SPH to axe 230 jobs despite 32 per cent profit growth in 2017
Singapore Press Holdings is to cull 230 jobs by the end of this year following months of tumbling revenue within its media business.
The newspaper giant, which owns The Straits Times, intends to make 130 people redundant. Others will take retirement or see their contracts terminated as part of a restructure, journalists were told in a briefing yesterday.
The majority of these cuts will hit the newsrooms and sales operations, reducing 15 per cent of staff in the core media divisions.
SPH had originally planned to complete its full 10 per cent staff reduction by the end of 2018, according to the Business Times.
Ng Yat Chung, the recently appointed CEO of SPH, said in statement that the company is expected to incur retrenchment costs of approximately S$13 million this quarter.
He added: “To deal with the disruption to our core media business, we will step up our investments to enhance our capabilities in digital, data analytics, radio broadcasts, video and content marketing. These will enable us to seek new growth and better meet the changing needs of our readers, subscribers and clients.”
Nevertheless, the company’s net profit rose to S$350.1 million this fiscal year due to its sale of the online classifieds business, plus fair-value gain from its property investments.
But its core business of print media has taken a significant hammering over the last few years as it grapples with the loss of readership and ad revenue to digital disruption.
SPH’s rival Mediacorp also recently made a number of people redundant after closing the daily tabloid Today.
Eleanor Dickinson is the editor of Mumbrella Asia. Eleanor joined the Asia platform from Dubai, where she acted as senior reporter for Campaign Middle East.
The real culprits who should have been terminated were the ones who retired 10 years ago.
ReplyThey had the market share and cash reserves to diversify the revenue streams and invest in new platforms.
Instead they just rearranged deck chairs of the Titanic and played for time until they retired or cashed out.
PropertyGuru and sgcarmart were theirs for the taking 15 years ago.
Instead they sucked their classifieds cash cow dry and ended up paying $60 mil for sgcarmart.
Ever talked to the dinosaurs in sales?
Their idea of marketing innovation is deciding which restaurant to host the client annual client Lo Hei and which is the politically correct hotel to source mooncakes from.
I feel sad for the staff who really love journalism but are gonna face a lousy 2018 because earlier management did nothing years ago.
sounds like they deserve every bit of whats coming to them.
Reply32 percent and still not enough ???
ReplyDid the senior management even bother taking a pay cut to save jobs ??
This only shows the dark side of capitalism.
The consumers should punish such publishers by boycotting them and their products.
Shame on you SPH!
What one needs to understand is that SPH has never operated “successfully”. They would have been destroyed in Europe or the US decades ago. The way many businesses in SG house people shielded from progress and evolution by senior managers who make hay from monopolies – ie shooting fish in a barrel, no shred of business acumen – is really a betrayal, when made redundant they may find themselves virtually unemployable because they can only write memos on typewriters.
ReplyI predict a sudden birth of online sites and blogs popping up soon.
ReplyExperienced news journos who know ‘where the bodies are buried’ now have free time, an axe to grind ,no corporate chains to restrain them and nada ‘bonuses or promotion for good behaviour’.
It’s gonna be good for all.
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