SPH to Lay off 5% of Their Staff in the Media Group As Newspaper Sales Continue to Decline

By
George Yang
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There are some things that are inevitable: retail shops will become showrooms for online shoppers, PHV drivers will be taken over by  driverless cars and print newspapers would be rolled and used mainly to kill cockroaches.

After all, people are used to the status quo of consuming news for free. Why pay $1.10 for yesterday’s news when you can get today’s news for free right on your phone?

It’s a challenging industry that’s sent many print newspapers to their grave, including TODAY and The New Paper, both of which have already gone fully digital.

Even the magazine that has grown up with us, 8 Days, is now living in pixels.

Today, we got to know of a new victim, but this time, no print media is going the paperless route; instead, 70 people will be laid off.

SPH’s Restructure That Leads to Layoffs

Singapore Press Holding (SPH), the media giant that publishes publications like The Straits Times and all other Chinese newspapers, has just announced a restructure.

It includes many changes, like a new integrated sales approach lah, streamlining of its media and magazine operations lah and whatnot.

But the key takeaway is this: the restructure would mean that they’ve to retrench 5% of its media group workforce. 70 employees would be laid off, while 60 other employees would be affected—it’s unknown how those 60 people would be affected.

SPH said, “Print revenue continues to decline. In addition, the uncertain macroeconomic outlook this year has seen consumer demand fall and advertisers scaling back on advertising spend…This is a good time for SPH to consolidate its strengths as a media owner and streamline its media and magazines operations.”

The media giant posted a drop in almost all its figures: revenue dropped by 2.8%,  net profit dropped by 23.4% and pre-tax profit dropped by 44.6%.

Print newspaper sales also dropped by 12.2%, and its advertising income for print media dropped by 14.9%.

If you work there, you’d most probably be used to red numbers.

Moving forward, SPH plans to invest in solutions that make print advertising more interactive and trackable, though that sounds challenging: how can you determine how many people have seen an advertisement in, say, The Straits Times?

Retrenchment Done Properly

The listed company will complete the retrenchment exercise by the end of November, and it’ll cost $8 million as employees who are laid off will receive compensation.

SPH has also informed Ministry of Manpower and  National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) about its retrenchment exercise (not that they’re proactive lah but because it’s the law).

They said, “SPH has also been working closely with the union and e2i to ensure that affected staff receive the help and support they require during this period. This includes on-site career guidance, employment placement services, as well as professional counselling support.”

US Journalism Retrenchment the Highest Since 2009

If you think this’s only affecting Singapore and the print media, think again.

Just in the first five months of 2019, over 3,000 people in the news industry were let go in the US, and it includes both print and even online media like BuzzFeed. That could be the highest since the 2009 recession, which saw 7,914 people leaving their newsrooms permanently for the same period.

I can read your mind: you’re probably thinking, Why are online media affected? Aren’t they the ones disrupting the industry?

To which I’ll answer your question with a question: are you paying anything to read this online article?

I’m still being paid to write this article.

Welcome to reality.

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]