final farewell to Mr Lee during the funeral procession.

It was an emotional week for Singaporeans. For us in the newsroom, it was also one of the biggest moments in the early days of our digital journey. Through live blogs, videos, almost round-the-clock updates and also an e-book, Lee Kuan Yew: The Final Journey, we captured the mood of a country in mourning, and the life of a great man who built an unlikely nation.

In particular, our live blogging of the week-long mourning period was something that readers followed day after day. Till this day, I remember blogging and reading the heart-warming anecdotes and poignant moments of volunteers distributing food and drinks, or people looking out for one another as they stood in quiet solidarity.

Live blogging was just one of many new things we explored in the course of our digital transformation. We tried marrying storytelling with new technology, with augmented reality, virtual reality (VR) and generative artificial intelligence being the latest. One memorable project for me was using VR to visualise the Merlion statue being submerged by rising sea levels to highlight the threat of climate change. 

We challenged ourselves to tell an 800-word story in a two-minute video. We crunched numbers into graphics that users could share with others on social media.

But the most significant change for me has been in the way we inform and interact with our audiences. We now start each day looking at data to understand what resonates with them. It’s about going back to good old basics: Know who you are writing for – but with more than gut feel to rely on.”